How much does it cost to sponsor someone for a UK work visa?
20 August 2024
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Sponsoring a foreign worker isn’t cheap. Application fees and visa taxes typically run to thousands of pounds. Since the UK left the European Union, the
Sponsoring a foreign worker isn’t cheap. Application fees and visa taxes typically run to thousands of pounds. Since the UK left the European Union, the
With EU free movement fading into memory, the main visa route available for non British and Irish nationals wanting to work in the UK is
For work-based immigration, last week’s statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was in many ways rather anticlimactic. The last two years have seen a
The Supreme Court held today in R (Pathan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKSC 41 that the Home Office’s treatment of a
Whilst we are all awaiting new Immigration Rules for the Skilled Worker route, which will replace Tier 2 (General) in the new Points-Based Immigration System,
Immigration lawyers up and down the land leapt out of bed this Monday morning, eager to glut out on the promised detail of the UK’s
With the UK still reeling from COVID-19, a mega recession looms. The statistics are sobering; 8 million workers on the government furlough scheme, 2.6 million
This week we finally got to see more detail about the 2021 Points Based Immigration System. The government’s announcement confirms that every organisation in the
The government has released a few more details of what it calls a “points based system” for immigration to the UK after Brexit. To balance
Reaction to the Migration Advisory Committee’s latest report, released on 28 January, has largely focused on the MAC’s lukewarm response to the government’s desire for
The government should think twice about re-introducing a points based immigration system after Brexit, and lower the minimum salary necessary to get a work visa,
You wait ages for a new visa route and three come along at the same time… Hot on the heels of the announcements earlier this
Just when you thought the rule excluding chefs at take-away restaurants from the Tier 2 Shortage Occupation List had been tested to destruction, there arrives
A new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was published yesterday, 9 September 2019. This post will cover changes to work and student visa routes,
This autumn will see a decided shift in immigration policy toward being more welcoming to non-EU academics, scientists and researchers; a group commonly defined by
The Home Office regularly updates the guidance documents that it issues to approved visa sponsors, and those thinking of becoming one, under Tiers 2, 4
The government has asked a group of independent academic experts to look again at the Migration Advisory Committee’s proposal for a £30,000 minimum salary for
R (SRI Lalithambika Foods Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 761 (Admin) contains a practical tip to help rescue a
There is one, overwhelming, message from the immigration White Paper published on 19 December. It is mentioned in the Foreword by the Prime Minister, and
The government has published its plan spelling the end of free movement. A long-awaited white paper on post-Brexit migration proposes that EU workers would in
R (Liral Veget Training And Recruitment Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWHC 2941 (Admin) was a challenge to the Home Office’s
In the case of Pathan & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA 2103 the Court of Appeal reminds us, once again,
After months of uncertainty we finally have a picture emerging of what the post-Brexit immigration system will look like. We have known for some time
Today’s Migration Advisory Committee recommendations are incredibly significant from a UK employer’s perspective. I can immediately see that a huge number of UK employers are likely
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott delivered a speech today on what Labour in government would do about immigration. It doesn’t do to get too excited
The guidance that Tier 2 and 5 sponsors must follow was updated last week. The new version applies to sponsor licence applications made, and certificates
Taking part in strike action can be stressful enough. But for migrant workers who are sponsored by their employer, striking has also had the potential
Less than two months into the job, Sajid Javid appears to be, so far, quite a pragmatic Home Secretary. Following six months of the Tier
What started as a minor aberration has now turned into a worrying trend. The Home Office confirmed on 24 May that we have hit the monthly
The responsibility to take the utmost care to ensure that the Points Based System, Immigration Rules and guidance are followed remains with the sponsor. A
Today is the deadline for employers with 250 or more employees to publish calculations showing the size of the pay gap between their male and
Businesses across the UK began receiving notification emails last week from the Home Office confirming that their applications for restricted certificates of sponsorship had been approved.
The Ganges and Gurkha is the 60th most popular restaurant in Plymouth. It serves Nepalese and Indian food, and was shortlisted for the British Curry
Thousands of staff at more than 60 universities around the country have gone on strike, starting today. Some members of the University College Union (UCU),
UK businesses seeking to hire skilled non-EU workers are losing out as it emerges that the monthly quota has been hit for an unprecedented third
Spring is in the air (for those optimists among us). For Tier 2 sponsor licence holders, this can only mean one thing. It’s time to grab
In many cases, employers who wish to hire Tier 2 skilled workers must pass the Resident Labour Market Test. This means that Tier 2 sponsors
The Secretary of State’s decision to revoke an IT consultancy’s Tier 2 sponsor licence was upheld before Christmas in R (Sri Prathinik Consulting Limited) v
According to UK immigration rules, if a chef works at a restaurant which provides a take-away service, he is less skilled than one who plies
Sivayogam is a religious charity, serving Hindu and Tamil communities in London. Finding priests in the UK and Europe had proven difficult so, in 2009,
Sponsoring a foreign worker isn’t cheap. Application fees and visa taxes typically run to thousands of pounds. Since the UK left the European Union, the costs of sponsorship have also applied to employers who want to hire EU workers under the Points Based Immigration System. Some of the fees are...
