Mastering Immigration Law Subscription Update March 2025
Spring 2025 continues to bring substantial changes to UK immigration law that demand immediate attention from legal practitioners.
HJT’s Mastering Immigration Law brings these important immigration updates to our valued subscribers, ensuring you stay informed and prepared in this ever-changing regulatory environment. We share a glimpse of some pivotal updates below.
Updates to Biometric Residence Permit, e-Visas and Electronic Travel Authorisation
Transition from Physical BRPs to Digital eVisas (Biometric Immigration Documents)
The transition from physical Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) to eVisas has extended the deadline for BRPs beyond June 1, 2025. Those travelling to the UK on, or after, the 2nd of June will not have access if travelling with an expired BRP; so to enter the UK they will need to reconcile their expired BRP against their revocation via their UKVI accounts. As a result of these changes, the regulation encompasses a number of significant shifts in the system; for example, BRP expiration limit has no limit of six months, the core distinction between limited and indefinite leave has disappeared, notice period for a replacement has increased from three to eighteen months.
Furthermore, the measure obligating an individual to re-issue their BRP has been removed, instead, there are scheduled updates for biometric data; this creates a lower regulatory burden whilst maintaining high assurance through security checks.
New Civil Penalty Code of Practice under the eVisa System
The Civil Penalty Code of Practice (introduced March 2025) brings a more sophisticated view to compliance for biometric registration. Civil penalties commence at £250 for first breaches, and penalties will not be enforced automatically; there has to be substantial non-compliance considered first. The Home Office has adopted new and inventive sanctions, including temporary suspension of share code generation for an individual’s non-compliance; this creates a practical incentive for keeping up-to-date digital records. The Code is clear on the intention to accommodate vulnerable individuals, focusing on support, rather than punishment, and reflects the consultation with stakeholders and shifts away from the more punitive attempts of previous regimes.
Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) Rollout
From 2 April 2025, all EU, EEA and Swiss nationals are also required to have an Electronic Travel Authorisation with supply completing the full scope of the visa exempt traveller pre clearance airport system. The £16 digital authorisation (valid for two years) is the last piece of the UK’s pre-clearance, but British Nationals (Overseas) passport holders have a unique exemption given their constitutional status. Lawyers should advise their clients to be aware of the myriad of fraudulent ETA websites, and that the only site to apply is the one in GOV.UK, or use the UK ETA mobile app.
This development brings the UK into line with digital border arrangements worldwide but requires the lawyer to educate their clients about all of the new compliance obligations.
Updates on Fee Waiver Applications
The ICIBI fee waiver management, inspection report published on March 2025, has uncovered serious flaws in the Home Office ‘s management of applications from August to November 2024. Processing times are unpredictable and frequently prolonged beyond the commencement 28-day target. In-country applicants seeking to preserve their lawful status are particularly disadvantaged. Worryingly, one finding was that of poor-quality control, with the Home Office issuing refusal letters to manifestly destitute applicants, and defective letters including refusal letters sent to incorrect recipients. The Home Office have pledged to introduce formalise Service Level Agreements for child citizenship and overseas fee waiver applications from April 2025, but practitioners will still need to remain mindful of the ongoing delays impacting client’s cases.
The inspection revealed serious failings of data protection with breaches concerning the Equifax checks and also when considering fee waiver applicants’ personal data was stored inappropriately. There was an insufficiency of communication across coordinators and a variety of standards which resulted in correspondence with applicants which was unclear for both applicants and legal representatives. Therefore, I present these findings as systemic failings providing grounds for possible judicial review and reinforcing the need to have a thorough paper trail when representing clients in fee waiver applications. Practitioners ought to consider whether their clients’ data protection breaches ought to be referred to separately with complaints or legal action as appropriate.
The ICIBI suggested also lowering the burden on the applicant to establish destitution, proposing instead a presumption in favour of people who are already accessing public money, means-tested benefits or asylum support. This is a potential shift that would greatly reduce the evidential burden on vulnerable clients seeking the waiver.
The Home Office has fully accepted five of eight recommendations and partially accepted three recommendations, agreeing to better workforce planning and better-quality assurance.
Practitioners should keep a watch out for the implementation of these commitments, as they may inevitably provide new avenues for successful fee waiver applications while the inconsistency remains.
