Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether NHS psychiatrists who do not have a PhD and are on a Tier 2 visa will be affected by the International Skills Charge.

The Immigration Skills Charge (ISC), introduced on 6 April, is a charge paid by employers, rather than by migrant workers themselves. It applies to the recruitment of non-EEA nationals being sponsored under the Tier 2 (General) and (Intra Company Transfer) categories.

The charge is applied based on the level of the job, not on the qualifications held by the migrant. Psychiatrists are not considered to be a PhD-level occupation, so employers will normally need to pay the charge.

Employers will not need to pay the charge, however, if they are sponsoring a psychiatrist who is switching from Tier 4, the student route, or who was originally sponsored in Tier 2 before 6 April 2017.