Doctor Visa
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Mortgages For Professionals with complex incomes through the main high street lenders
High street lenders typically provide more appealing rates, making them the preferred choice for many professionals seeking mortgage solutions. However, navigating the complexities of professional incomes can present challenges in securing loans from these lenders.
Professionals often assume they must seek alternative lenders due to the intricacies of their income streams. Yet, armed with a deep understanding of various payment structures, we confidently facilitate successful mortgage applications with high street lenders.
In fact, a substantial 93.4% of our mortgage applications are seamlessly processed through reputable high street lenders, showcasing our expertise in navigating complex income scenarios.
Doctor Visa
Peter Stokes explains how the mortgage process works if you are a doctor and looking to apply with a visa.
Can I move to the UK as a doctor? How long do I have to live in the UK before I can get a mortgage?
Yes, you can move to the UK as a doctor – you obviously need to get a visa. Generally these are tier one or tier two. As a highly skilled worker, that’s not normally an issue.
Once you are here, you can get a mortgage but it can be a little more difficult. How long you have to be here is probably the most important piece of criteria.
If you’ve been here for 12 months, it’s generally not a problem. If it’s less than that, the choices do become limited and will potentially rely on other factors like how much deposit you’ve got or how much you’re earning. But it is possible to get a mortgage with less, under certain circumstances.
What visa do doctors get in the UK?
Visas are generally classified as tier one or tier two, and both usually satisfy criteria for mortgage lending. The main difference really is that a tier one is a non-training grade.
Tier two, which is the more common one, can cover both training and non-training grades.
So junior doctors will tend to fall under a tier two, and that’s perfectly acceptable to lenders.
There is a tier five but we don’t tend to see those. They relate to you having a period here of two years and having to return home. That return home generally makes mortgage borrowing impossible – because you’re not moving towards indefinite leave to remain.
Can you get a medical visa in the UK?
Yes – although it is a case-by-case basis. I can’t say everybody’s going to get that, but medicine is one of the areas where the government realises we have a shortage.
We actively seek out doctors in other countries and encourage them to come here. So, as a medical doctor, you shouldn’t have any issues based purely on your occupation. I’m sure there are other criteria within that you’ll need to satisfy but your profession itself is a huge head start on that process.
Does the NHS offer visa sponsorship?
Yes, it does. I’ve referred to the tier one and tier twos as skilled visas, but the full name is a skilled worker health and care visa. You apply for that through the NHS.
Again, the NHS is keen to get doctors into the UK and is happy to provide that sponsorship. The two normally go hand in hand. To get the visa, you have to have a job lined up, and to get a job lined up you need to have a visa – hence why you get that sponsorship situation.
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What are the lending criteria for a doctor with a visa? Which lenders will accept applications with a visa as a doctor?
The simple answer is not all of the lenders do this. Of those that will, they have generally the same criteria, but one or two can be a little bit more generous.
The first piece of criteria is the size of your deposit. That’s important for anybody borrowing, but more so for those without indefinite leave to remain. The vast majority of lenders that lend to clients in that situation require at least a 25% deposit.
There are even criteria around that deposit. Some won’t accept gifted deposits from abroad, for example, although a gifted deposit normally is not a problem. Deposit is probably the single most crucial point.
The borrowing amount is important, but that probably also ties in with the income you get. There are some lenders that will have more restrictive criteria if you’re earning, for example, less than £75,000. If you’re earning more than that, they will become a bit more generous, mainly because you’re probably further through your doctor training and may be nearing consultant stage – where you’re more likely to remain as permanent.
As to the documents required, we generally need a copy of your visa or e-visa. Most people are now issued a share code for residency situations, so rather than having a physical card you get a code. Most lenders have the ability to access that data. The code is valid for a few days and lets them see your residency situation.
Lenders will probably require a copy of your contract as well, especially if it’s for sponsorship with the NHS. Otherwise, the documents required are the same as for any other case – pay slips, bank statements, all that kind of thing.
