New Statement of Immigration Changes and Updated Fees

It has been confirmed that there will be increases to Home Office visa fees coming into effect on 9 April 2025. The fee increases include the cost of a certificate of sponsorship rising from £239 to £525, a rise well above the rate of inflation. A full list of the increases can be found here. Employers and applicants should bear these new fee increases in mind and, if possible, submit applications prior to 9 April to save money.

Changes to visas for care workers

A new requirement will affect sponsors in England that wish to sponsor new employees under SOC code 6135 (care workers and home carers) or 6136 (senior care workers). From 9 April, the sponsor must have first tried to recruit for the job from the pool of Skilled Workers who were last sponsored under this code and require a new sponsor.

Employers will be reminded of the old resident labour market test. This is in the context of several care homes in England having their sponsor licences revoked for compliance issues and is designed to protect workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. This requirement does not apply in Northern Ireland.

One change that will affect care workers in Northern Ireland is that the minimum salary for Skilled Workers on this code is being increased from £23,200 per year (or £11.90 per hour) to £25,000 per year (or £12.82 per hour).

Introduction of Visitor Visa requirements on Trinidad and Tobago

Due to an increase in asylum claims from Trinidad and Tobago, nationals of this country can no longer apply for an electronic travel authorisation and must instead apply for a full visitor visa. The number of asylum applications from Trinidad and Tobago has increased from 234 applications (representing 353 people) in 2023 to 272 applications (444 people) last year. This shows that it does not take much of an increase for countries to be placed on the visa national list.

Changes to rules on deductions from salary

There is a minimum salary requirement that employers must pay Skilled Workers. As part of this, there are rules and guidance on what can be included as salary (generally this is guaranteed basic income and does not include bonuses) and what deductions from salary can be permitted. For example, tax can clearly be deducted from the gross income, but certain other deductions could reduce the worker’s salary for the purposes of the minimum salary requirement.

Due to concerns over migrant exploitation and to avoid sponsors artificially increasing the salary by double counting investment as salary, several changes have been made. Now, deductions from salary, repayments of loans and investments in the business will be subtracted from the salary accordingly. However, the new rules state that “money will not be deducted where the payment is not related to business costs, immigration costs or investment, but rather an additional benefit offer which the applicant has a genuine choice whether to take up, for example salary sacrifice arrangements”. Therefore, it seems that this rule does is not intended to interfere with genuine salary sacrifice schemes which are for the employee’s benefit. Rather, it is intended to cover situations where the employee does not have any choice in respect of their salary being reduced. For example, this might be where the employer is reducing the employee’s salary to pass on sponsorship costs to the employee. However, it is not entirely clear exactly what these rules will cover, and employers should be cautious when entering into salary sacrifice arrangements with sponsored employees.

Conclusion

In addition to the changes noted above, there have also been several changes to other types of visas including child student visas, EU Settlement Scheme, the Ukraine schemes, Global Talent Visas and others. The speed and regularity with which changes are made to immigration law means that it can be difficult to keep up. Employers and migrants should consider taking legal advice on their position to ensure that they are complying with the rules.

This article has been produced for general information purposes, and further advice should be sought from a professional advisor. Please contact our Business Immigration team at Cleaver Fulton Rankin for further advice or information.

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