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Sponsor licence cost calculator
What sponsoring a Skilled Worker or Health and Care Worker costs your company, and what it costs the worker and their family — every figure linked to the GOV.UK row it comes from.
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Quick answer: sponsoring one Skilled Worker on a 3-year certificate, applying from outside the UK:
- Your company pays £1,965 if small or charitable: certificate £525 (GOV.UK) + Immigration Skills Charge £1,440, which is £480 for the first year then £240 per extra 6 months (GOV.UK). A medium or large company pays £4,485 (£525 + £3,960).
- Add the licence if you don't hold one: £611 small, £1,682 medium or large, paid once (GOV.UK).
- The worker pays £4,441.50: visa fee £819 (GOV.UK) + health surcharge £3,622.50, which is 3½ years at £1,035 because permission runs 14 days past the certificate (GOV.UK).
Fees in force from 8 October 2026. Use the calculator below for your own case.
Your answers
Your estimate
Your company pays £1,965. The worker pays £4,441.50.
Your company pays
£1,965
Paid when you assign the certificate
The worker pays
£4,441.50
Paid by the worker when they apply
Combined government charges
£6,406.50
1 worker
Worth knowing
Every charge, and the GOV.UK row it comes from
Paid by your company£1,965.00
- Certificate of sponsorship£525.00
One certificate per sponsored worker
GOV.UK(opens in a new tab) “Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS), or approval under Sponsor a Worker: Skilled Worker, T2 Minister of Religion, Global Business Mobility - Senior or Specialist Worker”
- Immigration Skills Charge£1,440.00
Certificate of 36 months: first 12 months £480 + 4 × £240 per extra 6 months
GOV.UK(opens in a new tab) “First 12 months — Small or charitable sponsors”
Your company must pay the certificate fee and Immigration Skills Charge itself. Recovering either from the worker can lead to the licence being revoked.
Paid by the worker£4,441.50
- Visa fee, worker£819.00
Main applicant, certificate of 36 months (3 years or less), applying from outside the UK
GOV.UK(opens in a new tab) “Skilled Worker, where a certificate of sponsorship has been issued or approval to sponsor under Sponsor a Worker has been given for three years or less - main applicant and dependants”
- Health surcharge, adults£3,622.50
1 × £3,622.50. 3½ years × £1,035 a year, for permission of 36 months + 14 days
GOV.UK(opens in a new tab) “£1,035 per year for all other visa and immigration applications”
Government charges only, from the GOV.UK fees in force from 8 October 2026, checked against GOV.UK on 22 October 2026. Legal fees, English and TB tests, travel and refunds are not included. Whether the job, the worker or the family qualify is not assessed.
What other certificate lengths would cost
Same answers, different certificate lengths. Per year sponsored, 5 years works out cheapest here, at about £2,047 a year. Going past 36 months moves everyone into the higher visa fee (£799 more per person).
| Certificate | Your company | Worker | Combined | Per year | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | £1,005.00 | £2,371.50 | £3,376.50 | £3,377 | |
| 2 years | £1,485.00 | £3,406.50 | £4,891.50 | £2,446 | |
| 3 years (your estimate) | £1,965.00 | £4,441.50 | £6,406.50 | £2,136 | |
| 4 years | £2,445.00 | £6,275.50 | £8,720.50 | £2,180 | |
| 5 yearsBest value per year | £2,925.00 | £7,310.50 | £10,235.50 | £2,047 |
Important: please read
This free calculator estimates UK government charges only, using the GOV.UK fees in force from 8 October 2026, checked against GOV.UK on 22 October 2026. The figures apply to that date.
GOV.UK can change fees, rules and eligibility at any time. Always check the current figures on the GOV.UK pages linked on this page before you budget, quote or pay, and take advice from a regulated immigration adviser or solicitor for your own situation.
This is not immigration advice. The calculator does not assess whether a job, worker, exemption or family member is eligible. Legal fees, English and TB tests, travel and refunds are not included.
MadyHR.ai provides this tool free, as general information only and without any warranty. MadyHR.ai accepts no responsibility or liability for errors, for fee or rule changes not yet reflected here, or for any loss arising from reliance on it. See our resources disclaimer.
What it works out
UK sponsorship costs are split between two payers, and the split is not optional. Your company pays for the licence, the certificate of sponsorship and the Immigration Skills Charge. The worker pays for their visa application and the Immigration Health Surcharge, and so does each family member who comes with them.
- Sponsor licence: £611 for a small or charitable sponsor, £1,682 for a medium or large one. It is paid once; since 6 April 2024 licences no longer need renewing.
- Certificate of sponsorship: £525 for each worker.
