UK visas for Filipino citizens

For Filipino applicants, the Health and Care Worker route raises some particularly important practical questions around professional registration, English evidence and dependant rules; the partner route is the other main path. This page covers what depends on Philippine citizenship and residence: entry documents, the TB test, how health professionals meet the English requirement, and the position on dual citizenship. The route guides cover the rest.

Visiting the UK

The Philippines is a visa-national country. A Standard Visitor visa is required for any visit, and the Electronic Travel Authorisation is not available to Filipino citizens. Applications are made online and completed at a visa application centre in the Philippines, where biometrics are taken.

Changing planes in the UK without passing through immigration normally requires a Direct Airside Transit Visa, unless an exemption applies, such as holding certain valid visas for the United States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

Working in health and care

The Health and Care Worker visa is the route most Filipino applicants use. It is a version of Skilled Worker for eligible health and care occupations with a lower fee and exemption from the Immigration Health Surcharge for the worker and their dependants. Professional registration and visa sponsorship are separate steps. Nurses and midwives can be sponsored while completing Nursing and Midwifery Council registration under the pre-registration rules; where those rules apply, full registration must normally be completed within eight months of the sponsored job starting. Doctors need General Medical Council registration to practise, and the sponsor will expect it to be in place or in progress.

New overseas applications for care worker and senior care worker jobs closed on 22 July 2025. Transitional rules still allow some in-country applications until July 2028, including certain people already working legally in those roles for their sponsor. Nurses, doctors and the other regulated professions on the route are unaffected.

Outside health, Skilled Worker applies on the same terms as for everyone else. The Philippines is not a Youth Mobility Scheme country, and Filipino citizens are not Commonwealth citizens, so the Ancestry visa is not available.

Filipino workers leaving to take up employment abroad are also subject to the Philippine government’s own departure requirements through the Department of Migrant Workers. Those are a matter of Philippine law, separate from the UK visa, with their own timescales.

Joining family in the UK

The partner visa is used by Filipino spouses and partners of British citizens and settled people, with the £29,000 minimum income requirement, where applicable, adequate accommodation and A1 English at entry. Marriages in the Philippines are proved with the certificate issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority. Where a partner or child is eligible to apply as a dependant of a Health and Care Worker, they also receive the Immigration Health Surcharge exemption; care worker and senior care worker roles carry dependant restrictions.

Philippines-specific requirements

TB test. The Philippines is on the list of countries where a tuberculosis test is required. The rule turns on residence rather than nationality: it applies if you are applying for more than six months and have lived in the Philippines, or another listed country, for six months or more in the last six months. The test must be taken at a clinic approved by the Home Office and the certificate is valid for six months. Each family member who meets the requirement needs their own certificate; children must attend an approved clinic, although those under 11 do not normally have a chest X-ray.

English. Although English is an official language of the Philippines and the language of its universities, the Philippines is not on the Home Office’s list of majority-English-speaking countries, so Filipino citizens do not get an exemption by nationality. Doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives can meet the Skilled Worker English requirement through an English assessment accepted by their UK professional regulator, so a nurse who passed the language test the NMC requires does not normally need a separate Secure English Language Test. Other applicants use an approved test, or a degree taught in English confirmed by Ecctis, which many Filipino graduates can use once the Ecctis statement is obtained. See the English requirements guide.

Applying in the Philippines. Applications are submitted online and completed in person at a visa application centre. For an extra fee, a priority or super priority decision may be on offer, depending on the route and on capacity at the time you apply. A successful application results in an eVisa, tied to your UKVI account. Since 1 July 2026 there is no vignette in the passport; a form for accompanying an eVisa (FAV) may be issued for travel where one is needed.

Routes to settlement

Health and Care Worker and Skilled Worker lead to Indefinite Leave to Remain after five years under current rules, with the salary test in force at the time applied at settlement and the 180-day absence limit throughout. The partner route also leads to ILR after five years. Dependants of Health and Care Workers complete their own five years.

Natural-born Filipinos who acquire British citizenship can retain or reacquire Philippine citizenship under Republic Act 9225 by following the prescribed process and taking the oath of allegiance, so becoming British does not have to mean losing Philippine citizenship; check the current procedure with the Philippine authorities. See the ILR vs citizenship comparison.

Common questions

Can Filipino citizens use the ETA? No. A Standard Visitor visa is required.

I passed the NMC’s English test. Do I need another one for the visa? Not normally. Registration with the NMC, where English was assessed, meets the requirement.

Can I still come to the UK as a care worker? Not from abroad. Overseas recruitment closed in July 2025. Nurses and other regulated professions can still use the Health and Care route.

Do my family pay the health surcharge? If your family members are eligible as your dependants on the Health and Care Worker visa, they do not pay the IHS.