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International Healthcare workers free visa extension: Home Office   Frontline health workers from overseas will be given a free one-year UK visa extension, the Home Office says. The move applies to eligible workers and their dependents whose visas are due to expire before 1 October 2021.  The list of professions who are entitled to this extension includes doctors, nurses, pa...

NEW OSCE GUIDELINES! WHAT AN EMPLOYER NEEDS TO KNOW?   The deadline for pre-registration nurses and midwives on the NMC’s temporary register to sit the Occupational Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) has been extended to 30 September 2021. If they do not pass on the first attempt, they will have until 31 December 2021 to pass the exam. This means that sponsors do not nee...

GREAT NEWS FOR OVERSEAS NURSES -NMC Inviting Overseas Nurses to join Covid-19 Temporary Register The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is taking immediate action by inviting additional overseas-trained nurses to join its Covid-19 temporary register to help strengthen workforce capacity in the immediate period and coming weeks. Objective structured clinical examination (OSC...

GOVT TO SET OUT CHANGES TO THE IMMIGRATION RULES FOR SKILLED WORKERS   The majority of these changes will come into effect between 1 December 2020 and 1 January 2021. These changes provide the foundation for the UK’s Points-Based Immigration System, which will apply from 1 January 2021. This affects newly arriving EU, EEA and Swiss citizens (except Irish nationals). This leg...

£28m to Re-start International Nurses Recruitment!   Following the period of inactivity during the pandemic, CNO announces funding of £28m is being made available to England for overseas recruitment of nurses. Half of the money is dedicated to supporting the arrival to the country of nurses who have already been appointed from abroad. The other half is to fund a “significant...

UK GOVT LAUNCHES NEW HEALTH AND CARE VISA   How does it help an International Nurse?   You can apply for a Tier 2 (Health and Care) visa if: you have a job offer from the NHS, an organisation providing medical services to the NHS or an organisation providing adult social care you’re from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland your sponsor has told you that ...

NEW UPDATE OF TEST OF COMPETENCE FOR INTERNATIONAL NURSES: OSCE AND CBT   The NMC has been working through the period of 2019 and 2020, to develop a new Test of Competence that reflects the new standard for nurses and midwives. Although it was to go live in summer 2020, due to the Covid-19 scenario, it was postponed. It will enable the candidates and the employers to be prep...

GREAT NEWS FOR INTERNATIONAL NURSES: CBT VALIDITY EXTENDED! IELTS/OET, CBT AND OSCE NMC LATEST UPDATE   NMC is introducing a temporary measure to allow candidates to provide additional evidence to demonstrate that they have maintained their English language since the expiry of their English language test or their recent practice in a majority English speaking country.   This...

New ‘Nurse Anthem’ released by International Nursing body   The International Council of Nurses has released a new song that it hopes will become the “anthem for nurses everywhere”, featuring vocals from real nurses around the world. The song was written by ICN staff writer and editor Colin Parish, who trained as a nurse in the UK in the 1970s, and his nephew Daniel Parish. ...

GREAT NEWS FOR INTERNATIONAL NURSES! EXEMPTION FROM IMMIGRATION HEALTH SURCHARGE The promised exemption to the immigration health surcharge for overseas health and care staff is coming into force from 4th August 2020, the government has finally confirmed. The home secretary and health and social care secretary confirmed that health and care staff would “now be permanently ex...