Skilled Worker Visa Sponsorship in the UK (2026): Rules, Fees and Employer Cost

The Skilled Worker route is now narrower and more expensive than at any point since it launched in 2020. The May 2025 immigration white paper led to a higher skill level, a higher salary floor, a 32% rise in the Immigration Skills Charge and a tougher English test, and the April 2026 fee round raised most Home Office fees again.

The table separates what is already law from what is only proposed. Plan on the rules in force and treat the rest as risk to budget for.

You need a sponsor licence to hire anyone who does not already have the right to work in the UK. That covers most non-British nationals who arrived after 31 December 2020, including EU citizens without status under the EU Settlement Scheme.

Several groups need no sponsorship: British and Irish citizens, people with settled or pre-settled status, people with indefinite leave to remain, and holders of open work visas such as Global Talent, Graduate, Youth Mobility or a spouse or partner visa. Check their status with a right to work check before they start. The United Kingdom hiring guide covers payroll, contracts and the other steps for any UK hire.

A job qualifies only if its occupation code is listed as eligible in Appendix Skilled Occupations. Since 22 July 2025 that means a “higher skilled” occupation at RQF level 6, roughly equivalent to a bachelor’s degree, for anyone sponsored for the first time.

Medium skilled roles at RQF 3 to 5 now qualify only if they are on the Temporary Shortage List or the Immigration Salary List. Workers already sponsored before 22 July 2025 in a lower-skilled role can extend, change employer or update their visa in that role under transitional rules.

The sponsor chooses the four-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC 2020) code that matches the duties of the job, not the job title. The code sets the going rate, the skill level and whether shortage concessions apply, so a wrong code is one of the most common reasons UKVI refuses a visa or questions a sponsor. The Appendix Skilled Occupations tables list every eligible code.

The worker must be paid at least £41,700 a year or the going rate for the occupation, whichever is higher. Going rates are the median pay for each occupation in the 2024 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and are based on a 37.5-hour week, so they rise pro rata for longer contracted hours. Pay must also be at least £17.13 an hour.

Only guaranteed basic pay counts. Guaranteed allowances that will continue for the whole sponsorship can count, but bonuses, overtime, employer pension contributions and benefits in kind cannot.

New entrant rates are capped at four years in total, including any time on the Graduate visa, after which the worker must move to the full rate. The hourly floor always applies.

The Temporary Shortage List (TSL) is the only way to sponsor a new worker in a medium skilled RQF 3 to 5 role. The interim list introduced on 22 July 2025 has no salary discount: TSL roles still need £41,700 or the going rate, and workers sponsored in them cannot bring dependants.

The Immigration Salary List (ISL) still gives a lower general threshold of £33,400 and a lower visa fee for listed roles, although the going rate must still be met. Both lists expire on 31 December 2026, except care worker codes 6135 and 6136, which have transitional access until 22 July 2028 for workers already in the UK.

The certificate assignment date decides which rules apply. A certificate assigned before the lists expire is assessed under the old list; one assigned after it is assessed under whatever replaces it.

You apply online to UK Visas and Immigration, pay the fee, then send supporting documents within five working days. Most applications are decided in under eight weeks; a priority service costs £750 more and aims for a decision in 10 working days, with a small daily cap on places.

UKVI checks that the business is genuine and trading in the UK, that it has HR systems able to meet sponsor duties, and that the people named on the licence have no relevant unspent convictions. It may visit before deciding.

You are usually a small sponsor if at least two of these apply: annual turnover of £15 million or less, total assets of £7.5 million or less, and 50 employees or fewer. Everyone else pays the large sponsor rates for the licence and the skills charge.

Each sponsored worker needs a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS), an electronic record with a unique number that the worker uses to apply for the visa. It costs £525 and the employer must pay it.

Workers applying from outside the UK need a defined certificate, requested in the Sponsor Management System and usually approved within one working day. Workers switching or extending inside the UK use an undefined certificate from your annual allocation. The worker must apply within three months of the certificate being assigned and no more than three months before the start date.

The Immigration Skills Charge is paid upfront when you assign the certificate, for the full period of sponsorship. Since 16 December 2025 it is £1,320 for the first 12 months and £660 for each further six months for medium and large sponsors, and £480 and £240 for small or charitable sponsors. A five-year certificate costs a large sponsor £6,600 in skills charge alone.

The visa fee and the health surcharge are the worker’s costs in law, but most employers hiring skilled staff from abroad pay them or reimburse them. Since 8 April 2026 the application fee is £819 for a visa of up to three years applied for from outside the UK, and £1,618 for longer.

