2025 Immigration Shake-Up: Navigating the Key Changes and Fee Hikes

Ahead of the Immigration White Paper due to be published shortly, the Home Office published its Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules HC 733 on 12 March 2025.

Shortly after, an increase in immigration fees was announced on 19 March 2025.

Most of the changes, including the increase in fees, will take effect on 9 April 2025. Our Immigration team breaks down the key updates that business and individuals need to know.

Key Immigration Changes from 9 April 2025 

From 9 April 2025, the following will take effect:

• Changes to the process for sponsoring care workers and senior care workers under the Skilled Worker route.
• Increases in the minimum salary floor and changes to the deductions from an applicant’s salary under the Skilled Worker route.
• Amendments to the evidential requirements under the Global Talent route.
• Changes to list of nationalities that are required to apply for an ETA.

Changes to Sponsoring Care Workers and Senior Care Workers

To sponsor an individual currently based within the UK as a care worker or senior care worker, the below process must be followed:

1. Employers must first attempt to recruit from a specified existing pool of workersbased within the UK, as identified by relevant regional or sub-regional partnerships set up by UKVI, who no longer have sponsorship.
2. If no suitable worker is identified from this pool, only then can employers sponsor new hires currently based in the UK or applicants from overseas. Employers must provide evidence that no suitable workers from the pool were available.

Only employers who are looking to sponsor care workers or senior workers for role with working locations entirely in England will need to comply with this process.

There are exceptions to process, but this is limited to cases where individuals are already being sponsored as a care worker or senior care worker, or where individuals have already been legally working for the employer for a certain period of time.

The changes will not apply to individuals who submit a Skilled Worker visa application using a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) issued before 9 April 2025.

Increase in Minimum Salary Floor and Deductions from Salary

The minimum salary floor will be updated from £23,200 per year (or £11.90 per hour) to £25,000 per year (or £12.82 per hour). These changes ensure that salary requirements reflect the latest pay situation for UK workers and are limited to the minimum salary floor in anticipation of the upcoming Immigration White Paper.

Changes are also being made to the rules around deductions from an applicant’s salary. Under the changes, the following payments will not be counted towards an applicant’s salary:

• Deductions from salary
• Repayments of loans
• Investments

Any such payments will be averaged over the length of time the applicant is being sponsored for and will be deducted from the applicant’s salary for the purposes of a Skilled Worker application.

The only payments not deducted from the applicant’s salary will be those which are not related to business costs, immigration costs or investment. For example, salary sacrifice arrangements, which are an additional benefit offer that the applicant has a genuine choice in taking up.

As above, the changes will not apply to individuals who submit a Skilled Worker visa application using a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) issued before 9 April 2025.

Amendments to Evidential Requirements under the Global Talent Route

Applicants applying for endorsement from the Arts Council England and their sub-endorsing bodies, Pact, British Fashion Council, and RIBA, must now provide:

• A CV outlining their professional career to date.
• Letters of support from an organisation or individuals with whom the applicant has worked in a professional capacity and who have recognised expertise in the applicant’s field.

The changes have been introduced to ensure consistency in the evidential requirements across the sub-endorsers.

Changes to List of Nationalities Required to Apply for an ETA

Trinidad and Tobago have now been removed from the list of nationalities that are eligible apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA). Effective from 12 March 2025, nationals of Trinidad and Tobago will need to apply for and obtain a Visit visa prior to visiting the UK.

From 9 April 2025, British National (Overseas) are being removed from the list of nationalities that require an ETA prior to travel to the UK. This means that all BN(O) passport holders will be exempt from requiring an ETA if intending to travel to, or transit via, the UK.

