How much does it cost to sponsor someone for a UK work visa?

Sponsoring a foreign worker isn’t cheap. Application fees and visa taxes typically run to thousands of pounds. Some of the fees are levied directly on the employer, while others fall on the worker applying for the visa. Many employers cover them all rather than leaving the worker to pay substantial sums out of their own pocket.

The immigration white paper contained several proposals affecting the cost of sponsorship of foreign workers. Most notably, the immigration skills charge is to increase by 32% and the standard period for settlement is to be doubled to ten years, although there will apparently be “the opportunity to reduce the qualifying period based on Points-Based contributions to the UK economy and society”. 

The overall costs involved with sponsoring a worker are already a significant factor for employers when considering increasing its workforce with skilled labour. This article gives a run-down of the various charges involved in a typical work visa application and takes a look at how the changes proposed in the white paper will impact the overall costs. All the figures quoted are available on the Home Office website.

Cost of a sponsor licence

When an organisation applies for a sponsor licence, the Home Office charges either:

• £574 if the organisation is a charity or defined as a small entity; or
• £1,579 for medium or large sponsors.

Official guidance on sponsor licence applications shows how size and charitable status is determined:

A company qualifies as small if it meets 2 of the below criteria in a financial year:

• turnover is not more than £10.2 million
• balance sheet total is not more than £5.1 million (aggregate of the amounts shown as assets in the company’s balance sheet)
• number of employees does not exceed 50 (taken as an average across the financial year)

In general, the definitions in Chapter 1 of the Companies Act 2006 are used to determine size. However, it’s worth noting that the Home Office guidance quoted above was last updated in November 2024 and Chapter 1 of the Companies Act 2006 was updated in April 2025 with new criteria for small companies. Chapter 1 now states a small company must meet at least two of the following criteria: an annual turnover no more than £15 million, a balance sheet total no more than £7.5 million, and no more than 50 employees on average.

Sponsor licences no longer need to be renewed every four years and so the initial cost to apply for a licence is a one-off payment.

Cost of sponsoring a skilled worker

The UK’s main work visa route is called skilled worker. I’ve set out the various costs of a skilled worker application below. There are some exceptions to some of the fees (for example, those who are switching, international students, etc.) but these are the main ones that will apply to most workers.

Certificate of sponsorship

A certificate of sponsorship is issued by approved sponsors to workers they wish to hire. The worker then uses the certificate to apply for their skilled worker visa.

The cost of issuing each certificate of sponsorship is £525.

Immigration skills charge

This is essentially a tax levied on businesses for employing foreign workers.

For a small or charitable sponsor, the immigration skills charge is currently £364 for the first year and £182 for each additional six months. So the cost of sponsoring someone for five years is £1,820.

For a medium or large sponsor, the charge is £1,000 for the first year and £500 for each additional six months. The cost of sponsoring someone for five years is £5,000.

Further to the white paper, the immigration skills charge is set to increase by 32%, so presumably to around £480.48 per year for small or charitable sponsors and £1,320 per year for medium or large sponsors. That would increase the cost of sponsoring a worker for five years to £2402.40 for small or charitable sponsors, and £6,600 for medium or large sponsors.

But the white paper also proposes doubling the standard qualifying period for settlement on point-based system routes from five years to ten years. Therefore the cost of the immigration skills charge to sponsor a skilled worker across a ten year period would be around £4,804.80 for small or charitable sponsors and £13,200 for medium or large sponsors.

Visa application fee

Then there is the headline visa application fee. Someone applying from outside the UK for a skilled worker visa is currently charged:

• visa up to three years in a non-immigration salary list occupation: £769
• visa up to three years in an immigration salary list occupation: £590
• visa for more than three years in a non-immigration salary list occupation: £1,519
• visa for more than three years in an immigration salary list occupation: £1,160

The exact fee can vary, for example if the person is applying from inside the UK. More details are here.

The white paper also announced that the immigration salary list is to be abolished. Instead, a new ‘temporary shortage list’ is to be introduced. More information on that here.

Immigration health surcharge

The immigration health surcharge is a tax on visas, on top of the application fee outlined above. It is £1,035 for each year of the visa.

