UK Immigration Skills Charge to be introduced in April

Where possible, we thus advise clients to apply for their UK visa or extension of the UK visa, before the Immigration Skills Charge and the annual increase in UK Home Office fees take effect.

But what exactly does the Immigration Skills Charge entail?

From 6 April 2017, companies sponsoring Tier 2 migrants will be levied an Immigration Skills Charge.

The Skills Charge will apply to sponsors of Tier 2 employees assigned a certificate of sponsorship in the ‘General’ and ‘Intra-Company Transfer’ routes.  The charge will be levied whether they are applying from outside the UK, inside the UK to switch to the Tier 2 route from another route, or inside the UK to extend their current visa.

Cost of the Immigration Skills Charge

The charge will be levied as an upfront charge of £1,000 per Tier 2 employee per year, for the total period of time covered by the certificate of sponsorship.

Sponsoring employers will thus be expected to pay the charge at the same time that they assign the certificate of sponsorship to the non-EU national.

The skills charge will not be charged for the Tier 2 worker’s family members (‘dependants’).

Small businesses and charity sponsors will get relief in the form of a reduced rate of £364 per year.  The Home Office considers a sponsor as a small business if their annual turnover is £10.2 million or less, and if the sponsoring company have 50 or fewer employees.

According to the UK Home Office, the money collected will be utilised by the UK Department of Education to address skills gaps in the UK workforce.

Exemptions on the Immigration Skills Charge

Fortunately, there are some exemptions to the Immigration Skills Charge which include;

• Non-EEA-nationals who was sponsored on Tier 2 before April 2017, and is applying from inside the UK to extend their Tier 2 Visa with the same or different sponsor;
• Tier 2 Intra-Company Transfer Graduate Trainees;
• Foreign nationals doing specified Ph.D. level occupations; and
• Applicants who are changing their status from a Tier 4 Student to a Tier 2 General Visa.

Please note that there might still be changes to the proposed UK Immigration Skills Charge. The UK Government changes the immigration requirements, rules and regulations on a regular basis. We highly recommend that our clients keep in touch with their Breytenbachs consultant, to stay up to date with all the latest changes and how it could affect their situation.

If you need help with a UK visa application, why not arrange a consultation with Breytenbachs and allow us to ease the burden? We offer a professional, friendly and exemplary service that will put your mind at ease and ensure that the application process is smooth and efficient! Please do get in touch with us.

www.bic-immigration.com or info@bic-immigration.com

TOP IMAGE: Library photo via Pixabay.com