Recruiting Internationally – East Region Recruitment Service

The Scottish Government has guidance on international recruitment of health and social care personnel which aims to promote high standards of practice in the ethical international recruitment and employment of health and social care personnel, to ensure all international recruitment is conducted in accordance with internationally agreed principles of transparency and fairness.

An International Recruitment Toolkit has been developed to encourage and enable good practices and processes within the NHS for the recruitment of all occupational groups. The toolkit covers all aspects of the journey from planning to recruit to induction and beyond.

Most common routes to employing overseas candidates that don’t require sponsorship:

Settlement or Indefinite Leave to Remain

If this is on a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) then the individual can work, live or study in the UK permanently with almost no further restrictions . BRP are being phased out and will be replaced by eVisas.

Checks will also be conducted through the UKVI website to confirm their right to work.

Student Visa or Tier 4 (General) student visa

The student visa has replaced the Tier 4 (General) student visa. Not all international students are entitled to work while they are in the UK, but some are allowed to take limited employment if the conditions of their permission to study permit this. There will have a clear endorsement in their passport, Biometric Residence Permit or online, which states that they are permitted to work and the number of hours of work permitted e.g., 10 hours or up to a maximum of 20 hours a week during term time. Students who have the right to work are permitted to work full-time before their course starts, during vacations or during the period they hold permission for after they have completed their course. Further guidance on employing students can be found in Annex B (page 48) of the employer’s guide to right to work checks.

Family Visa

If the family member who is in the UK is on a work visa or a student then the individual won’t qualify for a family visa.

Family visa’s include:

A Partner or Spouse visa
A Parent visa
A Child Dependant visa
An Adult Dependant Relative visa
Ukraine Family Scheme visa – this visa route for new applications closed on 19th February 2024

Other Visa Routes

Graduate Visa
India Young Professional Scheme Visa
UK Ancestry Visa
Partner or Spouse Visa
British National (Overseas) visa
High Potential Individual (HPI) visa
Refugees

All of the above should be in place by the time the individual gets an unconditional offer of employment. Online immigration statuses are replacing physical documents like the biometric residence permit (BRP). These will no longer be accepted as valid evidence from December 2024. After this date evidence of right to work will be online through the UKVI website. You will need their share code and date of birth to take up this check.

Overseas Criminal Records Check

The application process for criminal records checks or ‘Certificates of Good Character’ for someone from overseas varies from country to country. The candidate will have to apply in the country or to the relevant embassy in the UK. Details of how to apply for each country can be found on the UKVI webpages. All Tier 2 (General) visa applicants who want to work in specified health, education or social care sectors must provide a criminal record certificate.

Note: This will not apply if they are making an application for an extension of stay in the UK.

eVisas

The Home Office is replacing physical immigration documents with a digital proof of immigration status called an eVisa. As part of the move to eVisas, anyone who uses a physical immigration document and who does not already have a UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) account will need to take action and create an account at www.gov.uk/evisa.

This includes individuals with a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP), a Biometric Residence Card (BRC) or legacy paper documents such as a passport containing an ink-stamp or visa vignette sticker.

Individuals who currently prove their immigration status using a biometric residence permit (BRP), or a passport containing an ink-stamp or visa vignette sticker, need to visit www.gov.uk/evisa to create a UKVI account to access their eVisa. This move to eVisas does not impact any individuals’ underlying immigration status.

Creating a UKVI account is free and straightforward and an eVisa is a secure and convenient way to prove immigration rights that cannot be lost, stolen or tampered with. Individuals who do not take action to create a UKVI account to access their eVisa may face unnecessary delays when demonstrating their immigration status. Videos explaining the process are available here on GOV.UK.

Once accessed, eVisas can be used to generate a share code to prove immigration status and associated rights such as the right to work and the right to rent using the view and prove service at www.gov.uk/view-prove-immigration-status.

Further information, support and guidance is available at www.gov.uk/evisa.

Links for further guidance:

rechecking right to work for time limited permission to work in the UK