Foreign doctors are leaving Britain because stricter visa rules have left them without jobs, the government has been warned.
Many are completing their training only to be stuck because regulations make it difficult for sponsors to employ them.
The Royal College of General Practitioners has written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, calling for urgent action to make it easier for international medical graduates (IMGs) who have completed their GP speciality training in the UK to secure work in the NHS.
In the letter, it warns that planned immigration reforms include an increase in the costs of sponsoring foreign workers, which would have a financial knock-on effect on surgeries.
The institute is urging the government to grant GPs from overseas, who have completed postgraduate medical training in the UK, the right to apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR).
GP speciality training lasts three years – two years short of the current five years required in the country to apply for ILR.
It means that they need to find a practice that is willing, and has a licence, to sponsor them.
A recent survey by the RCGP and British Medical Association of 521 GPs and GP Registrars who either need or had recently secured a visa to work in the UK, found 61 per cent said they would make plans to leave the country if their difficulty finding a GP job continues. It also found 71 per cent said finding a job in a practice that could sponsor their visa was difficult or very difficult. A separate RCGP survey of 493 general practice managers found that only 29 per cent of practices currently offer visa sponsorships.
The RCGP says England needs more qualified GPs to meet patient demand, pointing out that there are currently only 462 more GPs than at the end of 2019, while the number of registered patients has increased by more than 3.7 million.
It is concerned that, while the government has pledged to gradually increase the number of UK medical school places, it won't fix the present shortfall in numbers needed as it takes at least 10 years to fully train a GP.
The government is determined to reduce net migration to the UK. It peaked at a record 944,000 in the year to March 2023 but has fallen sharply since then.
On Thursday, latest estimates suggested the number dropped to 204,000 in the year to June 2025, down 69 per cent year-on-year from 649,000, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The fall in net migration to the lowest annual figure since 2021 was described as a “step in the right direction” by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
This month, the government announced what it called the "biggest shake-up of the legal migration system in nearly half a century", designed to reward those who contribute and play by the rules.
It announced it was increasing the time needed to be spent in Britain before qualifying for indefinite leave to remain from five years to 10, but it decided that doctors would be exempt. The RCGP is pushing for this to be reduced to three years.
The letter calls on Ms Mahmood to use the reforms to make GPs from overseas eligible to apply for ILR as soon as they complete their GP speciality training in the UK.
Prof Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said doctors from overseas "are an integral part of general practice".
"We must ensure that they are supported, valued, and encouraged to stay working in the NHS post-qualification," she said.
"Currently IMGs who have undergone speciality GP training in the UK – at expense to the UK taxpayer - have to jump through hoops in order to stay working in the NHS as they need to secure work in a surgery able to sponsor them. There's a real possibility that this could become even harder with current proposals for immigration reform.
“This is not only stressful for impacted GPs, but it makes no sense given the investment the UK has put into their training, to risk losing talented GPs, who want to continue working in the NHS at a time we desperately need them. We know that many feel they have no choice but to leave the NHS or in some cases the country when they can’t secure work. It’s such a waste."
The UK needs to train more doctors, but we must also ensure that our colleagues who come to the UK to train and work in our health service are supported, valued, and encouraged to stay so that our patients receive the care they need and deserve. With a backdrop of some much pressure, the last thing we should be doing is discouraging trained professionals from working in the NHS."
A government representative said a consultation process would be carried out.
“We are grateful to our overseas frontline healthcare workers, who bring compassion, deliver high-quality care and strengthen our health service, but net migration must come down," the representative said.
“As the Home Secretary has set out under our proposed new settlement model, individuals will have the opportunity to reduce the qualifying period to settlement and citizenship based on contributions to the UK economy and society.
"We will launch the consultation shortly and encourage health and care workers to take part when it launches.”
