Since launching the Health and Care visa in 2020, the UK has approved over 460,000 applicants from India, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. Nigeria alone sent nearly 150,000. These workers — from nurses to care assistants — held up a system under strain.
But that tap is narrowing. The UK is now ending overseas recruitment for care workers, the lower-paid segment of the visa route. Health professionals like nurses and doctors can still apply, but countries that leaned heavily on this route for jobs and remittances will feel the shift.
Fewer care roles abroad means more competition at home, and pressure on already weak health systems that had been losing trained talent to this visa stream.