What if I have bad credit and I’m looking to apply for a mortgage with a visa as a doctor?
It’s an interesting one. To qualify for credit, you’ve probably been here a while anyway.
So in a strange way, your situation is more likely to fit the criteria for a mortgage – because you’ve been here longer. Therefore, you might get a mortgage.
As with anybody, once you have that bad credit, it can become a problem. It depends on the severity. If you’ve missed one credit card payment 18 months ago, that’s probably not going to be a problem.
If you’re four months behind on a credit card and it’s happened in the last six months, it’s going to be huge. Therefore, you move into the secondary lending market – where there’s no reason criteria will be any different for doctors. These lenders tend to work on slightly bigger deposits anyway. So there are probably routes to do this, but you may need a bigger deposit again.
How does remortgaging a property work for a doctor on a visa?
By default, a remortgage means you already have a mortgage, which means you’ve got over the most difficult hurdle in the first place. Lenders don’t differentiate between purchasing and remortgages.
So if you’ve been here for three or four years on a visa, there’s no reason why we can’t remortgage you to a new lender. You still have to fit that same criteria. But you’re probably already satisfying the rule of being here for at least 12 months, which is one of the big ones.
You don’t always have to remortgage. When their rate is ending, people usually look to secure a new rate, but we can do that directly with your lender. That has no underwriting. There’s always that option.
If your remortgage will include extra funds, we can approach your current lender for a further advance. You’ve probably met their criteria already, so we can look to see if they would do a further advance, providing it’s not going over certain Loan to Value limits or overstretching affordability.
A remortgage, from a criteria point of view, is no different from a purchase. The fact that you already have a mortgage would suggest it shouldn’t be a problem.
Can I get a Buy to Let mortgage on a visa as a doctor?
Yes. It’s actually possible for non-visa applicants to get Buy to Let mortgages prior to having a residential mortgage, but I would suggest that’s more difficult for a doctor on a visa.
A lender will almost certainly want to see the applicant have a residential mortgage first. One or two Buy to Let lenders do have visa criteria, and providing you’re a homeowner with a mortgage, I don’t see that being a problem.
I certainly wouldn’t encourage a doctor with a visa to go for a Buy to Let without owning a property, because it’s very difficult. If you’ve got limited borrowing capabilities, I would concentrate on the residential mortgage first.
How do I apply for a mortgage with a visa as a doctor? What is the process?
To be honest, you’ve got to use a broker. I know I say that through all these podcasts, but this is one of those circumstances where expert knowledge is just invaluable.
You could walk up and down the high street, talk to five different lenders and all five will say no. It does depend on how it’s presented. Knowing the criteria advances what a broker is going to do. The actual application process once you pick a lender is not really that different, apart from having to supply those extra pieces of information – the copy of your visa or share codes for your residency status.
But you don’t want to be walking into lender A, going through all that and then finding you don’t fit the criteria, and then doing the same with lender B and lender C. These mortgages can be some of the most difficult and complex to place.
What else do we need to know about mortgages for doctors on a visa?
Just use a broker, because they should know which lenders to go to and how to present the application. Ideally, find a broker that understands the residency situation, although I would expect most brokers to have a handle on that.
But understanding how it works hand-in-hand with the medical professions is invaluable – and that’s obviously what we do.
Our other podcasts have covered some of the complexities around doctors, their incomes and fixed-term contracts. We also cover the parts of your income being guaranteed but not appearing on your payslips.
I’m not saying it’s difficult to place doctors on visas, but it can be taxing and you have to go through a number of lenders to pinpoint the right one taking account of your situation around residency, your visa, your pay and your deposit. We won’t be looking at 20 or 30 lenders. We’re probably looking at just one or two – and getting down to one or two as early as possible is what we need to do.
YOUR PROPERTY MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP WITH YOUR MORTGAGE REPAYMENTS.
THE FINANCIAL CONDUCT AUTHORITY DOES NOT REGULATE MOST BUY TO LET MORTGAGES.
