Changing jobs in the UK while being on a sponsored Skilled Worker Visa (formerly known as Tier 2 General Visa) involves a lot of moving parts. You need to obtain a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) from the new employer, make a fresh application for Skilled Worker Visa, pay all the fees again, and obtain your new BRP linked to the new visa. Some employers facilitate the whole process themselves and also bear all the costs involved – however in many cases the employees have to pay for it themselves.
As you would already know from your first Skilled Worker Visa process, there are two parts to the Skilled Worker Visa costs: Application Fee (£719-£1,500 depending on the priority route chosen) plus an IHS fee (Immigration Health Surcharge) of £624 per year (increased to £1,035 per year starting Feb 2024). You pay the IHS in advance for 3 years or 5 years depending on the visa duration sought during application.
When changing jobs (and sponsors), you end up paying the above fees again. This sounds fair for the Application Fee which is a one-time fee for each visa application. However, not so much for the IHS fee – as it essentially means you are double-paying the health surcharge for the overlapping period of your old and the new Skilled Worker visa. For example:
Raj joined Company A on a 3-year Skilled Worker Visa starting June 2022. He paid £719 visa Application Fee and £624×3 = £1,872 IHS fee in June 2022, covering the period June 2022 to June 2025. He then got a job offer with sponsorship from Company B in June 2023. So he made a fresh Skilled Worker Visa application in June 2023, and paid the same amounts again, this time the IHS fee covering the period June 2023 to June 2026. This means he paid the IHS for the “overlapping” period of June 2023 (issue date of new visa) to June 2025 (expiry date of old visa) TWICE – once each with the two visa applications!
Contrary to common misconception, Raj can claim a refund for this IHS paid twice for the overlapping period. Here’s the simple process:
Send an email to the following addresses, mentioning your old (Company A) Skilled Worker Visa’s Unique Application Number, Applicant Name, and the IHS Payment Reference Number (which you would have received at the time of your previous visa application). Send this to:
- UKVIcontactcentre@homeoffice.gov.uk
- and cc: TransactionalServicesCorrespondence@homeoffice.gov.uk
If all checks out, you should automatically receive a refund for the overlapping period of your old and the new Skilled Worker Visa!
Few important things to remember though:
- The refund is issued to the same method of payment that was used for paying the initial IHS (i.e., at the time of the old Skilled Worker Visa application)
- Refund is issued in periods of 6 months. If the overlap between the expiry date of your old visa and the issue date of your new visa is say 14 months, you will get a refund for only 12 months
- The whole process from you sending the email to getting the refund can take several months – sometimes even a year! So be patient.
Good luck!