The UK Home Office has made important changes this month to its Immigration Rules and various guidances for sponsors and visa applications.
We have summarised how these may affect who businesses can sponsor to bring to the UK, immigration costs that employers can pass on and recoup from sponsored migrants and other developments that will affect organisations with immigrant workers.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns, or if you would like to book an audit of your compliance with current rules and guidance. It is increasingly important to ensure sponsorship and right to work procedures are totally compliant as at the same time UK businesses face a rise enforcement activity and queries from UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI).
UKVI have announced “a ramp-up of operational action by Immigration Enforcement teams, who since July have carried out 6,784 illegal working visits to premises [up 40% year-on-year] and made 4,779 arrests [up 42%].” In the same period, 1,508 civil penalty notices have been issued. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns about the changes outlined below, or any questions about your right to work and sponsorship procedures and compliance.
Self-sponsors and investors sponsored as Skilled Workers
Up to now it has been possible to own or invest in a business which sponsors you to work for it in the UK if you fulfil the Skilled Worker visa requirements. People have been able to invest in, acquire or open a UK company and ensure it meets all the requirements needed to obtain a sponsor licence to sponsor them.
The Home Office has restricted what it calls “self-sponsorship” to close the “loophole whereby applicants could effectively pay towards their own salary through investing in their sponsor’s business.” From now on, if you invest in a company, that amount (averaged over the length of their visa) will be deducted from your effective gross salary to work out if you meet the minimum salary requirement to be sponsored. This will restrict in many cases whether organisations can still sponsor their owners or investors to work within the business if they have directly invested a large amount of capital which can be deemed to be paid back to them via their salary. Their salary will now have to be high enough to meet minimum salary requirements for a Skilled Worker after accounting for the investment.
Costs that can be recouped from sponsored workers
Guidance published at the start of the year restricted which costs employers may pass onto sponsored workers. Previously, the only cost an employer was bound to pay and not claim back from a sponsored migrant was the Immigration Skills Charge to sponsor them.
An employer now risks losing their sponsor licence – their ability to sponsor any current or future migrants – if they recoup or attempt to recoup the costs of a Skilled Worker sponsor licence fee or any “associated administrative costs” on or after 31 December 2024, or a Skilled Worker’s Certificate of Sponsorship fee assigned on or after 31 December 2024 and any administrative costs associated with that.
Sponsors must not attempt to recoup the cost of a sponsor licence or associated administrative costs for any other immigration route after 9 April 2025, nor the fee or associated administrative costs for a Certificate of Sponsorship for any migrant workers sponsored on a Global Business Mobility, Scale-up, Seasonal Worker, International Sportsperson or Minister of Religion route.
While a sponsor may still expect a prospective worker to pay for their work visa, they may only recoup the cost of professional immigration advice to apply for it if they have given the sponsored worker a choice about whether to use professional advice for the visa application and who will provide this. If the sponsor wants to have the option of passing on the costs of advice, they cannot dictate that the worker must receive advice from a specific immigration adviser, but they may suggest one.
As well as invested capital, any deductions from a worker’s salary or repayments of loans that relate to business or immigration costs will now be deducted from gross salary to calculate if a sponsor has met minimum salary requirements. Deductions will be averaged out over the period that the worker is sponsored for as stated on their Certificate of Sponsorship.
Money won’t be subtracted where the deduction is related to a voluntary benefit offer where the worker has a genuine choice to take it up, such as a salary sacrifice arrangement (eg: for nursery fees). However, if an employer gives the worker a loan to pay visa fees, for instance and deducts the repayment from their payslip or requires some other method of repayment, the amount of the repayment will no longer be considered part of the sponsored worker’s gross salary package for the purpose of meeting the minimum salary for Skilled Worker sponsorship.
Please contact us if you are unsure of which costs you can pass on or claw back from a sponsored worker. The cost of getting this wrong for a business could be your ability to sponsor anyone from abroad.
Minimum salary rises for Skilled Workers on the most discounted minimums
Employers may be able to sponsor certain categories of Skilled Workers on on discounted minimum rates of pay. The minimum salary threshold for Skilled Workers on the most discounted rates (those applying for Health and Care visas or visa extensions under rules for New Entrants, STEM PhDs or on the Immigrant Salary List or those in roles on national pay scales, such as many NHS or education roles) has been updated from £23,200pa (£11.90 per hour) to £25,000 (£12.82 per hour).
