2025 UK Immigration Lawyers’ Guide on the Cost of Sponsoring Overseas Workers

Posted onMarch 11, 2025

If your business intends to apply for a sponsor licence from the Home Office, you should fully cost out the application and future sponsorship costs to ensure it offers your company value for money.

Our UK Immigration Lawyers can help your business apply for a licence and manage the licence to minimise your ongoing costs.

UK Online and London Immigration Lawyers

For advice on sponsor licence applications and management call OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.

Does your company need a sponsor licence?

Your company needs a sponsor licence to sponsor overseas workers on Work Visas if the business can't recruit sufficient UK or settled workers (EU nationals with settled status or people with Indefinite Leave to Remain) or people in the UK on visas who are allowed to work in the UK without requiring a sponsoring employer.

Depending on the nature and size of your business, you may need to recruit one highly specialised worker or hundreds of skilled employees. Thousands of companies across the UK have had to balance global recruitment needs against sponsorship costs. Those who have successfully applied for a licence are contained in the government's Register of licensed sponsors: workers.

Whether you are a start-up company or a long-established business, our UK Immigration Lawyers can guide you through licence costings and the application process.

Upfront, ongoing and hidden sponsor licence costs

As specialist London Immigration Lawyers, we are open about licence costs so your business can make an informed decision on whether to apply for a licence.

There are three cost elements:

Upfront- the licence application fee
Ongoing- the fees you incur each time you sponsor an overseas worker
Maintenance costs include preparing your business to make it ready to make a successful Home Office application and the ongoing administrative costs associated with managing and maintaining the licence

Upfront sponsor licence application fees

The first cost in the sponsor licence application process is the Home Office application fee. The fee is based on company size rather than the number of overseas workers your business is planning to recruit.

Sponsor licence application fees are:

£536 for small businesses and charities
£1,476 for large businesses

A sponsor licence applicant is classed as ‘small’ if the business fits into two of the following criteria:

Fewer than 50 employees
Annual turnover of less than 10.2m
Total assets of less than 5.1m

If your company wants a quick decision on its application, it can pay the Home Office an extra fee (currently £500) to get priority processing. Paying for priority service does not affect the decision outcome ( yes or no) but improves the speed (days rather than months).

Businesses no longer have to apply to renew their licence and pay an extra fee every four years. However, if the Home Office concludes you are not complying with their reporting and recording duties, they could downgrade your licence and require you to pay for an action plan to reinstate your licence to an A rating.

Ongoing sponsor licence costs

The ongoing sponsor licence costs relate to the money spent each time you recruit and sponsor an overseas worker. Some of those costs must be paid by the company. Others can be paid by the recruit, but the business may choose to pay those fees for the overseas recruit in sectors where it is a struggle to attract talent.

The costs the company must pay are:

Certificate of sponsorship fee payable for each sponsored employee. The fee is currently set at £239 per employee. The fee is due to rise to £525 per certificate. This is a one-off fee but will need to be paid for a second time if the employee applies to extend their Skilled Worker Visa so they can continue to work for the business
Immigration skills charge payable for each sponsored worker. The fee is based on whether your business is classed as small or large and the length of the recruit’s visa. Although the fee is calculated on an annual rate, the full immigration skills charge must be paid upfront when your business allocates the certificate of sponsorship. The immigration skills charge is £364 per year for small employers and £1,000 per year for large companies. Accordingly, the immigration skills charge for a three-year Skilled Worker Visa would be either £1,092 or £3,000, depending on whether your business is classed as small or large. A company can claim a partial refund if a sponsored employee leaves their employment before the end of the Skilled Worker Visa

In addition to these essential fees, the company can choose to pay priority fees for a certificate of sponsorship allocation to get a fast turnaround from the Home Office.

The certificate of sponsorship and immigration skills charge cannot be charged back to the Skilled Worker Visa holder. If the company attempts to recoup the fees from their employee, it risks losing its licence.

The Skilled Worker Visa applicant must pay:

The visa application fee – this fee depends on the length of the visa and the job. The full fees must be paid upfront; the employee isn’t given the choice to pay the fee annually
The immigration health surcharge for the employee’s potential use of the NHS while in the UK. The fee of £1,035 per year is calculated on the length of the visa and must be paid upfront. The fee applies whether the company or the employee has private health coverage or not
Dependant Visa fees - the visa application fee and immigration health surcharge for any family members eligible to come to the UK on Dependant Visas

Some employers will repay these visa costs as part of a golden hello to overseas employees. Other companies will contribute toward the expenses but will require the employee to sign an employment contract agreeing to repay some of these fees if they leave their employment before the expiry of their Skilled Worker Visa.

The maintenance sponsor licence fees

OTS Solicitors understand the importance of budgets and managing overheads. That’s why we talk through the ‘hidden costs’ associated with a sponsor licence so your company can make informed choices. These are:

Pre-application – admin costs of getting your systems to the standard expected by the Home Office so you can pass their application process and the professional fees of your Sponsorship Licence Lawyers to guide you through the application
Compliance – your company will need to appoint key personnel to secure a licence. The roles of key personnel are set out by the Home Office. One person can manage all the key personnel functions in a small company or in a larger company where only a few of the employees are sponsored on Skilled Worker Visas. If the business does not want to employ additional HR staff to act as key personnel (or to redeploy existing staff to work as key personnel), it can look at using OTS Solicitors' Sponsor Licence Management Service on a fixed monthly retainer. If the business is going to manage its licence, it will need to factor in employment costs for the additional admin staff and the costs of Immigration Law Training to keep employees up to date on their reporting and recording duties
Problem shooting – if the business is in a deemed high-risk sector of the economy, it may need to factor in the likelihood of ongoing audit visits by Home Office officials. If you elect to manage your licence internally, you may need to budget for further immigration legal advice from London Immigration Lawyers to avoid the risk of the licence being suspended or revoked

Our London Immigration Solicitors are experts in looking at these maintenance costs and working out the cheapest and most effective solution to ensure that your company can secure its licence as quickly and smoothly as possible and retain it without undue stress or trouble.

Business Immigration Lawyer Hans Sok Appadu is happy to discuss how OTS Solicitors tailors their services to the licence needs of your company.

UK Online and London Immigration Solicitors and Sponsorship Licence Lawyers

For sponsor licence advice call OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.

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