With EU free movement fading into memory, the main visa route available for non British and Irish nationals wanting to work in the UK is now the Skilled Worker visa. The Skilled Worker visa is a sponsorship system: a foreign worker cannot simply apply for this visa unaided. Applicants need...
For work-based immigration, last week’s statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was in many ways rather anticlimactic. The last two years have seen a series of reports and policy statements setting out the government’s plans for a ‘new’ Points-Based Immigration System. The major changes therefore come as no great...
The Supreme Court held today in R (Pathan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKSC 41 that the Home Office’s treatment of a Tier 2 skilled worker, Mr Pathan, was unfair. Mr Pathan had applied for an extension of his visa as a sponsored worker in good time...
Whilst we are all awaiting new Immigration Rules for the Skilled Worker route, which will replace Tier 2 (General) in the new Points-Based Immigration System, some good news is starting to emerge. The cooling-off period, which has seen many a skilled migrant having to spend a year outside the UK...
Immigration lawyers up and down the land leapt out of bed this Monday morning, eager to glut out on the promised detail of the UK’s new points-based immigration system. How disappointed we all are. The snappily titled UK’s Points-Based Immigration System — Further Details may look glossy, but the 130-page...
With the UK still reeling from COVID-19, a mega recession looms. The statistics are sobering; 8 million workers on the government furlough scheme, 2.6 million claims for Universal Credit since the lockdown began and the economy already suffering its biggest contraction since the financial crash in 2008. The economic outlook...
This week we finally got to see more detail about the 2021 Points Based Immigration System. The government’s announcement confirms that every organisation in the UK — from businesses to charities, schools to local shops — will need to become an “approved sponsor” to employ EU citizens who are new...
The government has released a few more details of what it calls a “points based system” for immigration to the UK after Brexit. To balance out the impending end of free movement of workers from the European Union, it would allow employers to sponsor migrant workers at lower salaries and...
Reaction to the Migration Advisory Committee’s latest report, released on 28 January, has largely focused on the MAC’s lukewarm response to the government’s desire for an Australia-style points based immigration system. Very little attention has so far been paid to the MAC’s conclusions on the salary thresholds that underpin the...
The government should think twice about re-introducing a points based immigration system after Brexit, and lower the minimum salary necessary to get a work visa, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has recommended. In a report published today, the MAC says that the existing Tier 2 (General) work visa system should...
You wait ages for a new visa route and three come along at the same time… Hot on the heels of the announcements earlier this summer of new visas for graduates and for scientists comes today’s news that the Conservatives are planning to introduce a “NHS visa” as part of...
Just when you thought the rule excluding chefs at take-away restaurants from the Tier 2 Shortage Occupation List had been tested to destruction, there arrives yet another valiant attempt to navigate this uber-niche corner of a corner of the Immigration Rules in R (Imam) v Secretary of State for the...
A new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was published yesterday, 9 September 2019. This post will cover changes to work and student visa routes, while a separate post deals with changes to the EU Settlement Scheme and other changes brought about by Brexit. Except where indicated otherwise, these changes...
This autumn will see a decided shift in immigration policy toward being more welcoming to non-EU academics, scientists and researchers; a group commonly defined by the somewhat worn-out phrase, “the brightest and the best”, first coined by David Cameron in October 2011. The upcoming rule changes will see the removal...
The Home Office regularly updates the guidance documents that it issues to approved visa sponsors, and those thinking of becoming one, under Tiers 2, 4 and 5 of the Points Based System. Tier 4 covers sponsors of international students and Tiers 2 and 5 relate to those coming to the...
The government has asked a group of independent academic experts to look again at the Migration Advisory Committee’s proposal for a £30,000 minimum salary for a UK work visa post-Brexit. It has commissioned the, er, Migration Advisory Committee. In September 2018, the MAC published a major report on the future...
R (SRI Lalithambika Foods Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 761 (Admin) contains a practical tip to help rescue a sponsor licence from suspension or revocation. Charles Bourne QC, sitting as a deputy High Court judge, explains that receipt of a suspension letter presents a...
There is one, overwhelming, message from the immigration White Paper published on 19 December. It is mentioned in the Foreword by the Prime Minister, and the Foreword from the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The aims of the White Paper are: to bring an end to free movement...
