Two vacancies open for six months. Locum spend climbing every month they go unfilled. Then a strong CV lands from a vet in Cape Town or Lisbon, and the top question from most practice managers is, “but will they still be here next summer?”
It is a fair question, and one worth diving into properly rather than going on instinct. International hiring takes longer and costs more up front than a local appointment, so the return has to come from someone who stays and settles.
Here’s what the available data says.
International hiring is no longer the experiment it once was
Around 1 in 3 vets on the RCVS Register qualified outside the UK. On 1 January 2025 there were 31,224 UK-practising veterinary surgeons on the Register, and international registration keeps growing: a record 80 candidates passed the RCVS Statutory Membership Examination in 2025 (more than double the previous record of 37 the year before).
The reality is: if overseas hires routinely left within months, UK veterinary practice would not be structured the way it is. A large share of the profession is internationally qualified, and most of those vets have built long careers here.
What the exit data actually shows
In November 2025, the RCVS published its Exit Survey 2022 to 2024, covering vets who voluntarily left the Register or moved off the UK-practising category.
In three years, 643 vets who left the UK-practising category responded, alongside 306 who left the Register altogether. Set against a register of more than 31,000 UK-practising vets, that is a small outflow, and the RCVS is clear that the numbers joining each year comfortably exceed those leaving.
The most common reason for leaving the UK-practising category – given by 40% of those respondents – was moving or remaining overseas. Vets who qualified overseas most often explained that in terms of being close to family and friends. UK-qualified vets talked instead about new challenges, travel and adventure. Retirement accounted for a further 23%.
Most practices worry about the wrong thing. When internationally qualified vets leave the UK, the pull is usually people rather than the job. Homesickness, ageing parents, a partner who never settled. That’s a much harder problem than pay, but it’s also a much more predictable one and can often be worked with.
Two honest caveats: exit surveys are voluntary, so they capture the vets who chose to respond rather than every leaver. And they measure people leaving the UK or the profession, not people moving between practices. Those are different problems with different fixes.
What keeps vets in a job
Research carried out for the BVA by the University of Exeter (based on 1,250 members of the Voice of the Veterinary Profession panel) found that day-to-day workplace experience had the strongest influence on whether vets intended to stay or go.
Feeling valued by colleagues, having a sense of fitting in, and being able to see people like you who have done well in the profession all mattered more than most employers assume.
That applies to every vet. But it hits hardest for someone 6,000 miles from their support network, in their first UK role. They’re often relying on the practice for more of their sense of belonging than a local hire ever would.
What this means for your practice
Five things consistently separate the placements that stick from the ones that don’t.
Onboard properly.
Vets with under 18 months of comparable experience will need the VetGDP, but even experienced hires benefit from being walked through UK protocols, client pricing conversations, referral pathways and RCVS expectations. Clinical skill transfers. Context does not. Our plain-English guide to RCVS registration covers what your new hire will have gone through before day one.
Do not isolate them.
A first UK placement alone in a small branch is the highest-risk setup there is. Where you have the flexibility, start them somewhere with a team around them.
Support the life, not just the job.
Bank account, National Insurance number, housing, driving licence, GP registration, school places. Small commitments from you, decisive for them.
Keep the family in view.
Partner’s work options, distance to an airport, how affordable trips home will be. Family pull is the most common reason overseas vets leave the UK, so it is worth raising early rather than discovering it in a resignation conversation.
Be honest at offer stage.
Caseload, rota, out-of-hours, realistic progression. A vet who arrives to the job they were promised is a vet who stays.
Where we come in
Any recruiter can tell you a vet is capable. We want to know why they are moving, and whether it will still make sense to them in five years. It’s slower than sending over every available CV, but it’s the reason our placements hold.
It also helps that we work in both directions. Our Australia team refers vets heading for the UK straight to us, so we often know a candidate long before their CV reaches you. It also means we can tell a two-year adventure apart from a permanent move.
If you are weighing up an international hire and want a straight answer on who is available, what they cost and how long it takes, get in touch with our UK team.
