The UK’s immigration landscape is rarely stagnant but there have been an unprecedented number of pivotal changes to business immigration law and policy in recent years. Whilst the UK’s points based system was overhauled completely as recently as 2021 (coinciding with ‘Brexit’), in the intervening years between 2021 and Labour’s election victory in July 2024, a plethora of additional changes/tweaks were implemented.
Notwithstanding this, one of Labour’s key election manifesto pledges (no doubt influenced to an extent by the increasingly prevalent populist movement) was to ‘reform the immigration and skills system to ensure Britain is developing home-grown skills with workforce plans to meet the needs of industries and the economy’.
This article examines some of the crucial immigration law changes implemented in 2024, and, in the wake of Labour’s election victory, as well as Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the geopolitical/economic impact thereof, considers what changes we are likely to encounter over the next 12 months.
Crucial immigration law changes in 2024
2024 was full of changes, both substantive and administrative, to the UK’s Business Immigration System. The year kicked off with some welcome amendments to the Business Visitor rules, including the expansion of permitted intra-company activities, clarification that visitors are permitted to ‘undertake activities relating to their employment overseas remotely from within the UK, providing this is not the primary purpose of their visit’ and the expansion of the Permitted Paid Engagement route.
These helpful changes were followed by less welcome hikes to the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) in February 2024 (effectively doubling the annual IHS fee for adults to £1035) and the tripling of civil penalties for employing illegal workers from a maximum of £20,000 to £60,000 per illegal worker.
April 2024 brought some changes aimed at reducing substantially legal migration numbers, the most ‘successful’ being the ban on sponsored care-workers and students bringing dependent family member to the UK. Increases to the Skilled Worker general minimum salary threshold and the minimum income requirement for partners of British Citizens are yet to yield substantial reductions in numbers of migrants in those respective categories, although these measures clearly pose immediate additional financial pressures for the sponsoring business/individuals involved.
April was also the month in which the Home Office announced, rather surprisingly and to the universal support of sponsor licence holders, that sponsor licences will no longer need to be renewed every four years.
EU Citizens
For EU Citizens with status under the EU Settlement Scheme (and their employers), May brought yet more welcome clarity. Effective from May 2024, people who are approaching the end of their pre-settled status will now be given an automatic 5-year extension (up from 2 years), without becoming overstayers. Pre-settled status will only lapse as a matter of law if someone is absent from the UK for 5 years at one time, and employers now only need to check a new recruit’s pre-settled status once (before employment starts).
Planning for future reform
Following the UK’s General Election in July, the Labour Government tasked the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) with reviewing and analysing the impact on net migration figures of some of the recent changes imposed by the previous Government. Sir Keir Starmer subsequently (in November 2024) announced that the Government would publish a White Paper ‘imminently’ which ‘sets out a plan to reduce immigration’, ‘reform the points-based system’, ‘find clear evidence of sectors that are over reliant on immigration’, ‘come with new expectations on training people here in our country’, and ‘crack down on any abuse of visa routes’. We are still awaiting the White Paper but do expect that its publication will instigate a flurry of amendments to the UK’s immigration system (some of which likely changes are discussed further below).
The migration to digital visas
EVisa rollout activities began in March 2024 and over 4 million UK visa holders have now created an account to access their eVisas. Whilst most BRPs and EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) biometric residence cards (BRCs) expired on 31 December 2024, the Home Office announced a ‘grace period’ for those who had not already accessed their eVisa by the end of 2024, effectively prolonging the hard-copy documents to 31 March 2025. The deadline has recently been extended further to 1 June 2025. Essentially, this allows people with a BRP or EUSS BRC that expired on or after 31 December 2024, and who continue to hold underlying immigration status, to continue to use their expired document for international travel up to and including 1 June 2025.
What changes to UK Immigration Law and processes can we expect over the next 12 months?
Whilst we are awaiting publication of the Government’s White Paper, we know that this will broadly contain a plan for reducing net migration to the UK (which will continue to be a priority for the foreseeable future) , with one means of achieving this aim likely to be requiring certain sectors (which rely heavily on immigrants) to train the domestic workforce. The return of the Resident Labour Market Test (potentially under a different guise and limited in application) has also been mooted (although this is by no means an absolute certainty and would likely be met with dismay from sponsor licence holders). The MAC’s review and analysis of the impact of recent immigration changes, which is running concurrently with another wide-ranging review of why UK employers are currently using work immigration routes to address skills gaps for IT, telecoms and engineering roles, are likely to help shape future policy and changes to immigration legislation.
Fee increases
In January 2025 the Home Office announced its proposal to increase fees for a range of immigration and nationality products and services, with effect from Spring 2025 . This includes the ETA fee (rising to £16), Certificates of Sponsorship (rising to £525 per certificate), and application fee for Naturalisation as a British Citizen (rising to £1605).
Implementation of the UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme
The ETA, which applies to those passengers visiting or transiting the UK, who do not currently need a visa for short stays and do not have a valid UK immigration status prior to travelling, will continue to be rolled out in 2025 and will be a requirement for Europeans travelling to the UK from 2 April 2025.
For most individuals this will be a straightforward, administrative exercise. Anybody with a complicated immigration history or criminal convictions should seek advice on their eligibility for the ETA, well in advance of travel.
Compliance, compliance, compliance!
The Government intends to place even more emphasis and importance on Sponsor compliance and we have already recently seen some additional restrictions/obligations placed on prospective/ existing Sponsor Licence holders. With effect from 31 December 2024, The Home Office now considers the behaviour of any person with significant control of a sponsoring business upon granting a licence, during any pre/post licence audits and in respect of potential suspension/revocation action. Sponsored employers are also now prohibited from passing specific sponsorship costs to Skilled Workers and are required to appoint a primary Level 1 user who is both an employee, director or partner of the sponsoring business and a settled worker.
In addition, the Home Office continues to place great emphasis on employers’ obligations under the prevention of illegal working regime (and expects Sponsor Licence holders, including its Authorising Officer and Level 1 users, to be wholly familiar and 100% compliant with the latest rules and accompanying guidance). Since September 2024, the Home Office has also been encouraging businesses to carry our right to work checks on self-employed contractors and agency workers, as well as their directly employed staff.
“Our rules will be enforced. Any employers who refuse to play ball… will be banned from hiring overseas labour”
Keir Starmer has left sponsors under no illusions about how seriously Sponsor compliance will be taken under his Government. Over the next 12 months a range of measures will be implemented to increase regulation of and obligations imposed on licensed sponsors, whilst punishing more severely those who do not comply fully with their obligations. Such measures include affiliating sponsor licence eligibility with a business’s employment law compliance, increasing the maximum duration of sponsor licence action plans to 12 months, introducing a new, extended sponsorship cooling off period (where there has been revocation due to repeated non-compliance or serious immigration breaches) and the creation of a Fair Work Agency, which powers will include the ability to refuse or revoke the sponsor licence of any businesses which are found guilty of serious employment law breaches
It is absolutely imperative, therefore, that sponsor licence holders (including the Key Personnel responsible for maintaining the business’ sponsor licence) ensure they are and remain fully cognisant of and compliant with the latest sponsor licence guidance and substantive Immigration Law changes, as well as their obligations under UK Employment Law. A failure to take compliance seriously could have devastating implications for Sponsor licence holders and the individuals that they sponsor.
Our Immigration Team offers bespoke Immigration Refresher Training and Sponsor Licence MOTs.
For further information about these fixed fee packages please contact Gemma Jones at Gemma.Jones@salaw.com.
