UK Sponsorship Visa Cost For Employers

Information on the cost of applying for a UK Sponsorship Visa – Best Immigration Lawyers London

Understanding the cost of applying for a UK Sponsorship visa is vital because as a potential employer, the likely cost that may be incurred is one of the major considerations for business owners or employers who wish to embark on employing non-EEA worker as well as applying for a British sponsorship visa licence. Also, you can only be considered eligible to hire a non-EEA migrant worker if and only if you have put in an application for and has been granted a sponsorship licence.

What fees are required for a UK sponsorship visa licence?

British based employers looking to hire foreign nationals outside the EEA or even Switzerland will have to go for those in possession of a valid UK sponsorship visa. The process of applying for a licence to employ workers with a United Kingdom sponsorship visa requires some fees at both the recruitment and the initial stage and the ongoing cost of licence management

These include:

• Initial applications for a sponsor licence – Here the size of your organization dictates the fees you will pay for a UK sponsorship visa licence. Certain circumstances may require only the payment of just little sponsor licence fee.

As at 2019, the fee for both large and medium sponsors is £ 1, 476 while £536 is the fee for charitable and small sponsors. Organizations with 50 or fewer workers and a yearly turnover of £10.2 million come under the classification of small businesses.

There is also the option of signing up for what is called the premium sponsorship scheme. Here the fees ranges from £2,000 to £25,000 but this is largely dependent on the size of your business and also the duration you wish to sign up for.

Under this particular scheme, the level of support you will receive will be an enhanced one with your personal dedicated account managers.

• Applying for the renewal of an existing sponsor licence – Here your British sponsorship visa licence expires after four years of validity but there is an exception – it has to be surrendered or revoked before expiration. For instance when a UK sponsor fails to fulfill their duties.

If you have plans to continue hiring Tier 2 and Tier 5 migrant workers, your licence must be renewed. In addition, when processing the application for the renewal of your British sponsorship visa licence, the cost will be like when it is an initial application.

• Applying to lengthen the scope of an already existing licence – Additional fees may be incurred when you apply for the extension of your British sponsorship visa licence. A good example is when you wish to add Tier 2 to and existing Tier 5 or the other way round. However, adding Tier 2 to an already existing Tier 5 licence will attract a fee of £940. Important to note that small and charitable sponsors will not pay any fee, same can be said for large and medium sponsors adding a Tier 5 to an already existing Tier 2

• Assigning each Certificate of Sponsorship – Any foreign worker under your employment must be assigned a CoS or Certificate of Sponsorship. This is not a physical document but an electronic record containing a unique number that employees can use in visa application.

Under the UK sponsorship visa licence any certificate of sponsorship you assign attracts £199 for Tier 2 worker and £ 21 for Tier 5 worker. Though nationals of Turkey, Macedonia and Croatia get it for free.

Other costs that are associated with a UK sponsorship visa licence

The Immigration Skills Charge Regulations of 2017 stipulates that employers may pay Immigration Skills Charge anytime they sponsor a non-EEA employee, this fee is payable when CoS is assigned.

Normally, the fee applies to a Tier 2 employee who is assigned a CoS on or after April 6 2017 and it comes under the General or Intra-Company Transfer routes.

Charitable or small organizations attract the ‘small’ fee of £364 for any affirmed period of employment up to one year, in addition to £182 for each succeeding 6-month period as stated on the certificate.

In every other case, a compulsory ‘large’ fee of £1,000 is charged for any affirmed period of employment up to one year. In addition to £500 for each succeeding 6-month period as stated on the certificate.

In the absence of an exception, these fees must be paid each time a CoS is assigned to a non-EEA citizen and that employee is either:

• Applying from outside Britain for entry clearance to get employment in Britain for six months or more, or
• Applying from within Britain for leave to remain, the duration can be any length including less than six months.

Your reporting duties entails that you inform the Home Office of any change in the size of your business within 10 working days as this affects the fees payable for each CoS and skills charge.

Failing in your reporting duties may make the Home Office to bring actions against you which may include suspending, downgrading or even revoking your UK sponsorship visa licence.

What does it cost to maintain your licence?

When you are successful with your UK sponsorship visa licence application, the licence that you will be granted will have an “A” licensing rating. This permits an employer to assign a CoS to every foreign worker you hire.

However, failure to comply with your sponsorship duties (like failure to execute right to work checks on non-EEA employees) may result to the downgrading of your rating or your licence revoked or suspended.

A downgraded licence rating requires a fee of £1,476 for a sponsor action plan to aid in reinstating your “A” licence rating.

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