Immigration Skills Charge (ISC)

The UK immigration skills charge or ISC is a specific fee that UK employers may need to pay when employing a foreign worker who requires sponsorship to work in the UK. Usually, this fee is payable when a foreign employee is applying from outside the UK to work for you for at least six months or if they are applying from inside the UK where there is no minimum time requirement.

Page Contents

• • What Is Immigration Skills Charge in the UK?
  • Do I Need to Pay the Immigration Skills Charge?
  • Immigration Skills Charge Exemption
  • How Much Is the Immigration Skills Charge?
  • How to Pay the Immigration Skills Charge?
  • Immigration Skills Charge Refunds and Top-Up Requests
  • What If the Employee You’re Sponsoring Changes Jobs?
  • What Happens If You Don’t Pay the Immigration Skills Charge?
  • How Total Law Can Help
  • FAQ

If you are planning to hire a worker with sponsorship requirements you likely will need to pay the immigration skills charge when you are assigning their certificate of sponsorship. Failure to do so will lead to their visa being declined which means that they cannot come and work for you. Additionally, this is considered one of your duties as a sponsor and if you repeatedly fail to comply with the requirements you may face consequences in your eligibility to act as an authorised sponsor in the UK.

The Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) must be paid in full when you are assigning the worker’s certificate of sponsorship. If their employment period falls between six and twelve months, you will likely need to pay for the 12-month period, but you may apply for a partial refund that reflects the reduced time the employee will be working for you.

The immigration skills charge that you will need to pay depends on the size of your company. Generally, the Home Office distinguishes between small or charitable sponsors and medium or large sponsors, the latter will need to pay a higher immigration skills charge.

At a glance, small or charitable sponsors pay £364 for the first 12 months of sponsorship and £182 for each additional six-month period thereafter.

Medium or large sponsors will need to pay £1,000 for the first 12 months and £500 for each additional six-month period thereafter.

To qualify as a small sponsor, your company must meet at least two of the following conditions:

• The company’s yearly turnover amounts to no more than £10.2 million
• The company has no more than 50 employees
• The company’s total assets are worth no more than £5.1 million

To qualify as a charitable sponsor, your company must be a registered charity in England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland. You may also qualify if you can provide adequate proof of the company’s charitable status for tax purposes (this should be confirmed by HMRC). If your company otherwise qualifies as an excepted or exempt charity or an ecclesiastical corporation that has a charitable purpose, you may also be considered a charitable sponsor.

The immigration skills charge will be payable to the Home Office when you are assigning a certificate of sponsorship to a prospective employee. You will need to pay it through the sponsorship management system or SMS.

You must note that this fee is always payable by you, the licensed sponsor and cannot be passed on to your employee, deducted from their wages, or in any other way be made the liability of the foreign worker you are hiring.

Payments via the sponsorship management system (SMS) will usually need to be managed by the appropriate employee in your company’s human resources team who is responsible for managing sponsorships, as per the regulations. It is important that you have this system ready and in place before you begin to offer sponsorship to potential international workers.

You will need to make sure that you continue to adhere to all requirements to maintain your status as a viable sponsor in the UK for as long as you plan to hire international workers under sponsorship-required pathways. Making sure that all immigration skills charges are covered accurately and promptly will be an important part of fulfilling your duties as a sponsor.

When you sponsor an employee, the immigration skills charge will be payable in correlation to the duration of their employment covered by their visa. Should their employment continue beyond the initial period, the employer will need to apply for a visa extension or a new visa which means that you will need to make sure that their certificate of sponsorship reflects that. You will need to pay the additional immigration skills charge to cover the additional period.

Should your worker leave or change jobs to work for a different employer, you will no longer be liable for their sponsorship and must notify UKVI promptly. In cases where you have already paid the immigration skills charge for a period where the worker will no longer be working for you, you may apply for a partial refund.

You may also request a refund if you have paid the immigration skills charge for a worker whose visa application is either refused or withdrawn, meaning that they won’t be able to work for you, or if the employee you have sponsored successfully obtains their visa but decides to not work for you after all.

Should a worker be granted a visa duration that is shorter than the time covered by the certificate of sponsorship and the immigration skills charge that you have already paid, you will also be able to request a partial refund.

Finally, the size of your company determines the immigration skills charge that you may need to pay. If you paid the fee for a medium or large sponsor but changed to qualify as a small or charitable sponsor, you may qualify for a partial refund. You should note that you will need to have already notified UKVI in advance.

Refunds usually take 90 days to process. However, if the refund request came due to the employee’s visa being rejected, there may be a delay if they apply for their visa decision to be reviewed. If an administrative review has been requested, you will get refunded within 90 days of the review outcome, provided that the visa rejection was not overturned.

If you have sponsored an employee and paid the immigration skills charge but they then change jobs, there will be certain circumstances to consider.

If the employee changes jobs but remains an employee in your company, you will need to assign them a new certificate of sponsorship with which they will likely need to apply for a new visa. This is only necessary if their new position has a different occupation code. Should this visa cover the same timeframe that you have already covered with the immigration skills charge, you will not need to pay this again. However, most of the time, a visa change will mean that your worker’s timeframe for employment is extended. If this is the case, you will need to pay the immigration skills charge to cover this additional period.

If your employee changes jobs to work for another company, you will not be responsible for their next sponsorship licence or immigration skills charge.

If you already paid to cover them for an additional period, this cannot be transferred, and their new employer will be liable to cover the immigration skills charge from there on out. You apply to receive a partial refund from the Home Office.

Sometimes it can be difficult to be certain about the steps you need to take when an employee’s situation changes. If you are unsure about the need to issue a new certificate of sponsorship and if you have to pay an additional immigration skills charge, our team of immigration experts at Total Law will be happy to help. You can call us today at +44 (0) 333 305 9375 for immediate help with navigating the sponsorship and immigration fee charge requirements.

If you do not pay the immigration skills charge or if you pay the wrong amount, you will be contacted by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). You will need to pay the correct amount within 10 working days or your employee’s visa application will be refused. You should also note that failure to comply with the fee regulations may impact your permissions as an authorised sponsor.