The changes outlined below are (unless otherwise stated) set to be implemented on 9 April 2025.
Employers will be relieved to know these aren’t anything like the sweeping changes we outlined last Spring, which massively hiked up salary thresholds for sponsoring migrants. That’s because an immigration White Paper is expected in the next few weeks, to spell out the government’s direction of travel as the government balances its stated priorities, such as further reducing immigration as well as tackling employers’ skills gaps to fuel economic growth.
Minimum salary threshold rises for skilled workers on discounted rates
Skilled workers must be sponsored on a wage which is the highest of the general salary threshold (generally £38,700, unless a discount applies), the going rate of pay for that particular occupation as defined by the UK government (based on the 50th percentile for pay in that occupation), as well as complying with national minimum wage rules. Employers may sponsor certain categories of skilled workers on discounted minimum rates of pay.
Read more: Skills gap: UK needs one million migrants a year
The general salary threshold for skilled workers on the most discounted rates (those applying for health and care worker visas, as well as those who entered the skilled worker route before April 2024 and benefit from salary discounts such as new entrants or holding relevant PhDs) is being updated in April 2025 from £23,200 (£11.90 per hour) to £25,000 (£12.82 per hour). This is to ensure they remain significantly above the national living wage, which is also increasing in April.
Going rates are also being lifted for healthcare and education occupations that can be sponsored on the national pay scales to reflect the latest pay scales.
Crack down on self-sponsors and sponsoring investors
Up to now, it has been possible for UK organisations to sponsor their owners and investors on skilled worker visas providing they meet requirements for sponsorship. The Home Office wants to prevent what it regards as “self-sponsorship” with new rules to close the “loophole whereby applicants could effectively pay towards their own salary through investing in their sponsor’s business".
If a worker has directly invested capital in a business, the amount of that investment (averaged over the length of the visa) would now be deducted from gross salary to determine if it still meets the minimum salary requirement to be sponsored for a skilled worker visa. Home Office guidance expected in April should provide more details about how this will be enforced. In the meantime, urgent legal advice would be prudent in such cases.
Which costs can be recouped from sponsored workers
Sponsor guidance published at the start of the year restricted the costs that employers may pass onto sponsored migrants. Previously, the only cost an employer was forbidden to pass to or recoup from a sponsored worker was the immigration skills charge (up to £1,000). An employer now risks losing their sponsor licence – their ability to sponsor any current or future migrants – if they attempt to recoup the skilled worker sponsor licence fee or any “associated administrative costs”. An employer attempting to recoup a skilled worker’s Certificate of Sponsorship fee assigned on or after 31 December 2024 may also incur this severe penalty.
New changes this Spring further clamp down on employers passing on “business” and “immigration costs” to migrant workers, insisting that the minimum salary requirement for skilled workers must be calculated after any deductions from their salary for such costs. So, for example, the minimum salary required to sponsor a skilled worker could include a voluntary salary sacrifice arrangement, such as for nursery fees. However, if an employer loans the worker the cost of their visa or the Immigration Health Surcharge and deducts this from their salary, this repayment will no longer be considered part of the sponsored worker’s gross salary package for meeting the minimum salary requirements for sponsorship.
Read more: How HR can prepare for the employment law changes of 2025
These measures are ostensibly aimed at tackling recent scandals, especially those where migrant care workers were left owing thousands of pounds to unscrupulous sponsors for their immigration costs without the means to pay it back.
Sponsoring care workers
A major change for employers sponsoring care workers attempts to help many carers left in the lurch when the Home Office took away their sponsors’ licences in a recent crackdown.
Care-sector employers seeking to sponsor new care workers, home carers or senior care workers in England will first have to try to recruit from those identified by their local regional partnership (set up in response to exploitative employment of international care staff) as a skilled worker requiring assistance in obtaining new sponsorship.
We expect that a care-sector employer will have to first provide confirmation from the relevant regional or sub-regional partnership that they tried to recruit this way and confirm themselves that no suitable workers were available from this pool before sponsoring a new care worker. There are exceptions for employers sponsoring someone already working for them or sponsored in these roles.
Sponsoring creative workers
Sponsors are now explicitly reminded that if they are sponsoring creatives on Temporary Work – Creative Worker visas it can’t be to fill a permanent position, “including on a temporary basis". This will have implications for employers who intended to repeatedly renew the one-year visa.
Changes for visitors to the UK
There is a minor clarification that those arriving in the UK as a visitor to undertake a Permitted Paid Engagement will need to declare such activity on if asked at the border. (Though nationals who are allowed to use the e-gates are very unlikely to be asked.) Visitors from Trinidad and Tobago must now (from 12 March 2025) apply for a visitor visa before coming to the UK. Immigration minister Seema Malhotra said that this is due to a recent increase in asylum claims from there.
Other changes that employers of migrant workers should be aware of
As well as the above changes in the UK’s immigration rules, three more important developments will have consequences for some employers.
Financial thresholds for company sizes
From 6 April 2025, the turnover and balance thresholds that define small and medium-sized companies under the Companies Act 2006 are changing. Sponsors have a duty to report within 20 working days when their classification alters within the small sponsor regime. Sponsors who fall within the small companies regime pay smaller fees for skilled worker and senior or specialist worker sponsor licence applications and the immigration skills charge for workers on these routes.
Read more: Fines for businesses employing illegal migrants to triple
Before 6 April, the relevant qualifying financial thresholds for small companies were no more than £10.2 million turnover and no more than £5.1 million balance sheet total. This changes to annual turnover of not more than £15 million and not more than £7.5 million balance sheet total.
Immigration fees increasing on 9 April 2025
Most immigration, visa application and nationality fees are increasing on 9 April 2025. If the UK didn’t already have the most expensive immigration system in the world, it may well do after 9 April, when most UK visas and immigration (UKVI) fees rise by between 5% and 10%. Sponsors face a 120% increase in the cost of a Certificate of Sponsorship to sponsor most migrant workers – up from £239 to £525.
Right to work checks extend to zero-hours contract and gig economy workers
The home secretary has announced that businesses operating with zero-hours contracts in the gig economy will be required to carry out right to work checks as if there is an employment relationship, to avoid civil penalties of up to £60,000 per worker found to be working illegally. Expanding right to work checks to the gig economy should require primary legislation. If this is added as an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill which is currently in the House of Lords, this could become law later this Spring.
The consequences for getting it wrong can be severe. As well as hefty civil fines, if you are sponsoring overseas nationals, you could be downgraded on the register of sponsors, or lose your sponsor licence altogether, as well as the workers you are sponsoring, who may have to leave the country.
Vanessa Ganguin is managing partner at Vanessa Ganguin Immigration Law
