NHS Relocation Calculator: Visa, Registration and Arrival Costs

Health and Care Worker visa cost

These are the figures GOV.UK publishes for the Health and Care Worker visa. Fees are per person, and each dependant pays the same.

For a partner and one child the visa fees alone come to £972 on a 3-year visa (£324 each for three people), and the savings to show come to £1,870. Sources: GOV.UK, Health and Care Worker visa, how much it costs and partners and children. Fees change, so check before you apply. Our guide to the Health and Care Worker visa covers eligibility, and the dependant visa guide covers bringing family.

Skilled Worker vs Health and Care Worker visa: what you pay

The two routes differ mainly in cost. Which one you use is set by your job and your sponsor, which is explained in our comparison guide. For one person:

The Skilled Worker fees are GOV.UK's outside-UK rates, and the surcharge is £1,035 a year per adult (Skilled Worker costs and healthcare surcharge). On a 5-year visa the standard route costs £6,165 more than the Health and Care Worker route for one person, and more for a family because the surcharge is charged per person.

NHS visa sponsorship: who pays for what

A visa needs a sponsor, which for most NHS recruits is the trust that offers the job. The sponsor assigns a Certificate of Sponsorship, which is its cost, not yours (our guide gives £525). You pay the visa application fee and any healthcare surcharge that applies to your route, plus your own registration, test, travel and living costs. Read the Certificate of Sponsorship guide, see which trusts sponsor visas, and check any tie-in clause in our return of service guide before you sign.

NHS international recruitment: what each step costs

The order of events varies by profession and employer: see our realistic timeline. What we can price from official sources, and what you must enter, looks like this:

Single nurse, 3-year Health and Care Worker visa, both NMC tests: £1,201 in official fees, or £1,598 with one OSCE resit at the reduced fee. Read our guides to NMC registration for overseas nurses, GMC registration for overseas doctors, English requirements by profession and OSCE preparation.

Rent when you arrive: official averages and the deposit

Rent is the biggest cost you will face, and the only one with an official average we can quote. These ONS figures cover all rental property, so a room in a shared house costs less. Against a full-time Band 5 on the entry point (take-home about £2,040 a month, England scale):

Source: ONS, Private rent and house prices, UK: 16 September 2026 (August 2026; Northern Ireland June 2026). In England a tenancy deposit is capped at 5 weeks' rent where annual rent is under £50,000, and a holding deposit at one week's rent (GOV.UK, How to rent). The average London rent is £2,332 a month against £788 in the North East, so where your job is changes the whole picture. The London row ignores London weighting, which raises basic pay, so use the calculator with your London weighting zone for a fair figure. Our guide to cost of living for international NHS staff goes further.

A worked arrival budget using only official figures

A single nurse taking a job in the North East on a 3-year Health and Care Worker visa. The lines below are all we can source; flights, registration fees, English test, food and bills are yours to add:

Add one month of rent at the same average (£788) for the gap before your first payslip and the figure rises by that much. Your trust can tell you when pay starts. The calculator above does this for your own numbers, and shows the cash you need to arrive so your balance never goes below zero.

Your pay once you are here

A full-time Band 5 on the entry point takes home about £2,040 a month on the 2026/27 England scale, after tax, National Insurance and NHS Pension. Pay moves up the points on a set timetable: for Band 5 the top is reached after four years on NHS Employers' table, and the Pro plan builds that into your 36 months. For your exact figure at any band use the NHS pay calculator, and for how nights and weekends add to it the rota calculator. To see what a later promotion is worth, use the career earnings forecaster.

Settling in checklist

• ✓ Confirm your visa route and sponsor details with your trust before you pay anything: see the route comparison.
• ✓ Check your savings meet the maintenance requirement, or ask your sponsor whether it certifies maintenance on your Certificate of Sponsorship.
• ✓ Plan housing and the right to rent checks: right to rent guide.
• ✓ Set up a UK bank account early: banking and financial setup.
• ✓ Read what the first three months look like: first 90 days.
• ✓ Prepare for interviews and your CV with the NHS values format: values-based interview questions.

What this calculator does not include

How we calculate it, and sources

Visa fees, the healthcare surcharge and savings requirements come from GOV.UK, and the NMC test fees from the NMC, all read in October 2026. Average rents are the ONS September 2026 release. Take-home pay uses the site's pay engine and the 2026/27 Agenda for Change scale, with pay-point timing from NHS Employers' pay scales table. Everything you type stays in your browser unless you use the optional Pro AI guidance. See our editorial policy for how we source figures.

• • GOV.UK, Health and Care Worker visa: https://www.gov.uk/health-care-worker-visa
• • GOV.UK, Skilled Worker visa costs: https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/how-much-it-costs
• • GOV.UK, Immigration Health Surcharge amounts: https://www.gov.uk/healthcare-immigration-application/how-much-pay
• • NMC, CBT and OSCE fees: https://www.nmc.org.uk/registration/joining-the-register/toc/na-toc/osce/
• • ONS, Private rent and house prices, UK: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/privaterentandhousepricesuk/latest
• • NHS Employers, Pay scales 2026/27: https://www.nhsemployers.org/articles/pay-scales-202627