Thousands of NHS healthcare support staff are facing uncertainty over their jobs, homes and families – all because of a government cut-off date.
Health care assistants, nursing auxiliaries, nursing assistants, senior nursing assistants and health support workers from overseas who were sponsored by their NHS employer on or after 22 July 2025 could fall through the cracks when the Home Office closes the Immigration Salary List at the end of this year.
Workers sponsored before that date will have transitional protections, but those sponsored afterwards will find themselves stuck: unable to extend their sponsorship or change employment in the role they love once their visa expires.
A cut-off date should not mean a cut off future.
The NHS sorely needs to keep these dedicated and experienced staff. They're at the heart of patient care – they're at our loved ones' bedsides and with them in clinics, performing clinical duties and observations, providing comfort and support with medication, bathing and eating .
Together in UNISON, we are calling on the Department of Health and Social Care to ask the Home Office to urgently introduce transitional protections for all affected NHS workers (SOC code 6131 nursing auxiliaries and assistants)
- Protect these NHS workers who were first sponsored after 22 July 2025, by allowing them to renew their sponsorship and continue working in eligible NHS roles
- Properly assess how many NHS workers and their families are affected
- Give workers certainty about their future before the December 2026 deadline.
