Immigration Skills Charge

Further details about the Immigration Skills Charge have been published by the Home Office.

The ISC is expected to come into force on 6 April 2017. The latest guidance confirms that a charge of up to £1,000 per year will be payable by sponsors when they assign a Certificate of Sponsorship in either the Tier 2 (General) or Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) categories to migrant workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

The updated guidance confirms that exemptions from the ISC will apply where the sponsored worker is:

• a non-EEA national sponsored in Tier 2 before 6 April 2017 who is applying from inside the UK to extend their Tier 2 stay with either the same sponsor or a different sponsor
• a Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) Graduate trainee
• a worker being sponsored for a role in a specified PhD level occupation
• a Tier 4 student in the UK switching to the Tier 2 (General) category

The ISC will be reduced to £364 per year for small or charitable sponsors. Small sponsors are those with an annual turnover of £10.2m or less and with 50 employees or fewer.

See Tier 2 and 5 of the Points-Based System: guidance for sponsors: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sponsor-a-tier-2-or-5-worker-guidance-for-employers