United Kingdom : immigration fees increase

The British government has made several announcements in the last months about an impending increase in immigration fees. An update on the purpose of this increase and its consequences on mobility to the United Kingdom, already impacted by Brexit in recent years.

??What for

The primary aim is to finance part of the public funds, raising 1 billion￡ via government fees related to immigration. In a complicated social climate, Rishi Sunak’s government intends to finance wage increases for suffering professions such as teachers, doctors or police officers, or to finance social security by increasing the costs of immigrating to the United Kingdom.

??Who

All types of immigration (workers, students, visitors,….) could be impacted. The UK’s government immigration costs are already relatively high compared to other countries, and these significant increases will have an impact on the strategic choices of companies to recruit foreign employees, and the life choices of people wishing to settle in the United Kingdom.

An average increase of 15% to 20% is expected – the most notable announcement concerns the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), a mandatory tax linked to social security and allowing access to healthcare, which is expected to increase from ￡624 to ￡1035 per adult.

??When

If the subject is treated repeatedly in the UK media, no date has been clearly given –? implementations may be for the last quarter of 2023.

Concrete measures have already been announced, such as the increase in penalties for illegal employment of an employee: if the supervisory authorities find a foreign employee employed illegally and his employer unable to prove his right to work the fine will increase from ￡15,000 to ￡45,000.

In case of repetition of non-compliance by the same employer, the penalty will increase from ￡20,000 to ￡60,000 per person found in an illegal situation.

The impact on the recruitment and international mobility policies of British companies will be mandatory, and interesting since an overhaul of the assumption of costs should take place, among other considerations on the budget allocated to the recruitment of international talent.

In the meantime, the best advice is certainly to launch your mobility to the UK as soon as possible so as not to take these increases head-on.

We are at your disposal to manage your immigration files to the UK : [email protected] and will obviously keep you informed!