UK Visa Types for Employers: Complete Overview

Routes That Require Sponsorship

Each of these needs the employer to hold a sponsor licence covering the route, and to assign a Certificate of Sponsorship. Our application guide covers getting one.

• Skilled Worker. The main sponsored route. Since 22 July 2025 a new applicant's role must be at RQF 6 and pay at least £41,700 or the going rate for the occupation code, whichever is higher. Medium-skilled roles are open to a new applicant only where the code is on the Immigration Salary List or the Temporary Shortage List, and someone sponsored in a medium-skilled code cannot bring a partner or children. English is B2 for new applications since 8 January 2026. See our salary threshold guide
• Health and Care Worker. A branch of the Skilled Worker route for eligible health and care roles. The application fee is lower — £324 for 3 years or less and £628 for over 3 years, against £819 and £1,618 on the standard route — and applicants are exempt from the immigration health surcharge. Care worker codes 6135 and 6136 have been closed to applications from outside the UK since 22 July 2025
• Global Business Mobility. Five routes, including Senior or Specialist Worker for transfers within a group, which replaced the old Intra-Company Transfer route in April 2022. Also Graduate Trainee, UK Expansion Worker, Service Supplier and Secondment Worker
• Scale-up. Sponsorship is only for the first part of it: GOV.UK says the worker needs a confirmed job offer with an approved scale-up business for at least 6 months, after which they can change employer without a new visa and can extend without a sponsor, provided they meet the earnings requirement. The visa gives 2 years initially, extendable in 3-year periods
• Minister of Religion and International Sportsperson, and the Temporary Worker routes — Seasonal Worker, Charity Worker, Creative Worker, Religious Worker, Government Authorised Exchange and International Agreement

Routes and Statuses That Do Not

• Graduate route. Unrestricted work for international graduates of UK courses, currently 2 years, or 3 after a PhD. It shortens to 18 months for applications made on or after 1 January 2027, with PhD graduates staying at 3 years. It cannot be extended
• Partner and spouse visas. Work permitted without restriction on the type of work or employer
• Global Talent. For leaders and potential leaders in academia and research, arts and culture, or digital technology. Endorsed by an approved body, not sponsored by an employer
• Youth Mobility Scheme. Up to 24 months for nationals of participating countries, aged 18 to 30 or 18 to 35 depending on the country, subject to an annual quota
• UK Ancestry. For a Commonwealth citizen, British overseas citizen, British overseas territories citizen, British national (overseas) or citizen of Zimbabwe who can prove a grandparent was born in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. GOV.UK says it permits work "paid or voluntary, full-time or part time, in self-employment or in a job where you're employed by someone else", and lasts 5 years
• Settlement, settled status and British citizenship. Indefinite leave to remain or to enter, settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, and British or Irish citizenship all carry a right to work with no sponsorship
• Refugee status and humanitarian protection. An unrestricted right to work

The Rule Employers Most Often Get Backwards

A sponsored worker moving to a new employer, or to a new job with the same employer that needs a new certificate, must wait for the decision. GOV.UK states it plainly: "You should not start your new job until you've got confirmation of your new permission."

Submitting the application does not create permission to do the new job. Where a page or a recruiter tells you the worker can begin on submission, that is wrong, and the consequences fall on both sides: the worker's permission and the employer's licence. Service standards for the decision are 8 weeks inside the UK for Skilled Worker and 3 weeks for Health and Care Worker; a priority service costs £500 and super priority £1,000.

One narrow exception exists on the medium-skilled codes: GOV.UK says a worker whose new occupation code is listed as medium skilled can still update their visa if they got the certificate for their first Tier 2 or Skilled Worker visa before 22 July 2025 and have continually held Skilled Worker permission since.

Right to Work Checks

A right to work check is required for every worker before employment begins, including British and Irish citizens. Doing it only for people who look or sound foreign is race discrimination. GOV.UK sets out three methods:

• An online check with a share code the applicant gives you. This is the route for anyone whose status is held as an eVisa — see our share code guide
• A manual document check, seeing the original documents and satisfying yourself they are genuine, original and unchanged. British and Irish citizens cannot get a share code, so this is their route
• An Identity Service Provider offering Identity Document Validation Technology, for a digital check

Biometric residence permits and cards can no longer be accepted. GOV.UK says so directly and tells employers to ask for a share code instead. They stopped being issued at the end of 2024, and a share code lasts 90 days. Where the person's permission is time-limited, GOV.UK says you will need to check again when it is due to expire.

Getting this wrong is expensive. GOV.UK says an employer can face a civil penalty of up to £60,000 for each illegal worker where a correct check was not carried out, and that someone found guilty of employing a person they knew or had reasonable cause to believe had no right to work can be imprisoned for 5 years and pay an unlimited fine. The official process is on the GOV.UK right to work page.

What Sponsorship Costs the Employer

These are the employer's own costs, from the published Home Office fee table. GOV.UK publishes no total cost per hire and this guide gives no estimate of one.

• Sponsor licence: £611 for a small or charitable sponsor, £1,682 for a medium or large one, once. Priority processing £750 for a decision in 10 working days
• Certificate of Sponsorship: £525 on Skilled Worker, Minister of Religion and Global Business Mobility Senior or Specialist Worker; £55 on most Temporary Worker routes and Scale-up
• Immigration Skills Charge: £480 for the first 12 months plus £240 for each further 6 months for a small or charitable sponsor; £1,320 plus £660 for a medium or large one

The recoupment ban matters more than the amounts. A sponsor that asks a worker to pay, or recoups from them, any part of the licence fee, the Certificate of Sponsorship fee, their associated administrative costs, or the Immigration Skills Charge will normally have its licence revoked — from 31 December 2024 on Skilled Worker and 9 April 2025 on the other Worker and Temporary Worker routes.

A worker who already holds a right to work brings none of these costs; the requirement is the same right to work check every worker gets. Our cost of hiring overseas guide breaks the figures down, and the GOV.UK sponsor a Skilled Worker guidance is the source for the duties that follow.

Where to Read the Rules

What permission someone holds, not their nationality, decides whether sponsorship is needed — and the right to work check is what establishes it. Where sponsorship is needed, the route's own GOV.UK page carries the skill, salary and English conditions, and Parts 1 to 3 of the sponsor guidance carry the employer's.

Related guides:

• Sponsor Licence Guide
• Talent Acquisition and Immigration
• Right to Work Check Guide
• Hiring an Overseas Worker
• Sponsor Licence Suspension

Questions and answers