On 09 April 2025, UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) published updated guidance which details updates on the recouping of immigration fees and salary assessments for sponsored workers. We address each of these updates and the implications in our article below.

Prohibition on recouping sponsorship fees

UKVI guidance has been updated to reflect a commitment made in the Written Ministerial Statement of 28 November 2024 to prohibit sponsors from passing on sponsorship fees and associated administrative costs to their sponsored workers.

Sponsorship fees that sponsors must pay

Sponsors are now expressly responsible for paying the following fees:

• Sponsor licence application fee
• Application fee to add additional routes to an existing sponsor licence
• Certificate of Sponsorship fee
• Immigration Skills Charge fee, where applicable
• Additional premium services or priority services fees, associated with the sponsor licence, where applicable

Sponsor licence revocation risk

UKVI will normally revoke a sponsor licence where the sponsor recoups, or attempts to recoup, by any means, the following fees:

1. For Skilled Worker route:
• The sponsor licence fee (including adding that route to an existing licence)
• Associated administrative costs recouped on or after 31 December 2024
• Certificate of Sponsorship fee where assigned on or after 31 December 2024
• Immigration Skills Charge
2. For other routes (from 9 April 2025):
• The sponsor licence fee for any other route
• Associated administrative costs
• Certificate of Sponsorship fee for workers on Global Business Mobility (GBM) routes, Minister of Religion, International Sportsperson, Scale-up, or Seasonal Worker routes
• Immigration Skills Charge for GBM Senior/Specialist Worker

Definition of "associated administrative costs"

The guidance clarifies that 'associated administrative costs' includes:

• Sponsor licence application premium or priority service fees, changes of circumstances requests, or assigning, requesting or applying for a Certificate of Sponsorship
• Legal advice fees related to applying for, using or maintaining the sponsor licence, or assigning, requesting or applying for a Certificate of Sponsorship.
• Immigration advice or services provided by third parties to a sponsored worker where the worker did not have a genuine choice in whether, or how, to obtain such advice or services, or where sponsors provide such advice or services to the worker directly.

New salary assessment rules for skilled worker route

A critical change affects how UKVI will assess whether a worker's salary meets the applicable thresholds under the Skilled Worker route.

Deductions from salary assessment

When determining if the salary for a prospective sponsored worker meets the minimum threshold, UKVI will now subtract:

• Deductions related to business costs, immigration costs or investments
• Loan repayments related to the above costs
• Investments in the sponsoring organization or related entities

Calculation method

Where applicable, UKVI will average any such deductions over the sponsorship period stated on the Certificate of Sponsorship. However, deductions for genuine optional benefits (such as salary sacrifice arrangements) will not be subtracted, provided they don't cause pay to fall below National Minimum Wage

Implications for sponsoring employers

Claw back agreements: Employers should review their existing client contracts and policies which include provisions for recouping sponsorship costs and ensure that only permitted costs are being recouped from sponsored employees.

Compliance risks: Should any prohibited costs be recouped, or attempts be made to recoup prohibited costs, from a sponsored worker, this would constitute grounds for revocation of the sponsor licence. The revocation of a sponsor licence can have severe and detrimental impacts on business operations.

Skilled Worker salary assessments: when assessing eligibility under the Skilled Worker route, sponsoring employees should:

• Consider whether any costs are being recouped from employees
• Review claw-back arrangements on a case-by-case basis
• Apply any applicable deductions to the salary figure before assessing against relevant thresholds