Sponsor licence application fee: every Home Office charge in 2026

The fees in order

Licence application fee

£611 for small sponsors and charities, £1,682 for medium or large sponsors on the Worker routes. A Temporary Worker only licence is £611 at any size, and adding Worker to an existing Temporary Worker licence is free for small sponsors or £1,071 for large ones (gov.uk).

Priority service (optional)

£750 for a decision within 10 working days, subject to a limited daily allocation. Standard applications are typically decided in around 8 weeks; check current gov.uk guidance for today's estimate.

Certificate of sponsorship (CoS)

£525 to assign each certificate on the Skilled Worker and other Worker routes; £55 on Temporary Worker routes (gov.uk). One certificate per worker per visa application.

Immigration Skills Charge (ISC)

£480 (small or charitable) or £1,320 (medium or large) for the first 12 months of each sponsorship, then £240 or £660 for each further 6 months, paid up front when the certificate is assigned (gov.uk). Some occupations and cases are exempt.

Who is allowed to pay what

The licence fee must be paid by the sponsor: gov.uk warns that asking the sponsored worker to pay it, or costs linked to the application, can lead to the licence being revoked. Home Office rules also prohibit passing the certificate of sponsorship fee and the Immigration Skills Charge on to a Skilled Worker; treat all sponsor-side fees as business costs and take advice before any recovery arrangement. The worker's own visa fee and immigration health surcharge are the worker's application costs, though many employers choose to cover them.

A realistic first-year budget

The ISC lines are £480 plus four further six-month periods at £240 (£1,440) for a small sponsor, and £1,320 plus four at £660 (£3,960) for a large one. Fees change at Home Office fee reviews, so confirm the current figures on gov.uk before budgeting a specific application.