Who Pays for Skilled Worker Sponsorship?

The job offer looks genuine. The employer is licensed, the salary works and the contract is ready. Then an invoice arrives for “sponsorship costs,” with a request to pay before the Certificate of Sponsorship is released.

That is the point to slow down.

Sponsoring someone is expensive, and employers do not have to cover every cost connected with a worker’s move to the UK. But some charges belong to the sponsor by law and guidance. Relabelling them as an admin fee, a deposit or a salary deduction does not move them to the worker’s side of the ledger.

The three costs the sponsor must carry

For a Skilled Worker, the clearest employer-side costs are:

• The sponsor licence fee and associated application costs. An employer needs the licence in order to sponsor workers. Current Home Office guidance says a Skilled Worker sponsor must not recoup or try to recoup that licence fee, including the cost of adding the route to an existing licence, or associated administrative costs.
• The Certificate of Sponsorship fee. The employer pays when it assigns the electronic certificate. For a Skilled Worker CoS assigned on or after 31 December 2024, the sponsor must not pass the fee or associated administrative costs to the worker.
• The Immigration Skills Charge. Where the charge applies, it must be paid by the sponsor. Asking the worker to pay it, or costs linked to paying it, can put the sponsor licence at risk.

The Home Office does not treat these as a flexible split between employer and employee. Its sponsor guidance says it will normally revoke a licence where prohibited fees or costs are recouped.

What those charges cost now

The current fee for a Worker Certificate of Sponsorship is £525. The Immigration Skills Charge is £480 for the first 12 months for a small or charitable sponsor and £1,320 for the first 12 months for a medium or large sponsor. Further six-month periods cost £240 or £660 respectively.

The licence fee depends on the organisation’s size and the routes it applies for. Our Fee Calculator brings the main employer and applicant costs together, while the Immigration Skills Charge guide explains the charge, exemptions and refunds in more detail.

The exact total may change when government fees are updated. The important distinction does not: a higher bill does not give the sponsor permission to shift an employer-only charge to the worker.

Costs the worker may be asked to pay

The visa application fee and Immigration Health Surcharge sit differently. They are part of the worker’s own immigration application, and many employers expect the worker to pay them. Other employers cover them as a recruitment benefit or provide a loan.

There can also be optional costs around the application: translations, English-language tests, tuberculosis testing where required, travel, relocation and professional immigration advice. Who pays those will depend on the offer and contract.

That is why a request to “pay for your visa” is not automatically improper. The useful question is what exact charge is being recovered? A visa application fee is not the same thing as the employer’s CoS fee. An agreed relocation loan is not the Immigration Skills Charge.

Ask for an itemised breakdown in writing before paying or agreeing to a deduction.

What about repayment clauses?

Some employers pay a worker’s applicant-side costs and ask for repayment if the worker leaves within a set period. A clause like that is not automatically the same as passing on a prohibited sponsor cost, but it does not get a free pass either.

Read what the clause actually covers. A broad phrase such as “all sponsorship and immigration costs” may hide items the employer is not allowed to recover. Check whether the amount reduces over time, what happens after redundancy or dismissal, and whether deductions could take pay below legal minimums.

If the sum is substantial, get independent employment or immigration advice before signing. The person who drafted the clause for the employer is not your adviser.

An admin fee is still a fee

The Home Office wording covers associated administrative costs as well as the headline licence and CoS fees. That matters because a sponsor cannot avoid the rule simply by charging £525 for “HR processing” instead of calling it the CoS fee.

Real administration does take time, and employers may pay advisers to manage sponsorship. But where the guidance bars recovery of the underlying sponsorship fee and its associated administration, a new label does not make recovery safe.

It is also worth remembering what a CoS is: an electronic record assigned through the sponsor management system, not a paper certificate an agent can buy and sell. Payment to a personal bank account for a promised CoS is a serious warning sign.

If an employer has asked you to pay

Start by preserving the facts rather than arguing on a phone call.

1. Ask for the amount, the reason for it and the payment terms in writing.
2. Request an itemised split between the visa fee, health surcharge, CoS, Immigration Skills Charge, licence costs, advice and any relocation support.
3. Check the employer on the current register of licensed sponsors.
4. Compare the breakdown with the official GOV.UK fee pages and sponsor guidance.
5. Do not send money to an individual or hand over cash because a job or CoS is said to be about to expire.
6. Take independent advice if prohibited costs appear in a contract, repayment agreement or payroll deduction.

A licensed employer can still get this wrong. Being on the register means the organisation holds a licence; it is not a guarantee that every request made by a manager, recruiter or intermediary complies with sponsor duties.

The rules reach beyond Skilled Worker sponsorship

The recovery ban is not limited entirely to Skilled Workers. From 9 April 2025, similar CoS fee restrictions apply to several other routes, including Global Business Mobility, Minister of Religion, International Sportsperson, Scale-up and Seasonal Worker sponsorship.

The dates and coverage are not identical across every route, which is another reason to check the current sponsor guidance rather than applying a Skilled Worker rule by analogy.

The bottom line

There is a real dividing line in sponsorship costs. A worker may have to fund their own visa application, health surcharge and personal application expenses. The employer must carry the sponsor licence costs, the applicable CoS fee and the Immigration Skills Charge.

When a contract blurs those categories into one repayment figure, ask for the detail. A genuine employer should be able to explain what it is paying, what it expects you to pay and why.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the current GOV.UK pages on Certificate of Sponsorship costs, the Immigration Skills Charge and the detailed sponsor guidance before agreeing to a payment or deduction.