The UK Home office has announced that nurses, doctors and midwives, who meet the English language requirement of their relevant healthcare boards, will no longer need to sit for a separate English test to apply for a tier-2 (general) visa.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council and the General Medical Council are the two healthcare boards under reference here. The UK Home Office announcement means that a single Occupational English Test (OET) will suffice for both the purposes.

The OET is an international English language test that assesses the language communication skills of healthcare professionals, who seek to register and practise in an English-speaking environment.

The UK Home Office announcement has been widely welcomed by healthcare professionals in Kerala, who wish to work in the UK, according to Sujata Stead, CEO, Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment, which owns and manages the OET.

English language testing has been streamlined to ‘ensure that healthcare professionals, who have already passed an English language test accepted by the relevant professional body, do not have to sit for another test before entry to the UK on a tier-2 visa.’

This means that they will be exempt from the English language requirement for their visa application when they have used their successful OET results for registering with the relevant healthcare regulator.

OET results

The UK’s Nursing and Midwifery Council and the General Medical Council in UK had recognised the test earlier. The change will apply to all tier-2 (general) visa applications submitted on or after October 1.

“We are absolutely delighted that healthcare professionals can now take OET for both visa and registration purposes. This will enormously reduce the burden on overseas trained professionals seeking to work in the UK,” said Sujata Stead.

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