The government has published its plan spelling the end of free movement. A long-awaited white paper on post-Brexit migration proposes that EU workers would in future have to earn a minimum salary in a job requiring A-level qualifications or above to be sponsored for a UK work visa. “Low-skilled” workers...
R (Liral Veget Training And Recruitment Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWHC 2941 (Admin) was a challenge to the Home Office’s decision to revoke a company’s licence to sponsor non-EU citizens for work visas. It failed. The case was about the Tier 2 (General) visas...
After months of uncertainty we finally have a picture emerging of what the post-Brexit immigration system will look like. We have known for some time that after we leave the EU on 29 March 2019, the plan is to enter a transition period until 31 December 2020 which will see...
Today’s Migration Advisory Committee recommendations are incredibly significant from a UK employer’s perspective. I can immediately see that a huge number of UK employers are likely to be faced with potentially significant new administrative burdens if the recommendations are implemented. The vast majority of UK employers have little or nothing...
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott delivered a speech today on what Labour in government would do about immigration. It doesn’t do to get too excited about these pronouncements, because Labour is not in government, but here is a link to the full text and a few highlights. Labour wants to...
The guidance that Tier 2 and 5 sponsors must follow was updated last week. The new version applies to sponsor licence applications made, and certificates of sponsorship assigned, on or after 18 July 2018. Some of the key changes are: Fees and refunds Application fees for sponsor licence applications and...
Taking part in strike action can be stressful enough. But for migrant workers who are sponsored by their employer, striking has also had the potential to place their immigration status in the UK at risk. This is because the Home Office’s position has been that unpaid absence from work due...
Less than two months into the job, Sajid Javid appears to be, so far, quite a pragmatic Home Secretary. Following six months of the Tier 2 cap wreaking havoc amongst employers and users of the Points Based System, resulting in the NHS losing out on hiring over 2,300 doctors, the...
The responsibility to take the utmost care to ensure that the Points Based System, Immigration Rules and guidance are followed remains with the sponsor. A Mr Talpada attempted to challenge the applicability of the Rules and guidance to his case on the facts and by using common law legal principles...
Today is the deadline for employers with 250 or more employees to publish calculations showing the size of the pay gap between their male and female workers. The gender pay gap is the percentage difference between the average hourly earnings for men and women; men earn 18.4% more than women...
Businesses across the UK began receiving notification emails last week from the Home Office confirming that their applications for restricted certificates of sponsorship had been approved. This is because they had met an as yet unpublished points threshold. The Home Office has saved the bad news for today. Yet again there...
The Ganges and Gurkha is the 60th most popular restaurant in Plymouth. It serves Nepalese and Indian food, and was shortlisted for the British Curry awards in 2013. In 2015, it had a Tier 2 sponsor licence, meaning that it could sponsor workers from overseas to come and work in...
Thousands of staff at more than 60 universities around the country have gone on strike, starting today. Some members of the University College Union (UCU), which has called the strike, will be non-EU nationals sponsored under the relevant university’s sponsor licence. Here, I consider the Home Office’s position on whether...
UK businesses seeking to hire skilled non-EU workers are losing out as it emerges that the monthly quota has been hit for an unprecedented third time in a row. Yesterday afternoon, the Home Office sent out hundreds of emails to UK businesses that have been waiting for the outcome of...
Spring is in the air (for those optimists among us). For Tier 2 sponsor licence holders, this can only mean one thing. It’s time to grab the organisation’s “leave expiries” list, a crystal ball and a calculator and work out how many unrestricted certificates of sponsorship (CoS) the organisation is...
In many cases, employers who wish to hire Tier 2 skilled workers must pass the Resident Labour Market Test. This means that Tier 2 sponsors must offer a position to a settled worker ahead of a migrant where both candidates have the necessary skills and experience. Discrimination, but the acceptable...
The Secretary of State’s decision to revoke an IT consultancy’s Tier 2 sponsor licence was upheld before Christmas in R (Sri Prathinik Consulting Limited) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWHC 3204 (Admin). A stream of case law was cited, most notably Lord Justice Tomlinson’s leading judgment...
According to UK immigration rules, if a chef works at a restaurant which provides a take-away service, he is less skilled than one who plies his trade at a restaurant that does not. As a result, restaurants which provide a take-away service cannot offer employment to chefs under the Tier...
Sivayogam is a religious charity, serving Hindu and Tamil communities in London. Finding priests in the UK and Europe had proven difficult so, in 2009, it applied for registration as a Tier 2 sponsor, allowing the organisation to bring in religious workers from abroad. Its experience in R (Sivayogam) v...
