Sponsored after July 2025? Check your job code before the new year.

If you are sponsored as a healthcare assistant, a care manager, a pharmacy technician or a laboratory technician, and your first Skilled Worker visa was granted on or after 22 July 2025, 31 December 2026 matters to you. After that date, unless the government decides otherwise, a new sponsorship in that job will not be possible. If you were first sponsored before 22 July 2025, the rules protect you.

What is changing

Since 22 July 2025, most jobs below degree level can no longer be newly sponsored on the Skilled Worker visa, which includes the Health and Care Worker visa. The Immigration Rules allow a sponsor to use one of these jobs in only three situations: the worker already held a Skilled Worker visa before that date and has held one continuously since, the job is on the Immigration Salary List, or the job is on the Temporary Shortage List.

The Immigration Salary List is what has kept four health and care jobs open to new sponsorship. On GOV.UK, each one now carries a removal date of 31 December 2026:

• 6131 — nursing auxiliaries and assistants, which includes healthcare assistants
• 1232 — residential, day and domiciliary care managers
• 3212 — pharmaceutical technicians
• 3111 — laboratory technicians, in jobs that need three or more years' related experience

The detail that matters is in the small print. The list only counts where a visa application uses a Certificate of Sponsorship "issued by a sponsor to an applicant before the removal date". What counts is a certificate issued before 31 December.

Care workers and senior care workers are not on this list of four. Their jobs run on separate transitional rules until 22 July 2028.

Which group are you in?

• First sponsored before 22 July 2025, with a Skilled Worker visa held continuously since. NHS Employers, which represents employers in the health service, says people in this group "can continue to apply for visa extensions, changes of employment and settlement" in these jobs. If there has been any break in your visa history, ask an adviser whether it affects you.
• First sponsored on or after 22 July 2025. NHS Employers says people in this group "will no longer be able to apply for visa extensions or changes of employment in those roles after 31 December 2026". To stay on the Skilled Worker route after that, it says you would need to move into an eligible job at degree level or above.

The removal date applies to new certificates. On its face, it does not shorten a visa you already hold. What changes is what happens when that visa runs out, or if you need to move to a different employer.

What has not been decided

The Migration Advisory Committee, which advises the government on these lists, published its final recommendations for a new Temporary Shortage List on 23 July 2026. A published legal summary of the report says that healthcare assistants, care managers and pharmacy technicians were not among the 28 occupations it recommended. Its recommendations are advice, not law. The government decides which to accept, and a decision is expected before the current lists expire. As of 14 October 2026 we could find no announcement.

The honest position is this. On the rules as they stand, the door closes for the second group on 31 December. It could be reopened for some jobs, and nobody outside government yet knows which.

If you are in the second group, what to check now

• Find out your occupation code and the date your first Skilled Worker visa was granted. Your HR team can tell you which code is on your Certificate of Sponsorship.
• Check when your current visa ends. If it runs well into 2027 or beyond and you plan to stay where you are, nothing changes today. You should still know now what will happen when it comes up for renewal.
• Talk to your employer before December if you need an extension or are planning to change employer. Some immigration lawyers are advising employers to apply now, under the current rules, for the longest period allowed. Whether that is possible in your case is a question for your employer and a regulated adviser.
• If you hold a professional registration, or are close to getting one, a degree-level job such as registered nursing would sit outside these changes. That is worth raising with your employer now rather than in the new year.
• Know what a lost licence would mean. If your sponsor lost its licence after 31 December, a new sponsor could not take you on in the same job under the rules as they stand. The September 2026 protection for care workers covers four care occupation codes only, not these jobs. Our guide to what happens when a sponsor loses its licence explains the 60-day clock.
• Get regulated advice before you pay for anything or sign anything. The GOV.UK find an immigration adviser search lists who is registered.

Sources and last check. Last checked 14 October 2026 against the Immigration Rules on GOV.UK: Appendix Immigration Salary List (updated 8 October 2026), for the four occupations, their removal date and the certificate rule; and Appendix Skilled Occupations (updated 8 October 2026), for the 22 July 2025 rule on jobs below degree level. NHS Employers, UK immigration policy: latest updates and employer implications (reviewed 5 October 2026), for the position of workers first sponsored before and after 22 July 2025. Migration Advisory Committee, Temporary Shortage List: stage 2 report (23 July 2026), with its occupation recommendations as summarised on chambers.com (12 August 2026), and the expected timing of the government decision as reported by Lewis Silkin (4 August 2026). If you spot something here that is out of date, please tell us — we would rather fix it than leave it.