The Immigration Health Surcharge is £1,035 per person per year of the visa and is paid upfront with the application. A worker bringing a partner and two children on a three-year visa pays it four times, £12,420 in total.

The worker must also show £1,270 in savings held for 28 days, unless an A-rated sponsor certifies maintenance on the certificate, which most sponsors do. Dependants pay the same visa fee and surcharge as the main applicant.

A medium or large company sponsoring one software developer from abroad on a three-year visa pays £10,091 in Home Office charges if it covers the worker’s visa fee and health surcharge. The example uses SOC code 2134, a salary of £60,000 (above the £54,700 going rate), no dependants and a first hire, so the licence fee is included.

Only £6,167 of that is legally the employer’s: the licence, the certificate and three years of skills charge. Almost all of it is due before the worker starts.

A small sponsor pays £2,576 in mandatory fees for the same hire (£611 licence, £525 certificate, £1,440 skills charge), or £6,500 including the visa fee and surcharge. Immigration lawyer fees, often several thousand pounds for a first licence, and relocation costs come on top.

Sponsored workers go through UK payroll like anyone else, so employer National Insurance and auto-enrolment pension apply in full; employers with a pay bill over £3 million also pay the 0.5% Apprenticeship Levy. Year one therefore needs about £79,662 in cash for this hire. The EOR cost calculator runs the same employment costs for other salaries.

Allow three to four months from a standing start to a sponsored worker’s first day. The licence is the longest step; once you hold one, a hire from abroad usually takes four to six weeks.

Faster visa decisions are available for an extra fee in most countries. Do not let the worker start until the visa is granted and you have completed a right to work check using their eVisa share code.

Holding a licence means acting as part of UK immigration control. UKVI expects you to keep records, report changes and make sure each worker does the job they were sponsored for at the salary on the certificate.

Sponsored workers are entitled to the same statutory leave and pay as any employee. During statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental or sick leave, pay may fall below the threshold without a breach, as long as the reduction follows the statutory or contractual scheme; our guide to UK maternity and paternity leave sets out those entitlements.

Breaking sponsor duties can lead to a downgraded rating, a suspended licence or revocation. Revocation usually means every sponsored worker’s visa is cut short, typically to 60 days, and the business must wait before it can apply again.

Illegal working penalties apply to every employer, sponsor or not. The civil penalty is up to £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach and £60,000 for a repeat breach within three years, under the code of practice in force since 13 February 2024. Knowingly employing an illegal worker is a criminal offence with up to five years in prison and an unlimited fine.

Enforcement has risen sharply. Home Office data show 1,516 sponsor licences revoked in the last quarter of 2025 alone, reported by Irwin Mitchell as an all-time high. Underpayment against the certificate, workers doing different jobs and missed reports are the most common causes.

Under the rules in force today, a Skilled Worker can apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years if they still earn at least the general threshold and the going rate, pass the Life in the UK test and meet the absence limits. The application fee rose to £3,226 on 8 April 2026.

Settlement matters to employers because it ends the sponsorship: once a worker has indefinite leave, there are no more certificate, skills charge or reporting costs for that person.

If the proposal goes ahead as consulted, workers would need sponsorship for longer, so an employer would pay more skills charge and visa extension fees per worker over time. Factor that into retention plans for staff hired now.

Only in narrow cases. An employer of record with a UK entity and its own licence is the legal employer, but sponsor guidance bars sponsoring a worker to supply them to another organisation, and requires the sponsor to control the job, duties, pay and performance. In a typical EOR set-up the client picks the worker and directs the work, which fails those tests.

Some providers offer UK sponsorship for roles they can structure as their own service delivery. Before relying on one, ask who controls the role day to day and how the provider meets the third-party rules; a revoked licence takes every worker sponsored under it down with it.

For a steady pipeline of sponsored hires, a UK entity with its own licence is usually the safer and cheaper route over time.

The Skilled Worker visa is not the only way to bring someone to the UK. Depending on the person and the role, one of these may be faster or cheaper.

Contractors working inside the UK raise a separate question: if they would be an employee but for an intermediary, the off-payroll rules apply. Our guide to IR35 for foreign employers explains how that works for companies based outside the UK, and the United Kingdom hiring guide covers the full cost of employing in the UK, from payroll to leave and termination.

Short answers to what employers ask most about sponsoring a Skilled Worker, checked against GOV.UK and Home Office guidance on 24 October 2026.