On April 9, the UK Home Office updated its sponsor guidance to extend the prohibition on recouping certain fees under the Skilled Worker route to other types of sponsored work visa, including the Senior or Specialist Worker route.
Updated Guidance
The updated guidance includes revised wording which makes it clear that the following fees cannot be recouped from a sponsored worker:
- Immigration Skills Charge (it has never been possible to pass on this fee)
- Certificate of Sponsorship fee (this applies to a Skilled Worker CoS assigned on or after December 31, 2024, and to most other types of CoS assigned on or after April 9, 2025)
- Other sponsorship fees such as a priority CoS allocation request fee (dates as above)
- Legal / immigration advice fees associated with maintaining a sponsor license, requesting and assigning a CoS and assisting with a sponsored worker’s visa application
In theory it is possible to recoup legal / immigration advice fees from a sponsored worker if they had a genuine choice in whether and how to obtain assistance with their visa application. In practice, many employers engage a law firm or immigration adviser to handle the whole CoS / visa process for all of their sponsored workers, in which case it is not possible to recoup the fees.
The updated guidance includes a new paragraph on the definition of “associated administrative costs.” When read with the rest of the guidance this paragraph retrospectively extends the prohibition on recouping legal / immigration advice fees so that it applies to visa applications for workers with a Skilled Worker CoS assigned on or after December 31, 2024.
Possible Immigration Cost Salary Deductions
The following immigration costs can be deducted from a sponsored worker’s salary, but from April 9, 2025, the total to be repaid is taken into account when calculating whether the salary meets the minimum required for a Skilled Worker visa:
- UKVI visa application fee
- Immigration Health Surcharge
- Other immigration costs not mentioned above (such as priority visa service fees and VFS Global / TLScontact fees)
Repayment/clawback agreements which only require employees to repay immigration costs if they leave the company within a certain period are not regarded by the Home Office as salary deductions and are not taken into account when calculating the minimum salary for a Skilled Worker visa.
Erickson Insights & Analysis
Erickson Immigration Group will continue to monitor developments and share updates as more news is available. Please contact your employer or EIG attorney if you have questions about anything we’re reporting above or case-specific questions.
The post UK New Restrictions on Recouping Fees from Sponsored Workers appeared first on Erickson Immigration Group.
