Sponsor Licence Cost: £611 Small, £1,682 Large

Sponsor Licence Application Fee

The first cost is the licence itself. The fee depends on the size of your organisation:

• Small or charitable sponsor: £611
• Medium or large sponsor: £1,682

A licence that covers only the Temporary Worker routes costs £611 whatever the size of the organisation.

An organisation is usually a small sponsor if at least two of these apply: annual turnover of £15 million or less, total assets worth £7.5 million or less, or 50 employees or fewer. Charities pay the small sponsor rate.

The licence usually stays valid for as long as the organisation keeps meeting the eligibility requirements, so there is no renewal fee. The requirement to renew a licence every 4 years was removed on 6 April 2024 — see our licence renewal guide for what replaced it. Licences to sponsor Scale-up Workers or UK Expansion Workers are the exception: they last 4 years and cannot be renewed.

Full fee details are on the GOV.UK sponsor licence page.

Certificate of Sponsorship Fee

Each time you sponsor a worker, you must assign a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS). The fee is £525 for each certificate on the Worker routes, such as Skilled Worker. This applies to both new hires and extensions. A certificate on a Temporary Worker route costs £55.

Once you assign a certificate, the worker must use it to apply for their visa within 3 months.

The CoS fee is payable by the employer when the CoS is assigned through the Sponsor Management System.

Immigration Skills Charge

The Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) is a levy paid by the employer for each sponsored worker. It is charged for the first 12 months of sponsorship and then for each further 6 months:

• Small or charitable sponsor: £480 for the first 12 months, then £240 for each further 6 months
• Medium or large sponsor: £1,320 for the first 12 months, then £660 for each further 6 months

The ISC is payable upfront for the full duration of the visa. For example, if you sponsor a worker for a 3-year Skilled Worker visa and you are a small sponsor, the ISC would be £480 for the first year plus four further 6-month periods at £240 = £1,440. A medium or large sponsor would pay £1,320 plus four periods at £660 = £3,960.

The ISC cannot be passed to the worker. If the Home Office finds that an employer has recovered the ISC from a worker, through payroll deductions or any other means, the licence may be revoked. Since 31 December 2024, sponsor guidance also prohibits passing on the sponsor licence fee, its associated administrative costs, and the Certificate of Sponsorship fee to a sponsored worker on the Skilled Worker route.

Some exemptions apply. GOV.UK lists them, and they include the worker's dependants, workers switching from a student visa to a work visa, a set of named research and higher education occupation codes, and certain Global Business Mobility workers. Check the current exemptions on GOV.UK.

Priority Processing Fees

Most sponsor licence applications are decided in less than 8 weeks. If you need a faster decision:

• Priority sponsor licence processing: £750 for a decision within 10 working days. Places are limited and given out first come, first served.
• Priority change of circumstance service: £350 per request, considered within 5 working days. It covers requests such as extra certificates of sponsorship for an existing licence.

For the worker's visa application, separate priority services are available — see the processing time guide.

Worker-Side Costs

While these are formally the worker's responsibility, many employers choose to cover them:

• Visa application fee: for a Skilled Worker visa, £819 for 3 years or less and £1,618 for more than 3 years when applying from outside the UK; £943 and £1,865 when applying from inside the UK; £628 and £1,235 if the job is on the Immigration Salary List
• Immigration Health Surcharge: £1,035 per year (per worker and each dependant)
• English language test: Approximately £150 to £200
• Biometrics: Included in the visa application process

Unlike the sponsor-side fees described above, these costs can be paid by either the employer or the worker, depending on the employment agreement. See the full Skilled Worker cost breakdown.

Total Cost Examples

Here are two examples showing the total employer cost of sponsoring one worker for a 3-year visa:

Small Sponsor

• Licence fee (one-off, covers every worker you sponsor): £611
• CoS fee: £525
• ISC (3 years): £1,440
• Total employer cost: £2,576

Medium/Large Sponsor

• Licence fee (one-off, covers every worker you sponsor): £1,682
• CoS fee: £525
• ISC (3 years): £3,960
• Total employer cost: £6,167

The licence fee is paid once, not once per worker, so the cost of each extra worker after the first is the certificate fee plus the Immigration Skills Charge. These figures do not include any worker-side costs the employer may choose to cover. If a medium or large sponsor also pays the visa fee (£819 for a 3-year visa applied for from outside the UK) and the healthcare surcharge (£3,105 for 3 years), the total is about £10,091 per worker.

Budgeting Tips

• Factor in the Immigration Skills Charge when calculating the true cost of hiring an overseas worker
• If you plan to sponsor multiple workers, the licence fee is a one-off cost that becomes more economical per worker
• Check the organisation against the small sponsor test (turnover, total assets, employee numbers), because the licence fee and the Immigration Skills Charge are both lower for small and charitable sponsors
• There is no longer a renewal fee to budget for on most licences — see our licence renewal guide for the current position
• Track the latest fee regulations on GOV.UK as fees can change

Next Steps

Calculate the total cost for your specific situation, including both employer-mandatory costs and any worker costs you plan to cover. If cost is a concern, see our guide for small business sponsors.

Related guides:

• Sponsor Licence: Complete Guide
• Sponsor Licence Requirements
• Skilled Worker Visa Costs
• Sponsor Licence for Small Businesses

Questions and answers