Want to work in the UK?

So you have decided your going to come and work in the United Kingdom then?

First, congratulations! Second, you need to know the basics! Coming to the UK as a New Zealander I have personal gone rough the process and know if pretty well as a result, having a dependent (a Chinese wife) made it all that more challenging at the time!

Please find the following information directly from GCC as a starting point before you apply.

PRACTICING IN THE UK

You need a practising certificate if you are going to practice Chiropractic in the United Kingdom (UK). If you are going to work in the UK and you are coming from abroad there is a good chance you will have not graduated from a UK recognised chiropractic college (see www.gcc-org.uk). And even if you have graduated from a GCC recognised chiropractic college you will still need obtain a practising licence and obtain permission to work in the UK.

If you have not meet GCC requirements (Graduated from a recognised chiropractic college OR hold appropriate EU community rights) you will need to sit the test of competence or TOC. This exam is held a limited number of times in the year and therefore has a limited number of spaces. So first thing first book your space! See the current dates & deadlines.

You will have had to have graduated from a recognised school (this is much the same if you were going to practice in NZ, Australia or USA and other places chiropractic is government recognised). The General Chiropractic Council or GCC is the regulatory body in the UK, so it’s good to get to know what they do, it’s statutory roles etc.

Whats next? Having paid the appropriate fees and sat the TOC exam (and passed!) you will need then to apply for a practising certificate, this will require. See the GCC website for other commonly asked questions & answers. 

UK WORK VISAS

If your not born or naturalised in the U.K you will need a work visa to work here. Let’s look at your UK visa options to allow you to legally stay here. One of the simplest ways is by ancestry visa, however not many of us have a grandfather or parent that was born in the UK (if you do use this path, you are the lucky few!).

The rest of use will be looking at either the Tier 1. Which use to be the Tier 1 – General (no longer avaliable), and the before this it was known as the highly skill immigrant visa. It’s typically become more difficulty and more red tape over the years. This option pretty much gets you in on your own merits, you DO NOT require a sponsor, though it as draw backs, you need to prove you are making more money that its counterpart the Tier 2 visa (sponsored).

Drawback to Tier 2, the employer has to complete a horrendously long 350 page document to be a sponsor and.be liable (so few bother), also if the employee is either to leave the Tier 2 employer they must find another, and reapply. And given the limited number of employers that have Tier 1 status the options are limited, especially if you wish to practise in a particular location. The benefit to Tier 2, the employer does not have to guarantee they will pay you (the employee) as much

ideally either way if you are a new graduate you want to press an employer to employ you on the books rather than as a sole trader/company as  the income requirements to keep your visa, which is checked again at 3 years is determined on the tax you pay, which will be higher if as PAYE. If you are employed as a sole trader/company you will have to earn significantly more to meet visa thresholds. If the paper work does not stack up on average yearly over the first three years you would have a problem continuing on with a further two year extension to your work visa. Be warned! Always future pace. Even if you don’t think you will stay in the UK don’t burn your bridges with immigration.

CONSIDER FEES

In addition to the fees associated with both work visas and obtaining a practising certificate you will need to factor in fees for insurance and membership to a chiropractic association (whilst you do not legally have to belong to an association, you do need malpractice insurance to practice as a chiropractor in the United Kingdom we advise it as the insurance is usually more bespoke when obtained through a UK based chiropractic association such as the United Chiropractic Association (UCA) or the British Chiropractic Association (BCA).

You should also factor in establishment costs such as housing (rent, food, clothing and potential; council tax), transport (to and from employment), and entertainment. These cost will be very dependant on where you are located. London by far is the most expensive with many receiving a travel allowance to offset the cost of travelling into and around London. We have set out a realistic example based on our areas expenses.

You should discuss this with your employer. There will be tax breaks to the employer associated with this, however this should be discussed with an accountant.