Updates to Homes for Ukraine Scheme
The 2025 amendments to the Homes for Ukraine Scheme have imposed an important restriction – step-parents who have children from other relationships cannot become sponsors for Ukrainian children at all under the new scheme. Only biological parents or legal guardians with an already granted permission under the Ukraine Scheme can now bring their own children to join them in the UK. This change is a tightening of eligibility criteria and practitioners need to make sure that clients are aware of this restriction, and that step-family relationships cannot provide child sponsorship under this route, meaning affected families could have to consider alternative immigration routes, if they need to bring a child to the UK.
The scheme has differentiated clearly between children coming with their parents and children coming to join UK-resident parents, with each requiring different consent. Children coming (rather than accompanying) to join a parent resident in the UK must now provide – in addition to their application – the written consent of the UK-resident parent (confirming support for the application, accommodations, and their own immigration status).
While the Home Office has the discretion to waiver this requirement where appropriate, the responsible agent should advise their clients to fully comply with the documentation requirements – as more delay or refusals in the applications will require further procedural actions on the part of clients, their UK-resident parents, and broad management of these processes by agents!
For children who are not travelling with or joining parents / legal guardians, the scheme now requires two consent forms which must be completed:
-notarised parental consent from Ukrainian authorities who are recognised; and
-completed consent form for sponsorship arrangements relating to the local authority in the UK. These requirements are parallel in agreement with increased safeguarding concerns, ensuring adequate levels of oversight for vulnerable minors (Ukrainian) children.
Updates to Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme on Legal Guardians of minors
With the launch of the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme in 2025, new, strict documentation requirements for legal guardians applying for children have been introduced. In this scheme, a legal guardian must provide, as part of an application for a child, either a relevant court order or a government-issued document showing their status as a guardian. This is an important change from earlier practices where more informal caring arrangements may have been acceptable. It is therefore important that practitioners are aware they will need to ensure that clients obtain the legal documentation before making any applications.
These enhanced requirements are a part of additional safeguarding measures that aim to protect and prevent children being misused by people who do not have proper authority. The documentation is also a gatekeeping task, preventing anyone from acting on behalf of a child without formally recognised legal authority. Practitioners should consider advising their clients that getting a relevant court order or government certificates could take more time and coercive processes when guardianship is based on an informal arrangement or when an applicant is seeking recognition from a non-UK jurisdiction.
As a result of these verification standards, verification occurs prior to UPE applications relating to children being submitted, meaning that both practitioners and legal guardians should undertake careful preparations and document review prior to submitting UPE applications. Legal guardians who cannot provide the required court orders or government documents will be unable to move forward with applications at all, which could mean children may find themselves without a valid immigration status.
Legal practitioners should always ensure that they conduct full interviews with clients to establish guardianship arrangements early, and they should advise clients of how to obtain appropriate documentation and do so as early as possible to avoid missing application deadlines, whilst ensuring compliance with both UK law and Ukrainian law relating to children, child welfare, and any recognition of guardianship.
Changes to CoS: 3-month validity period for new Sponsor a Worker system
Starting April 9th 2025, all Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) provided under the Sponsor a Worker program, will only be valid for three months from the date of assignment. All Defined and Undefined CoS for Skilled Worker and Temporary Worker routes will carry the same three-month validity period and all sponsored workers will have to apply for their visas within this shortened timeframe. The date change will mean a major reduction in the length of time Certificates of Sponsorship will be valid and will require that actual sponsorships show recruitment needs (i.e. current and accurate) based on actual, live job offers.
If a sponsor worker does not use their CoS within three months it becomes void, and cannot be reactivated or extended. When the CoS is void, employers are required to issue a new CoS for a new application, which may affect the sponsors yearly allocation and adds administration burden. This lack of flexibility puts significant pressure on sponsors and applicants to manage documentation and submission easily, with no opportunity of exceptional circumstances or slight delays that would previously have been countenanced.
Employers are now expressly forbidden from charging workers for costs associated with CoS, and must accurately confirm role durations, to make sure all sponsorships are capturing genuine and bonafide immediate recruitment needs.
Practitioners should guide sponsor clients to ensure the develop robust internal CoS management systems and educate the sponsored workers about the importance of timely visa applications to reduce the risk of unnecessarily expensive re-applications and risk of penalties against the annual CoS allocation.
Updates to Salary rise for Skilled Worker legacy routes
The rules of the Skilled Worker route have been amended in 2025, creating a minimum salary threshold of £25,000 for legacy routes operating under transitional measures; this is a substantial increase from previous categories. More importantly, a salary points calculation will now be undertaken on a net basis, with the calculation taken after deducting any costs borne by the business or the individual relating to immigration, including employer immigration fees, training costs, or contractual clawback. This will prevent artificial salary inflation through employer deductions and ensure that those who work receive the remuneration specified in their statement of gross pay. The employer must provide a clear explanation and valid supporting documentation, verifying the lower, net salary.