So the immigration health surcharge adds £5,175 to the cost of a five-year visa, £3,105 to a three-year visa and £1,035 for a one-year visa.

On a ten-year route to settlement as proposed in the white paper, the immigration health surcharge would cost £10,350.

Like the application fee, it is nominally down to the worker to pay.

Optional add-ons for applicants

There is also a whole range of potential administration fees for things like faster visa processing, being able to keep your passport throughout the process, and having a courier drop it off to you etc.

Premium service for employers

The Home Office also operates a premium service for sponsors. For a fee of £25,000 per year for a medium/large business, or £8,000 for a small business, a range of extras is promised — you can read about these here.

Who pays?

The above is just for the worker alone. Family members accompanying them to the UK are also liable for the visa application fee and immigration health surcharge.

Before sponsorship goes ahead, I would always urge employers to check with the person whether they have family and to reach an agreement at the outset on who will bear what costs. The sponsor can, for example, agree that the worker will pay their own application fee and immigration health surcharge.

There are some costs, however, that the sponsor must not pass on to the sponsored worker or they risk revocation of their sponsor licence.

The cost of the immigration skills charge must not be passed onto the skilled worker or a senior or specialist worker.

From 31 December 2024 sponsors are prohibited from recouping or seeking to recoup the cost of the sponsor licence or associated administrative costs from skilled workers. From 9 April 2025, this prohibition was extended to include the sponsor licence fee and associated administrative costs on any other route.

The guidance states:

‘Associated administrative costs’ means any costs incurred by you to obtain, use or maintain your licence and includes, but is not limited to:

– fees for premium services or priority services for sponsor licence applications, changes of circumstances requests, or assigning, requesting or applying for a Certificate of Sponsorship

– fees for legal advice related to applying for, using or maintaining your sponsor licence, or assigning, requesting or applying for a Certificate of Sponsorship

– immigration advice or immigration services provided by a third party to a sponsored worker where the worker did not have a genuine choice in whether, or how, to obtain such advice or services, or where you provide such advice or services to the worker directly

Employers are also prohibited from recouping or seeking to recoup the cost of the certificate of sponsorship fee and any associated administrative costs from a skilled worker where the certificate was assigned on or after 31 December 2024, or from a worker on the Global Business Mobility, Minister of Religion, International Sportsperson, Scale-up or Seasonal Worker routes where the certificate was assigned on or after 9 April 2025.

Case study

Single worker

Ben runs a small mail order business with lots of clients in Japan. He needs to sponsor a Japanese speaker to oversee the growth of sales to that country. 

Ben eventually interviews Aki who is perfect for the role (and meets the requirements). They agree that he’ll sponsor Aki for five years. Ben has never hired from overseas before, so needs to get a sponsor licence first.

The current cost would be:

• Sponsor licence: £574
• Certificate of sponsorship: £525
• Immigration Skills Charge: £1,820
• Immigration Health Surcharge: £5,175
• Application fee: £1,519

Total = £9,613

Ben decides that a recruitment agent’s fee to find someone in the UK with the necessary skills would be around the same amount, so the cost is just about viable.

However, Ben may reconsider his decision after the immigration skills charge increases, as the total cost would rise to around £10,195.40 for five years on the skilled worker route.

If Aki wished to settle in the UK and the length of time required to settle on the skilled worker route is ten years, the overall cost for Ben to sponsor Aki for that length of time, taking into account the additional immigration skills charge and immigration health surcharge payments, would be £17,772.80.

Worker with partner

Aki calls Ben a couple of days later and explains that, in addition to paying for the costs of sponsoring her, she can only accept the offer if Ben also pays for her husband’s visa.

That would be an extra £6,694. This represents the visa application fee plus immigration health surcharge, which are the same for family members as they are for the sponsored worker. That brings the total to £16,307.

Once the immigration skills charge increases, the total cost over five years of sponsorship for Aki and her partner would be £16,889. If both Aki and her partner were to be sponsored over ten years the total cost would be £29,641.80.

Ben can’t afford that, so sponsorship of Aki can’t proceed.

This article was originally published in February 2020 and has been updated by Rachel Whickman so that it is correct as of the new date of publication shown.