The New Points Based Immigration System

• If you are an EU national wishing to live and work in the UK and you have not yet entered the UK and registered with the EU Settlement Scheme, then you will need a Skilled Worker visa, from January 2021
• If you are an employer of EU workers, you will need a Sponsor Licence before you will be allowed to employ any new EU workers, from January 2021
• Skills and salary thresholds have been lowered to allow a wider range of occupations to be recruited from outside the UK
• The general salary threshold will be lowered from £30,000 to £25,600 and the skill level threshold reduced to include RQF 3 level jobs.
• The monthly restricted allocation of Certificates of Sponsorship is being stopped and instead, Licensed Sponsors are now able to apply for a Defined Certificate of Sponsorship (DCOS) as the first step in recruiting an employee from outside the UK.
• The need to advertise positions to the local labour market, before recruiting from overseas has been removed.
• the Immigration Skills Charge which is a charged per year of visa on all skilled workers from outside the UK remains. This charge is either £364 per year of visa or £1000 per year of visa, depending on how large the Sponsor company is.
• All skilled workers from outside the UK will have to pay a Health Surcharge before being granted a visa. This charge has increased to £624 per year of visa (and £470 per year of visa if the applicant is under 18).
• The recently introduced Health & Care visa continues – this applies to many health and care occupations and has lower application fees, a faster processing time and there is a full exemption on the Health Surcharge for applicants and their families.

• Skill threshold lowered for international workers
  The minimum skill threshold for UK sponsored roles has been reduced from graduate level (RQF level 6) to A-level equivalent (RQF level 3). The Skilled Worker route is a rebranded version of Tier 2 General and starting 1st Jan 2021, will now be the UK’s main sponsored work visa route.
  
  
• Sponsor license needed for new EU employees
  EU citizens, who enter the UK after 1st January 2021, will be subjected to new immigration rules and will be expected to apply for visas like other non-EU citizen. If you are an employer who foresees the need to employ EU nationals after 1st January 2021, now is the time to apply for a sponsor license - click here to apply or contact us for more information.