With applicants using Options E and J (which previously permitted a lower salary in the case of new entrants, or for workers in a shortage occupation), they now will be required to show that they are engaged in the process of obtaining (or continuing to maintain – particularly for the specialisation options) a recognised UK qualification in their profession. This is a significant departure from previous arrangements whereby these options offered alternative routes for entry to the UK without requiring ongoing professional development components. The requirement would generate further evidential responsibilities for both the applicants and sponsors, requiring the sponsorship of enrolment documentation and ongoing monitoring of an applicant’s status through the duration of their visa.
Scientists and academics previously licensed under Tier 2 schemes have their salary thresholds assessed on a consistent basis using a 37.5-hour working week so that roles are compared fairly across occupations and sectors.
The Skilled Occupations tables have been thoroughly revised with the new salary thresholds, revised working hours standards and new professional qualification requirements. In-total, this tightens up the Skilled Worker regime and encourages real skills development, meaning practitioners will be required to check whether new cases are compliant and advise their clients of the new documentation requirements to get a successful outcome.
Updates to Creative Workers visa
The clarifications in place in 2025 via the Creative Worker route in the Temporary Work visa category, have made it clear that sponsored workers must not undertake a permanent role, even if only for a short duration. A prohibition of employment is premised on more than just duration; proposed/future, roles must not be based on the characteristics of the position themselves—Creative Workers are unable to cover a permanent post in an organisation for any given length of time, so the route can be seen as fulfilling only genuine short term creative projects and not providing a backdoor to permanent employment in the UK. The requirement to ensure a role is structured as a distinct and separate short term creative opportunity is how the Certificate of Sponsorship obligations have to be met, with practitioners advising clients to clearly separate the difference between a temporary creative project where they can be sponsored to work, compared to undertaking the temporary coverage of a permanent position (to avoid breach of compliance and sanctioning of a sponsor licence).
Updates to Charity Workers visa
Charity workers in the UK are to receive reasonable accommodation in addition to expenses where the worker is sponsored under the Temporary Work – Charity Worker route. Now, along with travel and subsistence expenses, sponsors can also pay accommodation for the worker, as long as it is reasonable and not louche.
The policy aims to care for charity workers effectively during their temporary stay whilst also being compliant with the rules, which do not allow for payments that exceed expenses and accommodation. Sponsors will need to ensure their accommodation is in accordance with Home Office guidance and not constituted as remuneration for a salary or wages.
Updates to Seasonal Workers hourly rate rise
The new minimum hourly wage rates for Seasonal Worker visa holders starting on 1 April 2025 will be significantly higher, with new National Minimum Wage thresholds set at £12.21 (aged 21+), £10.00 (aged 18-20), and £7.55 (younger workers and apprentices), which all relate to ever-changing statutory requirements expected of all eligible categories of Seasonal Worker visa holders, including horticulture and poultry production.
As many sponsors will now need to devise new contracts and update their payroll systems, they will need to ensure their sponsor obligations are compliant with both immigration and employment law. Because these areas of regulation are coming disparate areas into convergence, an immigration breach can also trigger an employment standards breach, resulting in enforceable penalties from both agencies in both areas of misconduct.
As such, sponsors and employers must maintain good record-keeping and provide special diligence when preparing payroll documentation in relation to variable-hour or piece-rate pay arrangements common in seasonal industries.
At HJT Training, we are committed to ensuring immigration advisers maintain their position at the forefront of legal practice. Through our continuously updated Mastering Immigration Law (MIL) platform, we deliver precise and comprehensive analysis of emerging developments. Our subscribers benefit from authoritative insights and practical guidance, enabling them to provide outstanding representation to their clients.
We take pride in delivering prompt, precise, and perceptive analysis of the ever-shifting immigration landscape. By tapping into our resources, advisers can confidently tackle the intricacies of immigration law, providing expert guidance to those who depend on their knowledge.
For our subscribers’ convenience, we’ve compiled a thorough list of all updates in the Updates & Videos module. It’s our way of ensuring you’re always in the know, ready to face whatever challenges the world of UK immigration might bring.
A comprehensive list of all the updates is listed for our subscriber’s reference under the Updates & Videos module. Please log in to access.
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Written by Shareen Khan
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