Care Worker visa route to close: major immigration reform effective 22 July 2025
On Tuesday 1 July 2025, the Home Office released the Statement of Changes confirming that a number of the reforms outlined in May 2025's White Paper are due to come into force later this month.
One of the most controversial reforms is the closure of the Care Worker visa route for overseas applicants. Pending parliamentary approval, this will be effective from Tuesday 22 July 2025.
With this reform, care providers will be unable to recruit care workers from abroad and will only be able to recruit from within the UK.
The history of the Care Worker visa
As detailed in Part 3 of our UK Immigration White Paper series, the care industry experienced unprecedented labour shortages resulting in the then Home Secretary, Priti Patel, expanding the Skilled Worker route in February 2022 to include care workers.
In the years to follow, SkillsforCare, a strategic workforce development and planning body for adult social care in England, described international recruitment as the “main driver” for filling vacancies in the care sector, resulting in record level growth.
Although a positive step for the care sector, the Home Office didn't express the same enthusiasm, as 2024 saw a crackdown on the care sector. Hundreds of sponsor licences were suspended or revoked, and main applicants were no longer permitted to bring their dependants to the UK.
The Home Office then attempted to further curb migration via this route in early 2025, preventing sponsors from recruiting from abroad, unless in-country recruitment had been attempted first. It's likely that this change would have had a significant impact on migration. But, before comprehensive results could be evaluated, the Home Office released the White Paper in May 2025, expressing further measures that needed to be taken in relation to the Care Worker route.
Proposed Reforms Effective from Tuesday 22 July
The White Paper expressed the Home Office’s intention to end overseas recruitment for Care Worker visas.
This intention, pending parliamentary approval, will be cemented into the Immigration Rules from 22 July 2025. From this date, the occupation codes 6135 (Care workers and home carers) and 6136 (Senior care workers) will no longer be eligible codes for Skilled Worker applications from overseas.
For those already in the UK, from Tuesday 22 July 2025 they will only be permitted to apply for permission to remain as a Care Worker if they already sponsored under this route.
The impact
The potential impact of this change is of great concern. Whilst international recruitment has assisted with the labour demand in the care sector, SkillsforCare still reported 131,000 vacancies in 2024.
Additionally, they describe challenges with domestic recruitment and ongoing difficulties, with almost 70,000 less British nationals being recruited into the sector in 2024 compared to 2022. This is particularly due to the high turnover rate of this for these positions, with SkillsforCare estimating over a quarter of all staff leaving the independent care sector in 2024.
Notably, internationally recruited staff have a significantly lower turnover rate compared to their domestic counterparts. Preventing care providers from recruiting overseas could have an extremely damaging impact on the sector, and, ultimately, the level of care that their service users receive.
In the memorandum released with the Statement of Changes, the Home Office notes the likely impact of these changes upon the public sector. However, their concern appears more focused on the impact on the public purse as fewer applications means lower Home Office fee and Immigration Health Surcharge revenue, not to mention the impact on the net fiscal contributions of these cohorts.
Such comments suggest, yet again, a focus on the numbers, a sentiment echoed through the Home Office’s rhetoric, but arguably more concern should be given to the care sector’s ability to provide much needed services.
With that being said, we understand that the government is in the process of preparing an Impact Assessment relating to the changes and intends to introduce Fair Pay Agreements in the care sector, in the hopes of combating high turnover and aiding domestic recruitment.
There is no set date for these measures, but the date of Tuesday 22 July 2025 for the closure of the Care Worker route is all too real – and all too soon. The proverbial rug is being pulled out from under the care sector’s feet, seemingly before a supporting net has been put in place.
Final thoughts
On Tuesday 22 July 2025, the route to enter the UK as a Care Worker will close.
It’s impact on the care sector will be overwhelming, with Nuffield Trust calling this change “hugely risky,” and the UNISON General Secretary, Christina McAcnea, stating that the NHS and social care “would have collapsed long ago without the thousands of workers who’ve come to the UK from overseas.”
Whilst the government has promised reports and plans to increase domestic recruitment, these changes are seemingly months – possibly years – away, leaving the care sector, and those who rely on their services, in a looming state of panic.
How we can help
Whilst these amendments are due to take effect from Tuesday22 July 2025, applications submitted prior to this date will be considered under the existing rules. For assistance with such applications, or any other immigration matters, please contact a member of the team:
Mandeep Khroud
