On 16 January 2025, the government indicated that it intends to increase certain immigration-related fees. These increases will need to be approved by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. However, the UK already has some of the highest immigration fees in the world, so if these changes are implemented, this will lead to further increases in immigration fees, placing an even greater financial burden on both individuals and businesses. 

Some of the notable proposed increases include:

• The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) fee rising from £10 to £16
• The fee payable when assigning a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) under the Skilled Worker, T2 Minister of Religion, Global Business Mobility – Senior or Specialist Worker and International Sportsperson routes more than doubling from £239 to £525
• The fee for naturalisation as a British citizen rising from £1,500 to £1,605
• The fee for naturalisation as British-overseas-territories citizen rising from £1,000 to £1,070

The government anticipates these changes will reduce the reliance on taxpayer funding for the migration and borders systems, however they have already faced criticism from tourism groups and airlines with regards to the proposed increase to the ETA fee. With effect from 2 April 2025 all visitors travelling to the UK (other than who are transiting airside only) will need to apply for an ETA before coming to the UK. Further details are available here.

If the significant increase to the CoS assignment fee comes into effect, employers will need to account for the higher overall sponsorship fees when budgeting for recruitment and staff costs. It’s also important to note that employers must pay this fee and cannot recoup the CoS assignment fee from employees. A recent update to the sponsor guidance clarified that employers are prohibited from passing on certain costs to sponsored workers (including a new prohibition on passing on the CoS assignment fee for any CoS assigned by the sponsor under the Skilled Worker route on or after 31 December 2024) (see our previous update on this here).