As the government intends to shortly publish an Immigration White Paper, which may overhaul salary requirements to sponsor workers, the changes to Certificates of Sponsorship assigned on or after 9 April are only limited to sponsored migrants on the lowest of minimum salary thresholds. This is to ensure pay remains above the National Living Wage, which is also increasing in April 2025. Skilled Workers must be sponsored on a wage which is the highest of the Minimum Salary Threshold (generally £38,700 pa without a discount), the going rate of pay for that particular occupation as defined by the government, as well as complying with National Minimum Wage rules.
Going rates have also been lifted for healthcare and education occupations that can be sponsored on the national pay scales to reflect the latest pay scales.
Care worker recruitment requirement
To help immigrant care staff at risk of exploitation or left without work when sponsors had sponsor licences revoked in recent Home Office crackdowns, care sector sponsors seeking to sponsor new care workers, home carers or senior care workers in England, must first attempt to use their regional care partnership to recruit from their pool of applicants stranded in the UK on Skilled Worker visas and in need of new sponsors.
If unable to identify a suitable worker from the pool of displaced care workers, sponsors must be able to explain why and, where possible, evidence steps they took, such as interviewing them or reviewing their experience and qualifications.
The new care worker recruitment requirement applies to any Certificate of Sponsorship assigned on or after 9 April 2025. The requirement for a sponsor to try this local pool first does not apply if a prospective carer won’t be working in England or if they are already sponsored in these occupations or switching from other immigration routes and they have been working for their sponsor for at least three months.
Immigration fee hikes
Most Home Office immigration, visa application and nationality fees increased on 9 April 2025, mostly rising by between 5 and 10%.
Sponsors, however, will note a 120% increase in the cost of a Certificate of Sponsorship to sponsor most migrant workers – up from £239 to £525. You can see the government’s full visa and immigration fee increases here.
Financial thresholds for company sizes
On 6 April 2025, the turnover and balance thresholds that define micro-entities, small and medium sized companies under the Companies Act 2006 changed. Sponsors have a duty to report within 20 working days where a sponsor changes from falling within the small sponsor regime to not falling within it (or vice versa).
This legislation has a knock-on affect on the fee for Skilled Worker and Senior or Specialist Worker sponsor licence applications and the Immigration Skills Charge paid for workers on these routes. Sponsors who fall within the small companies regime (or are charities) can pay less.
Before 6 April, the relevant qualifying financial thresholds for small companies were no more than £10.2 million turnover and no more than £5.1 million balance sheet total. This changes to annual turnover of not more than £15 million and not more than £7.5 million balance sheet total.
Creative workers on the Temporary Work – Creative Worker visa
New 9 April Guidance makes clear that if an organisation is sponsoring creatives on Temporary Work – Creative Worker visas it can’t be to fill a permanent position, “including on a temporary basis.” This will have implications for those who intend to repeatedly renew the visa.
Global Talent visa
Arts Council England is one of the government-appointed endorsing bodies for the Global Talent visa, endorsing those who it confirms have excelled in the areas of theatre, visual arts, combined arts, dance, literature and music so that they can apply for the work visa and route to settlement.
Film, television, animation, postproduction and visual effects applications are assessed by the Producers’ Alliance for Film and Television (PACT); those from fashion designers are assessed by the British Fashion Council (BFC); and architects by Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). An April change in the Immigration Rules brings certain requirements by these sub-endorsing bodies in line with requests by the main endorsing body for the arts – the Arts Council. There are also updates to the lists of eligible prizes and awards that qualify Global Talent and Prestigious Prizes applicants.
Changes to visitor and ETA rules
There is a minor clarification that visitors intending to undertake a Permitted Paid Engagement will need to declare this activity when seeking permission to enter the UK if asked. (Nationals using the eGates are very unlikely to be asked.) Visitors from Trinidad and Tobago must now apply for a visitor visa before coming to the UK. British Nationals (Overseas) citizens no longer require an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) prior to travel to the UK
Gig economy and zero hours workers will require right to work checks
Right to work checks that organisations carry out on employees will be extended to cover gig economy and zero-hours workers in sectors such as construction, food delivery, beauty salons and courier services. Currently, companies using such flexible arrangements are not required to check the status of on demand workers as the requirement is limited to employees only.
This change is likely to require legislation, so we do not know when this will come into play.
The consequences for getting right to work checks wrong can be severe. As well as civil penalties of up to £60,000 per worker found to be working illegally for repeat offenders, if you are sponsoring overseas nationals, you could be downgraded on the register of sponsors, or lose your sponsor licence altogether, as well as the workers you are sponsoring, who may have to leave the country. You can read more about this announcement here. Please contact our lawyers if you have any concerns about the above developments.
What UK visas can TV, film, music, theatre, arts, media creatives use?
Other recent immigration changes employers should know about
Vanessa Ganguin outlines spring immigration changes for employers in HR Magazine