- Immigration Skills Charge: £480 for the first 12 months then £240 for each extra 6 months for a small sponsor; £1,320 and £660 for a medium or large one. It is charged on the whole certificate period up front, up to 5 years.
- Visa application fee: set by route, by whether the worker applies from inside or outside the UK, and by whether the certificate is for 3 years or less — a Skilled Worker applying from outside the UK pays £819 for up to 3 years and £1,618 for longer.
- Immigration Health Surcharge: £1,035 a year for each adult and £776 a year for each child under 18. Health and Care Worker visa applicants and their families do not pay it.
Your company must pay the certificate fee and Immigration Skills Charge itself. Recovering either from the worker can lead to the licence being revoked. Whether you also pay the worker's own costs is up to you; the calculator has a box for that and shows the total budget.
The 14 days most calculators miss
UKVI grants Skilled Worker permission until 14 days after the certificate of sponsorship ends, and the health surcharge is charged on the permission, not on the certificate. It rounds a part-year of 6 months or less up to half a year. So a 3-year certificate is charged as 3½ years of surcharge, not 3 years.
For one adult that is £3,622.50 rather than £3,105.00 — £517.50 more per adult than a calculator working from the certificate length will tell you. This one uses the permission by default, and you can switch it to the certificate length to compare.
Sponsor licence costs: common questions
Who pays the Immigration Skills Charge?
The sponsor pays it when assigning the certificate of sponsorship, and must not pass any of it on to the worker or try to recover it.
Can we recover sponsorship costs from the worker?
Not the certificate of sponsorship fee or the Immigration Skills Charge. The Home Office will normally revoke the licence of a sponsor who recovers either one.
Source: GOV.UK sponsor guidance part 2, S2.13 to S2.14 and S5.7
Do Health and Care Worker visas pay the Skills Charge?
Yes, unless the job's occupation code is on the GOV.UK exemption list. The Health and Care Worker route lowers the visa fee and removes the health surcharge, not the Skills Charge.
Source: GOV.UK Immigration Skills Charge
Do the worker's partner and children pay the health surcharge?
Yes, each person pays it: £1,035 a year for adults and £776 a year for under-18s.
Health and Care Worker visa applicants and their families don't pay it.
Sources: GOV.UK healthcare surcharge, GOV.UK Health and Care Worker visa
Does a sponsor licence need renewing?
No. Since 6 April 2024 sponsors no longer need to renew their licence, so the fee is paid once.
Source: GOV.UK apply for your licence
Why is a 3-year certificate charged 3½ years of health surcharge?
Permission is granted until 14 days after the certificate ends, and the surcharge is charged in half-year steps, so the extra 14 days add half a year.
Source: GOV.UK healthcare surcharge
Small or large sponsor?
The size decides both the licence fee and the Skills Charge, so it is one of the biggest single factors in your company's share. GOV.UK treats a sponsor as small if it meets two of three tests: annual turnover of £15,000,000 or less, total assets of £7,500,000 or less, and 50 employees or fewer. Registered charities pay the small rate whatever their size. The calculator can apply the test to your own figures, but the answer is your company's to give UKVI.
What this calculator does not cover
- Eligibility. Whether the job meets the skill level and salary rules, whether the worker qualifies, and whether their family can come are not assessed. It flags the rules it knows change the picture — the closure of care worker roles to new applicants from outside the UK since 22 July 2025, and the dependant restrictions — but a flag is not a decision. The Skilled Worker visa job and salary checker answers those questions for one job.
- Anything that is not a government charge. Legal fees, English language and TB tests, travel and relocation are not included.
- Other routes. It covers Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker only, not Global Business Mobility, Temporary Worker or Scale-up.
- Refunds. Some of these charges can be refunded in specific circumstances, for example when a visa is refused. The estimate assumes everything is paid in full.
Where the figures come from
Every amount is read from GOV.UK and stored with the page and the exact wording of the row it comes from; each line of your estimate links to it. These are the fees in force from 8 October 2026, checked against GOV.UK on 22 October 2026. Home Office fees can change during the year, so check GOV.UK before you pay.
- Home Office immigration and nationality fees, 8 October 2026
- Healthcare surcharge: how much you pay
- Immigration Skills Charge
- Apply for your sponsor licence
- Health and Care Worker visa
After the licence
Paying for the licence is the start of the sponsor duties, not the end. You have to report most changes to a sponsored worker within 10 working days, keep their Right to Work evidence and track their visa dates. The guide to sponsor reporting duties explains the deadlines, and MadyHR.ai's sponsor compliance tools keep the dates in front of you — for £50 a year for your whole company. See pricing.
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