Sponsoring a worker from overseas: What it costs a Birmingham business in 2026

Written by Vishal Gautam from V Immigration Ltd

“How much will it cost us?” is nearly always the first thing an employer asks me when they’re thinking about hiring someone from overseas. The honest answer is that it depends on four things: the size of your business, how long you sponsor the person for, where they’re applying from, and whether you decide to help with their own visa costs.

So here are the numbers, using the Home Office fees on GOV.UK as at 6 November 2026.

What your business pays

There are three charges, and your business has to pay all of them.

The sponsor licence costs £611 if you’re a small business or a registered charity, and £1,682 if you’re medium or large.

Each worker you sponsor needs a certificate of sponsorship, which costs £525.

Then there’s the Immigration Skills Charge. A small sponsor pays £480 for the first 12 months of the certificate and £240 for every further six months. A medium or large sponsor pays £1,320 and then £660.

You usually count as small if at least two of these are true: your turnover is £15 million or less, your assets are worth £7.5 million or less, and you have 50 employees or fewer.

None of these three costs can be passed on to the worker. If you ask them to pay any of it, take it back out of their wages, or charge them admin costs linked to it, the Home Office will normally revoke your licence. Make sure whoever drafts the contract knows this.

A worked example

Take a Birmingham engineering firm with 30 staff and a turnover under £15 million. It wants to bring in one Skilled Worker from overseas on a three-year certificate.

A small business pays £611 for the licence, £525 for the certificate and £1,440 in Skills Charge, £2,576 in total. A medium or large business pays £1,682, £525 and £3,960, £6,167 in total.

You only pay for the licence once, so if the same firm takes on a second worker later, that person costs £1,965 (£525 plus £1,440).

What the worker pays

The worker pays for their own visa and the immigration health surcharge. With a three-year certificate and an application from outside the UK, the visa costs £819. The surcharge is £1,035 a year, and because the visa runs until 14 days after the certificate ends, the extra part year is charged at half that rate. So the surcharge comes to £3,622.50, and the worker pays £4,441.50 altogether.

Some employers cover these costs to make the offer more attractive. You’re allowed to, but it’s your choice, so put whatever you agree in writing.

Two ways to bring the cost down

If the person you want to hire is still on a Student visa when you sponsor them, there’s no Immigration Skills Charge. In the example above, that takes £1,440 off the bill for a small business and £3,960 for a large one.

The exemption ends once they’ve moved on to a Graduate visa, and it doesn’t cover a student’s partner, so the timing of your offer matters.

It’s also worth checking whether the job is on the Immigration Salary List. If it is, and the certificate is issued before 31 December 2026, the worker pays a lower visa fee: £628 for up to three years from outside the UK. For most jobs the list’s lower fees end on that date. Your own costs don’t change, but a cheaper visa can make the offer easier to say yes to.

If you need your licence decided quickly, a priority decision costs another £750.

What these figures leave out

The worker’s salary isn’t included, and it has to meet the minimum for the role. Nor are visas for their partner or children, or the cost of recruiting. The figures also leave out the time your team will spend on sponsor duties, such as reporting changes and keeping records. Those duties last for as long as you hold the licence, so plan for them from the start.

Work out your own figures

We’ve built a free sponsorship cost calculator that does these sums for your business. You choose the size of your firm, the length of the certificate, how many people you’re sponsoring and whether they’re switching from a Student visa. Nothing you enter is saved or sent.

This is general information, not advice on your business. Fees change, so check the current figures on GOV.UK before you set a budget.

Vishal Gautam is a director of V Immigration Ltd, a Birmingham-based immigration advice firm regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority.