Overseas visitors will pay the price for their NHS debts

Changes to the Immigration Rules detailed in Parliament recently, meaning that those subject to immigration control who fail to settle an outstanding bill of £1,000 or more will not be allowed to enter or remain in the UK until the debt is paid off.

Damian Green said: ‘the NHS is designed to meet the healthcare needs of the UK and we won’t tolerate abuse of this service. We welcome overseas visitors, but those who use NHS facilities need to pay for them, or they will be barred from coming here. It’s very simple – pay up or you won’t be welcome in the UK.”

The NHS will provide information that will enable the UK Border Agency to identify the debtors and – when they apply to return to or remain in the UK – to refuse their applications. The information sharing arrangements are being phased in over the coming months. It is hoped that the £1,000 threshold will capture 94 per cent of outstanding charges owed to the NHS.

This change follows consultations carried out last year by the UK Border Agency and the Department of Health. A 2009 review set out to examine the rules on charging overseas visitors for access to NHS services in England.

Commonwealth Contractors

At
Commonwealth Contractors we partner with OISC Registered Private
Immigration Firms and Tier 2 Licensed Healthcare and IT Consultancies
who may be prepared, where required, to sponsor an individual on a Tier 2
Visa (formerly UK Work Permit). If you are a highly skilled
International professional and you would like to work in the UK
Commonwealth Contractors can help. Our OISC Registered Partners
specialise in Tier 1 General (formerly Highly Skilled Migrant Programme)
visa applications and can assist those highly skilled individuals that
either wish to apply or extend a Tier 1 General Visa.

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