Other Changes to the Immigration Rules

These include:

• Changes to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS).
• Changes to the Ukraine Permission Extension and Homes for Ukraine Schemes.
• Addition of a genuine study requirement for Short-Term Study (English Language) visas.
• Update to the annual quotas of the Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) partner countries for 2025.
• Changes relating to Child Student safeguarding under the Child Student route.
• Removal of children aged 18 and under, who are visiting the UK as part of a French school group, from the list of those who need an ETA.
• Amendment of Administrative Review validity rules.

Fee Increases from 9 April 2025

The latest immigration fee increases follow the previous changes in October 2023.

How much will the new fees be from?

Both immigration and nationality fees will be increased.

The fees for Work and Visit visas will rise by 7-10%, while Leave to Remain and Indefinite Leave to Remain applications will increase by 5-7%.

The most significant increase will be in fees for Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) for Workers, which is set to increase to £525 from the current fee of £239, marking a 120% increase.

The table below provides an idea of the new visa fees will be from early April:

Application type	Current Fee	New Fee	Fee Change (and %)
Visit visa – short up to 6 months	£115	£127	£12 (10%)
Skilled Worker (3 years or less) from outside the UK	£719	£769	£50 (7%)
Skilled Worker (3 years or less) from inside the UK	£827	£885	£58 (7%)
Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) for Skilled Worker	£239	£525	£286 (120%)
Indefinite Leave to Remain	£2,885	£3,029	£144 (5%)
Citizenship (naturalisation)	£1,500	£1,605	£250 (7%)
Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA)	£10	£16	£6 (60%)
Priority service – outside the UK (for routes leading to Settlement)	£500	£500	£0 (0%)
Priority service – outside the UK (for routes not leading to Settlement)	£500	£500	£0 (0%)
Super Priority service – inside the UK	£1,000	£1,000	£0 (0%)

For context, once the immigration fee increase takes effect, a migrant applying for a 3-year Skilled Worker entry clearance visa (single application) will be required to pay a total of £3,874, comprised of a visa application fee of £769 in addition to £3,105 for Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS). 

How much will it cost to sponsor a 3-year Skilled Worker visa?

For businesses, the significant increase in the Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) fee, will mean considerably higher costs associated with sponsoring migrant workers and their dependants.

The below table demonstrates the total Government costs associated with sponsoring a single Skilled Worker on a 3-year visa based on the new increases:

UK Government fee	Small companies	Medium or Large companies
Certificate of Sponsorship	£525	£525
Immigration Skills Charge	£1,092	£3,000
UKVI visa fee (inside UK); OR   UKVI visa fee (outside UK)	£769   £885	£769   £885
Immigration Health Surcharge	£3,105	£3,105
Total	£5,491 / £5,607	£7,399 / £7,515
Fee Change (and %)	£336 (7%) / £344 (7%)	£336 (5%) / £344 (5%)

With the costs associated with sponsoring migrant workers soon to soar, it is important for employers to consider putting in place a clawback agreement where some visa costs could be recouped in the event of an employee’s early departure.

Furthermore, employers considering loan repayment arrangements or similar will also need to take into consideration the new rules surrounding deductions to salary mentioned above.

Our Thoughts

The immigration changes that are due to take effect on 9 April 2025 will undoubtedly have a significant impact on businesses and individuals alike.

Employers will need to take care to ensure that any loan repayment arrangements or similar do not cause Skilled Worker applicants to fall below the minimum salary threshold. Businesses that sponsor care workers and senior care workers will also need to adhere to the new sponsorship process for these roles.

Given the significant increase in the CoS fee, which will be applicable to small, medium and large companies alike, employers who are considering sponsoring foreign nationals may wish to accelerate recruitment plans and assign CoS to employees before the changes come into effect. It is crucial to consider the impact that the upcoming changes will have on current sponsored employees and future employment plans.

Our Immigration team will continue to provide further updates as and when the Immigration White Paper is published. Stay tuned for further updates as we continue to monitor these developments throughout 2025.

If you require assistance or further information regarding upcoming changes, please do not hesitate to contact the Head of Immigration, Sundeep Rathod.

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