Immigration Skills Charge meaning

Common fees For most UK work visa applications, statutory charges account for most of the overall outlay, typically far surpassing the professional fees paid to immigration specialists for guiding applicants through the process. Government fees may include: the visa application fee the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) the Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) fee the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) optional services to streamline and expedite the visa process By law, the ISC is the only government charge that employers cannot pass on to the visa applicant. Other disbursements can include translation costs, tuberculosis screening, English language testing, or obtaining criminal record certificates. Many of these relate to mandatory stages of the visa process and can mount up quickly, so employers should take a holistic view before deciding who will be responsible for these extra costs. The level of cost assistance provided Some employers may already have well-established policies to guide them. These could range from the...

Home Office changes to the immigration skills charge The Home Office stated that revisions to the immigration skills charge are intended to boost investment in British workers and reduce dependence on overseas hiring, with the government directing the funds into training the domestic workforce. The fee payable varies according to factors such as an organisation’s size and the length of a worker’s sponsorship. The government also confirmed that, from January 2027, international students will have 18 months, rather than the current two years, to secure graduate-level employment after completing their studies. These reforms, detailed in the government’s immigration white paper, also set out measures aimed at drawing in highly skilled workers...

In this issue: Immigration Pay Protected characteristics Settlement Issues arising on termination Employment Tribunals New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Employment resources on Lexis+® LexTalk®Employment: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts Immigration Immigration Skills Charge (Amendment) Regulations announces 32% increase to ISC fees Draft Immigration Skills Charge (Amendment) Regulations 2025 have been placed before Parliament. They would amend the Immigration Skills Charge Regulations 2017, SI 2017/499, lifting the Immigration Skills Charge—paid by sponsors of Skilled Workers and Senior or Specialist Workers—by 32%. See: LNB News 16/10/2025 59... Pay DBT names and shames 491 employers failing to pay minimum wage The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has publicly identified 491 employers that underpaid the national minimum wage to about 42,000 workers in its 22nd naming round. Offending firms have been fined a combined £10.2m. Those listed include Euro Garages Ltd (£824,383.62 owed to...

Employment laws in the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain and Northern Ireland have much in common, as all operate within common law systems and many contemporary employment statutes flow from European Directives. Even so, divergences do exist and are likely to widen. This Practice Note outlines several distinctions between Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. Care is advised when handling matters in Northern Ireland, where the framework is becoming increasingly distinct from Great Britain. For details on the differences between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, see Practice Note: Northern Ireland employment law. Main areas of difference employment status categories leave entitlements qualifying period and remedies under unfair dismissals legislation redundancy entitlements protected conversations and settlement agreements employment tribunal procedures transfers of undertakings (TUPE) immigration Categories of employment status In the Republic of Ireland, individuals engaged in work are typically classified as either ‘employees’ or ‘independent contractors’. There is no...

The UK’s choice to exit the European Union has made a comprehensive reassessment of the country’s immigration framework necessary. On 18 September 2018, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) released its final report on European Economic Area (EEA) migration in the UK, designed to provide an evidence base for shaping a new migration system to operate after the end of the implementation period from 1 January 2021. The report sets out multiple conclusions on the effects of EEA migration to the UK, together with a series of proposals which, if taken forward, would have a significant bearing on the way EEA nationals are permitted to participate in the UK labour market once Brexit has taken effect. However, the document does not tackle whether EEA nationals ought to be treated differently within the family migration system, observing only that there could be large effects which should be taken into account. The key findings The report considered a vast body of evidence on the impact of migration from the EEA...

Background In December 2015, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC)—an independent arm’s length public body advising government on immigration—issued a comprehensive assessment of Tier 2 policy. At that point, Tier 2 encompassed the skilled worker pathways. Among its proposals, the MAC suggested an Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) to encourage UK employers to ‘reduce their reliance’ on migrant labour and channel resources into training and upskilling domestic workers. The Committee examined this at the government’s specific request, and provision for an ISC already appeared in the Immigration Bill then before Parliament, which later became the Immigration Act 2016 (IA 2016). The MAC advised that the levy should apply to all sponsoring employers hiring via Tier 2 (General) and (Intra-Company Transfer) (ICT) routes, save for cases where individuals were sponsored under the Graduate Trainee and the (then still operating) Skills Transfer ICT sub-categories. On 24 March 2016, the government issued its response to the MAC’s review, agreeing to most of the Committee’s recommendations. The response broadly endorsed the MAC’s overall approach and...