OISC Registration Fee Increase May 2022
The Home Office has announced that from Tuesday 24 May, the fee for an organisation to register with the OISC is increasing.
The Home Office has announced that from Tuesday 24 May, the fee for an organisation to register with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) is increasing. This is for both initial registrations and continued registrations.
The fee level charged to OISC registered organisations is set by the Home Office and all monies received for those fees are remitted back to the Home Office.
This is the first-time fees have been revised since 2011 and the increase is in line with the uprate in inflation. There are no changes to the structure of the charges or who they intended to apply to.
The March Fee Regulations 2022 were laid in Parliament on 15 March 2022 and will amend the existing charging regulations to increase the level of the fees charged for registration and continued registration. The increased charges will not take effect until 24 May to allow sufficient notice to advisers of the increase in line with current renewal processes.
The changes to the fees can be seen below and you can read the information in full at the following links:
Fee payable for new registration
| Level | Current fee | New fee |
| Level 1 | £575 | £733 |
Fee payable for continued registration
| Level | Current fee | New fee |
| Level 1 | £575 | £733 |
Number of relevant advisers at Levels 2 and 3
Fee payable for new registration
| Advisers | Current fee | New fee |
| 1-4 advisers | £1,750 | £2,232 |
| 5-9 advisers | £1,960 | £2,500 |
| 10+ advisers | £2,370 | £3,023 |
Fee payable for continued registration
| Advisers | Current fee | New fee |
| 1-4 advisers | £1,290 | £1,646 |
| 5-9 advisers | £1,600 | £2,041 |
| 10+ advisers | £2,115 | £2,698 |
Frequently asked questions
Below are the answers to some frequently asked questions to help provide you with all the information you need on the changes.
1. Who pays fees to the Immigration Services Commissioner?
Immigration advisers who provide immigration advice and services, must if they are not otherwise regulated, be regulated by the OISC. A fee is payable upon application for registration or continued registration.
All advisers who operate on a for-profit basis must pay a fee upon application for registration or continued registration. The Commissioner waives the fees for advisers who operate on a not-for-profit basis and do not charge a fee, either directly or indirectly.
2. Why is there a registration fee?
The OISC operates a regulatory scheme for immigration advisers and registers them at one of three levels.
The fees charged to advisers cover the cost of handling and processing applications and other relevant operational activity. The cost base also includes a proportion of the costs relevant to funding accommodation, facilities, and general costs of the OISC.
They are not paying for the registration of advisers who are not required to pay a fee. They are also not paying for some other services, which are not relevant to regulation, including actions against unlawful advisers (who were outside the regulatory scheme), training (as it was not a mandatory part of the regulatory scheme), and dealing with general enquiries not directly relevant to regulation. These activities are funded from the OISC grant-in-aid funding which is provided by the Home Office.
3. Why are the fees changing now?
The Home Office is taking the opportunity now to increase the fees to move them closer towards cost recovery. The proposed changes are a step towards minimising the cost to the public purse of financing the OISC. Immigration advisers who pay fees have benefited from an artificially low fee for several years.
Under managing public money principles, fees and charges should be set at level to recover full costs. The fees charged are not currently at a level of full cost recovery and this position is no longer sustainable.
There have been no increases to fees since 2011, and although the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 does not specify a regular timescale for fee reviews, it is good practice that this happens regularly.
This increase is a step towards full cost recovering for processing and registering immigration advisers. Once the new fees have been introduced, the Home Office will review the impact of these changes and look at the fee structure. This may mean further changes to fees charged.
4. What will the increase look like?
This is a straightforward increase in line with the current fees structure, charging an increase aligned with the uprate in inflation since 2011 when the fees were last reviewed.
The increase has been calculated using the Bank of England calculator for the rate of the inflation since 2011, which brings the total increase to 28% for each fee charged.
Advisers are being given a nine-week notice period of the increase in fees, which will take effect on the 24 May. This will enable them to plan and adjust for the increased charges.
5. What will be the impact on advisers?
This amendment to the fee order is not making changes to the structure of the charging. The increases are based on the current model and are aligned with the uprate in inflation since the last time the fees were revised in 2011.
Advisers will be given nine weeks’ notice of the changes, following the approval of parliament on the increase so that they can prepare for the increase; the provisions will take effect on the 24 May.
6. How many advisers will this impact?
All organisations who operate on a for-profit basis and charge fees for the provision of immigration advice and services have to pay a fee to the OISC for registration and continued registration of their advisers. Advisers working for organisations who operate on a not-for-profit basis that do not charge a fee for the provision of immigration advice and services are not liable to pay fees to the OISC for their registration (and continued registration).
As of 31 December 2021, the OISC registered 1,108 for-profit fee-charging organisations and 332 not-for-profit non-fee-charging organisations. Only those organisations required to pay a registration fee to the OISC will be affected.
Organisations who do pay registration fees to the OISC are charged different rates dependent on the number of advisers that they have, and the level at which they’re authorised to offer advice. There are currently 1,727 advisers registered to work at the 1,108 fee-charging organisations (1,517 registered to work for non-fee charging organisations).
To reduce the impact on small businesses, organisations pay fees on a sliding scale depending on the number of advisers they have.
7. Is there a risk that increasing the fees will lead to more unregulated and unfit immigration advisers?
Advisers have benefitted from low fees for a number of years. Increasing the fees is taking a step closer towards cost recovery, to reduce the amount the taxpayer subsidises the regulation of immigration advisers.
The OISC will identify and act against unregulated and unfit immigration advisers.
The Home Office will review these changes to the fees charged to understand the impact on advice seekers and any link to any increase in unregulated firms.
8. How will this impact people who are seeking access to appropriate immigration advice?
These changes will not impact people’s ability to access appropriate advice. The fees charged by immigration advisers to provide immigration advice and services are not related to these charges.
Immigration advice seekers are able to access free advice where needed either through not-for-profit organisations, or if eligible through legal aid.
We will review the impact of the changes with regards to the number of organisations that operate and the availability of immigration advice.
Separate to this work, the OISC is also transforming its operating model to ensure that advice seekers are able to access good quality immigration advice and services.
9. The OISC is transforming its operating model, is this increase in charges to fund this work and the move to regional teams?
The fee level charged for registration and continued registration with the OISC is set by the Home Office, and all monies received for those fees are remitted back to the Home Office. The OISC is funded by Grant in Aid provided by the Home Office. The amount of Grant in Aid it receives is reviewed annually.