Out-Law News 1 min. read
Increased fees on immigration products and services to impact UK employers
22 Jan 2025, 12:31 pm
Employers should expect an increase in fees for various immigration products and services following a UK government announcement aimed at reducing the reliance on taxpayer funding for the immigration and borders system, an expert has said.
Shara Pledger, corporate immigration law expert at Pinsent Masons, was commenting following an announcement from the government setting out its intentions to raise fees on selected immigration products and services at the earliest opportunity.
These measures include significant price hikes on various immigration products and services, as well as changes to the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) rules for airside transit.
Changes include an increase to the cost of sponsoring a migrant worker, rising by £286 per person as the Certificate of Sponsorship charge increases from £239 to £525. “There is currently no confirmation of the date this increase will take effect, but it is worth considering for 2025 recruitment budgets,” said Pledger.
The cost of the newly expanded ETA scheme, launched to visitors from jurisdictions including the US, Australia, Singapore and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), will increase to £16 per application. This change has been announced just 10 days after the scheme was extended to included visitors other than from a select number of countries in the Middle East. This price increase will also impact European visitors to the UK as their requirement to apply for the ETA scheme commences in April 2025.
In other ETA news, rules changes will exempt passengers who transit the UK airside, and do not pass through UK border control, from needing to secure an ETA before travel. This exemption is stated to be temporary, but without a confirmed end date.
Further changes include an increase to the fee for naturalisation as a British citizen, rising to £1,605, as well as increase to various nationality services.
The changes will now be debated in parliament with the legislation subject to approval by both the House of Commons and House of Lords. If approved, the proposed fees will be introduced by the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations 2018 amending legislation.
A table with full details on the fees can be found on the UK government website.
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