The UK’s sponsored worker system has never been cheap, and it became considerably more expensive in late 2025 and early 2026. For construction firms, engineering companies, and manufacturers facing acute domestic skills shortages, however, the question is not whether sponsorship is expensive. It is whether leaving roles vacant is more expensive still.
This guide gives you every cost, updated for the most recent changes, with worked examples relevant to SMEs in the sectors most affected by the UK skills shortage.
Why UK employers are turning to international recruitment
The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) published its Construction Workforce Outlook in June 2025, estimating the UK construction sector needs approximately 47,860 additional workers per year through 2029. The UK Trade Skills Index, produced by Capital Economics for Checkatrade, projects that 937,000 new recruits will be needed across the broader trades and technical sector by 2032.
At any given point in 2025 and into 2026, official ONS Vacancy Survey data shows construction carrying approximately 28,000 to 40,000 unfilled positions. The DART Tool Group’s 2025 Apprenticeship Gap Report found a vacancy-to-apprenticeship ratio of 227:1 for electricians, meaning there are 227 open electrical trade positions for every one apprentice currently entering the system. For engineering maintenance roles, that ratio reaches 550:1.
Against that backdrop, the Home Office reported that more than 120,000 organisations now hold UK sponsor licences, more than double the number before free movement ended, according to DavidsonMorris (2026). Sponsorship is increasingly mainstream, not a last resort.
Step one: the sponsor licence
Before you can sponsor a single worker, your organisation must hold a sponsor licence. The licence is applied for once and, once granted, covers all future hires for four years.
Application fees effective from April 2025, per the Home Office fee schedule:
Small or charitable employers: £574. Medium and large employers: £1,579.
Your organisation qualifies as a small sponsor if it meets at least two of the following criteria: fewer than 50 employees, turnover below £10.2 million, balance sheet total below £5.1 million.
Standard processing time is approximately eight weeks. A priority service is available at £750 (since 21 October 2025, increased from £500) for decisions within ten working days. A further 6 to 7% fee increase is anticipated from 8 April 2026 per VisasUpdate.com, so applications submitted before that date benefit from the current rates.
The Certificate of Sponsorship
Once licensed, you assign each worker a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) before they apply for their visa. The current CoS fee is £525 per worker, a figure that took effect in April 2024 and represents a 120% increase on the previous fee of £239, confirmed by the University of Oxford Staff Immigration team.
The CoS is a per-hire cost. Every new sponsored worker requires a new CoS.
The Immigration Skills Charge: the biggest ongoing cost
The Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) is a levy paid by employers for every year a sponsored worker remains in the role. It increased significantly on 16 December 2025, the first increase since the ISC was introduced in 2017.
Current ISC rates per year, per sponsored worker:
Small or charitable employers: £480 (previously £364, a 31.9% increase). Medium and large employers: £1,320 (previously £1,000, a 32% increase).
For a large employer sponsoring one worker on a five-year visa, the ISC alone totals £6,600. For ten workers, that is £66,000 in ISC over five years, before any other cost.
The ISC is payable upfront for the full visa duration at the point of visa application. It cannot be deferred.
The visa application fee
Workers pay the visa application fee directly, though the majority of UK employers cover this cost as part of their recruitment package.
For a Skilled Worker visa from outside the UK:
Visa of up to three years: £769. Visa of more than three years: £1,519.
These are the rates published in the Home Office’s November 2025 fee schedule. A further 6 to 7% increase is expected from 8 April 2026 per published government guidance.
The Immigration Health Surcharge
The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) funds the worker’s access to NHS services and is also paid upfront for the full visa duration. The current rate is £1,035 per year, confirmed by DavidsonMorris (2026), following a 66% increase in February 2024.
For a five-year visa, the IHS totals £5,175 per worker. Health and Care Worker visa holders are exempt.
The prohibition on cost recovery
Since 31 December 2024, UK employers are prohibited from passing any sponsorship-related costs on to workers. This ban applies to the ISC, CoS fees, sponsor licence fees, and associated administrative costs. The prohibition was extended to all sponsored work routes on 9 April 2025, per NHS Employers guidance.
The Home Office has stated it will normally revoke a sponsor licence where an employer attempts to recoup these costs through salary deductions, repayment clauses, or any other mechanism. This is not a theoretical risk: 1,948 sponsor licences were revoked in the 2024 to 2025 period, a record high and more than double the 937 revocations in 2023 to 2024, per multiple immigration law firm reports.
Worked examples
Small construction firm sponsoring three tradespeople on three-year visas:
Sponsor licence: £574. Three CoS: £1,575. ISC (three workers, three years, small rate): £4,320. Visa fees (three workers): £2,307. IHS (three workers, three years): £9,315. Total employer cost: approximately £18,091 over three years, before recruitment and legal fees.
Large engineering company sponsoring ten workers on five-year visas:
Sponsor licence: £1,579. Ten CoS: £5,250. ISC (ten workers, five years, large rate): £66,000. Visa fees: £15,190. IHS (ten workers, five years): £51,750. Total employer cost: approximately £139,769 over five years, before recruitment and legal fees. Averaged across ten hires, that is approximately £13,977 per worker over five years, or roughly £2,795 per year.
Against UK construction wage inflation running above 6% in 2025 and the daily cost of unfilled positions in project-critical trades, the sponsorship investment calculates favourably.
How Sama Talent Group reduces cost and risk
Sama Talent Group works with UK employers to source qualified tradespeople and professionals from the Philippines and South Africa: candidates who meet the skills and salary requirements for Skilled Worker visa eligibility and who arrive with their documentation, qualifications, and compliance checks already completed.
Our UK Sales and Partnerships Director, Lance Rose means we have a dedicated key person focused entirely on the UK market. We work alongside your legal team or can introduce you to trusted immigration solicitors. We do not add to your compliance burden. We reduce it.
Contact our UK team to discuss your open vacancies and get a clear picture of the sponsorship costs and timeline specific to your roles and your organisation’s size.
