Dianne Felix from Trinidad and Tobago first came to the UK in December 2002, as a work permit holder, to work as a registered nurse with a visa for five years. But just before applying for permanent residence, her relationship broke down and she needed to return with her one year old child at the time to get support for child-care.
And so in January 2007, she left the UK and returned to her country. It was a difficult decision but she never regretted it for all the opportunities it gave her to rear and support her daughter who is now a more independent.
Returning to practice in the UK has always been in Diane's future plan and so she managed to keep her professional registration with the Nursing & Midwifery Council throughout the years. She continued working as a registered nurse in Trinidad but struggled to even get one response from the hundreds of job applications she has submitted to the NHS and many care providers in the UK in the last 12 months.
Then COVID-19 came, which paralysed the whole world for 6 months and her job search came to a complete halt. She thought, "It seemed my hope of working in the UK was completely gone".
One afternoon, she was scrolling on posts on her Facebook account and came across one of our sponsored adverts claiming we guarantee international recruitment to the UK within 4-6 weeks. Her first reaction was that such a claim was too good to be true but she carried on reading success stories on our page and somehow was convinced that there's no harm in connecting with us. So Diane reached out to us on 24 July 2020 and was so surprised to
have secured a job interview within 6 days. With interview coaching and preparation she received from our seasoned consultant, she was successful at interview and her Certificate of Sponsorship was assigned and visa application submitted on 13 August 2020. Two weeks later her Tier 2 visa was granted and Diane was in tears to see at this time the real prospect of being able to return and practice as a registered nurse again in the UK. Suddenly, the tides have changed in her favour. However, Trinidad and Tobago went into lockdown again at the beginning of September due to the number of COVID-19 cases spiking up. It meant she couldn't fly out because of travel restrictions put in place by her government.
We needed to consider every possible option that might be available for her to either get an exemption to travel for being an essential worker or travel via another country to the UK. We contacted Trinidad & Tobago embassy in London and managed to get her a travel exemption certificate but the next obstacle was to find flights to London as all flights out of Trinidad were closed.
Indeed if there's a will, there's always a way. We discovered a charter flight from Trinidad to Barbados and immediately booked Dianne a seat and an onward flight to London Heathrow Airport arriving on 12 October.
Dianne finally reentered the UK via London Heathrow airport on 12 October 2020 at 06:55 AM and we are very happy for her. She made it. She done it and we're so glad we were part of it.
"The ads didn't do IANS justice! They were quick, incredible, they were quick, incredibly professional and "on the ball" from day one. I was intrigued by the 4-6 weeks timetable as well as multiple success stories I read. I'm happy to say that they exceeded my expectations. Thanks to IANS and Mayuri, my dream of returning to the UK has come true."
If like Dianne, you need expert help to return to practice in the UK or looking to start a nursing career in the UK, do not hesitate to get in touch. The fastest way to reach us by joining connectIANS©.
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