Key changes from the 2025 Immigration White Paper and the impact on members
02 Jul 2025, 17:00 - 18:00
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The government is proposing new measures to reduce immigration that would adversely affect thousands of internationally educated nursing staff working in the UK and ultimately accelerate the nursing workforce crisis.
Key changes in the new 2025 White Paper include increasing the amount of time before someone can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) from 5 to 10 years.
While waiting for ILR, also known as settlement, international staff have no recourse to public funds, and have to pay for their health care and education, as well as annual visa renewal fees. The situation has led to some RCN members having to resort to food banks and charity assistance to make ends meet, with one RCN member stating that they were forced to send their baby back to their home country.
Canada and New Zealand, on the other hand, offer settlement upon arrival for vital health care workers. This, along with the higher salaries they offer for the same job, makes them a much more attractive destination for the global nursing workforce. This does nothing to help with the 34,000 unfilled nursing workforce vacancies the UK is currently grappling with.
The government has also announced plans to close the care worker visa route at a time of widespread vacancies in social care (131,000 social care posts are currently vacant).
All this has a detrimental impact not only on the wellbeing of internationally educated staff working here on a temporary basis, but on the future stability of the nursing workforce. The total number of internationally educated professionals joining the register dropped significantly last year, by 30% compared with figures from the year before.
Do the new proposals affect you? Have you got strong feelings about the contents of the new White Paper? Please come and contribute to a discussion on it.
Your views are important and will help inform the RCN's response to the government.
Book your place
Book using the button above or email eventsreg@rcn.org.uk quoting event number 5319.
If you have any queries about this event please contact
Senior RCN Officer Charlie Faulkner
charlie.faulkner@rcn.org.uk
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Page last updated - 24/06/2025
