FAQs for Schools Seeking to Sponsor Workers Under the Skilled Worker Route

In regards to the cost of sponsoring under the Skilled Worker route, ordinarily, the following UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) fees will be incurred:
 

• Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS): £199
• Immigration Skills Charge: £364 per year of sponsorship
• Immigration Health Surcharge: £624 per year of sponsorship
• Visa application fee: £719 (for applications made in the UK) or £625 (for applications made outside the UK)
   

The fees in bold must be paid by the school or trust, as the sponsor, and cannot be passed to the sponsored worker. It is, however, possible to pass the cost of the Immigration Health Surcharge and the visa application fee to the prospective employee if this is the school/trust’s policy.

Please note that on 13 July 2023, the government announced changes to the fees for sponsoring a worker. Please find further information here.

As outlined above, the immigration Skills Charge is payable by the Trust per year of sponsorship. It is therefore important to consider the duration that you wish to sponsor an individual.

For permanent new employees applying for entry clearance from outside the UK, it may be preferable, in the first instance, to sponsor for three years rather than five, as this reduces the upfront cost payable for both the employee and the school/trust. While it is possible to sponsor for fewer than three years, it is worth noting that the cost of the visa application fee will be the same whether a one year or three year visa is applied for. The management time required to assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to thereafter extend the visa in a short space of time should also be considered.

For new employees applying for their Skilled Worker visa from inside the UK, it is also worth considering when they will be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK. A Skilled Worker visa holder may be eligible to settle after residing in the UK for a continuous period of five years. For example, if a prospective employee has been sponsored by another Trust for over four years and they are planning to apply for ILR in six months’ time, you may decide to only sponsor for one year, rather than three years to reduce the Immigration Skills Charge payable.

Before offering sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route, it is important to first ensure that the role is eligible for sponsorship.

This is unlikely to be an issue for teaching positions, as Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes 2314 (secondary education teaching professionals) or 2315 (primary and nursery education teaching professionals) will be applicable and are based on teachers’ pay scales.

However, for non-teaching roles such as some support staff or senior management positions, it will be important to identify the most appropriate SOC code for the position and ensure that the minimum salary requirement is met.

The number of CoS currently held by the Trust should also be considered.

For employees applying for their visa from inside the UK, it is important to ensure that there is a Skilled Worker CoS available on the Sponsorship Management System (SMS) to assign to them. If there are only a limited number of CoS available, consideration should also be given as to whether these are required for current employees needing to extend their leave that year. In the event that sufficient CoS are not available, it will be necessary to allow enough time to apply for an in-year CoS increase via the SMS. These requests can take a number of weeks to be granted by the UKVI. There is, however, a priority service available to expediate the decision to five working days, which costs £200 per request.

To avoid the need to request additional CoS throughout the year, we do recommend that sponsors consider their recruitment needs as part of their annual CoS allocation request. This request is free to make on an annual basis. The amount of CoS requested should be based on any current sponsored workers needing to extend their leave in the coming year and any roles that you anticipate may require sponsorship.

The process for obtaining a CoS for prospective employees applying from outside the UK is slightly different, as a Defined CoS will be required. These are applied for through the SMS on a case by case basis.

Finally, to avoid any delays in a sponsored worker starting their role and therefore any disruption to student learning, it is important to ensure that a CoS is assigned and the worker applies for their Skilled Worker visa application in good time.

For new employees applying from overseas, the current waiting time for a Skilled Worker visa is around three weeks from the date of the biometric appointment. For individuals applying from inside the UK, the processing time is approximately eight weeks from the date of the biometric appointment.

The availability of biometric appointments both inside and outside the UK differs depending on the location of the application centre and the available slots can only be viewed after the application has been submitted. In both cases, it is currently possible for the worker to submit their application under the priority service for an additional fee, which reduces the waiting time to five working days from the date of their appointment.

It is also worth noting that a prospective worker applying from inside the UK, who is currently sponsored by a different employer, cannot start working for the school/trust until they have been granted their Skilled Worker visa application.