Sponsor licence costs · CoS fee

How much does a Certificate of Sponsorship cost in 2026?

Direct answer

The current Home Office Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) fee is £525 for a Worker route CoS — which covers the Skilled Worker route, Senior or Specialist Worker, Minister of Religion, International Sportsperson (over 12 months), and Scale-up routes. A Temporary Worker route CoS is £55. The fee is paid by the sponsor at the moment the CoS is assigned through the Sponsor Management System (SMS), and it cannot be passed on to the worker — doing so can lead to the sponsor licence being revoked. The CoS fee is separate from the Immigration Skills Charge, which is paid at the same point.

Who this applies to: UK employers planning to assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to a sponsored worker under the Skilled Worker route, Senior or Specialist Worker route, or other work-route sponsorship.

Regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority

Who pays the CoS fee

Which employers pay the Certificate of Sponsorship fee — and how much.

The CoS fee is a per-assignment fee. Every time you assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to a worker, you pay the fee for that worker, regardless of how many other CoS you have assigned before. It is set by route, not by sponsor size.

→UK employers sponsoring workers under the Skilled Worker route (most common)

→Sponsors assigning a CoS under the Senior or Specialist Worker route (Global Business Mobility)

→Sponsors assigning a CoS under the Scale-up, Minister of Religion, or International Sportsperson routes

→Sponsors of Temporary Workers (e.g. Charity Worker, Creative Worker, Religious Worker) pay the lower Temporary Worker rate

→Health and Care Worker sponsors pay the Skilled Worker rate — there is no CoS-fee discount for this route

2026 rates

Current Certificate of Sponsorship fees.

Worker route CoS (Skilled Worker, Health and Care, Senior or Specialist, Scale-up, etc.)

Per Certificate of Sponsorship, paid by the sponsor at assignment.

£525

Temporary Worker route CoS (Charity, Creative, Religious, Government Authorised Exchange, International Agreement, Seasonal Worker)

Per Certificate of Sponsorship, paid by the sponsor at assignment.

£55

International Sportsperson (12 months or less)

Treated under the Temporary Worker rate for short engagements.

£55

International Sportsperson (more than 12 months)

Treated under the Worker rate for longer engagements.

£525

Figures as published by the Home Office at the time this page was last reviewed. Always verify the current figure on gov.uk before assigning a CoS. The Worker CoS fee was £239 prior to the April 2025 fees uplift — any older third-party content quoting £239 is out of date.

When and how it is paid

When the Certificate of Sponsorship fee is paid.

The CoS fee is paid at the moment of CoS assignment — not at the point you request an allocation, and not when the worker's visa is granted. Payment is taken when you click assign in the Sponsor Management System.

→Paid by the sponsor at the moment the CoS is assigned through SMS

→Paid via the SMS account — typically by credit/debit card or pre-loaded funds

→Each CoS assignment is a separate payment — there is no bulk discount

→The CoS fee is separate from the Immigration Skills Charge, but both are charged at the same moment of assignment

→An allocation request to receive a CoS quota at licence stage is free — you only pay when a CoS in that allocation is assigned to a named worker

The non-negotiable rule

You cannot recover the CoS fee from the worker.

The Home Office position is identical to its position on the Immigration Skills Charge: the sponsor pays the CoS fee for Skilled Worker, Senior or Specialist Worker, Minister of Religion, International Sportsperson, Scale-up, and Seasonal Worker routes — and cannot ask the worker to repay it.

→The CoS fee for these routes must be paid by the sponsor

→It cannot be deducted from the worker's salary

→It cannot be recovered through repayment-on-leaving or clawback clauses

→A sponsor licence can be revoked for asking the worker to pay the CoS fee or any other linked application costs

→The same rule applies to the Immigration Skills Charge

Worked example

Example: medium-sized UK employer assigning one Skilled Worker CoS for 3 years.

Certificate of Sponsorship fee

Worker route — paid at CoS assignment.

£525

Immigration Skills Charge

Medium/large sponsor: £1,320 first 12 months + (4 × £660) additional 6-month blocks.

£3,960

Total paid at CoS assignment

Both fees charged at the same SMS-assignment moment.

£4,485

Add this to the one-off sponsor licence application fee (£611 small/charity, £1,682 medium/large, plus optional £750 priority) to see the full Home Office cost of bringing one worker into the business.

Refunds and cancellation

When you can get the CoS fee refunded.

The CoS fee is refundable in defined circumstances — but the rules are tighter than for the Immigration Skills Charge. If you assign a CoS and then the worker does not use it, the fee is generally not refunded automatically and the CoS itself simply expires.

→A CoS expires three months after assignment if the worker has not used it to apply for a visa

→If the worker's visa application is refused, you may apply for a refund of the CoS fee — but this is not automatic

→If you assign a CoS in error (wrong worker, wrong duration), correct it via SMS before the worker applies — late corrections may require a new CoS and a new fee

→Cancelling an assigned CoS does not automatically trigger a refund — you must apply through the Home Office

→The CoS allocation itself (the quota of unused CoS held by a sponsor) is never charged — only the act of assignment is

What goes wrong

The five Certificate of Sponsorship cost mistakes we see most often.

→Quoting third-party blog figures (£239 was the pre-April-2025 rate) and discovering at SMS assignment the fee is more than double what was budgeted

→Assigning a CoS for a longer duration than the role really needs — locking the business into a higher ISC bill at the same assignment moment

→Trying to recover the CoS fee from the worker — a compliance breach that can put the entire sponsor licence at risk

→Assuming Health and Care Worker sponsors get a CoS-fee discount — they pay the same Worker rate as everyone else

→Forgetting to plan CoS allocation properly — assigning a CoS and then the worker not applying within 3 months loses the fee entirely

How Harveys helps

What we do for employers managing CoS assignment.

The Certificate of Sponsorship fee is one of three Home Office fees that hit at the moment of assignment — alongside the Immigration Skills Charge and the worker's own visa application fee. We help sponsors get this right the first time.

→CoS / SMS Desk — per-assignment support including CoS preparation, duration sense-check, and ISC calculation

→Sponsor Licence Application — fixed-fee preparation and submission, from £1,750 + VAT

→Audit-Ready Sponsor Compliance retainer — ongoing CoS, ISC, reporting and compliance support, from £295/month + VAT

→Sponsor Licence Readiness Review — full cost picture before you apply, from £395 + VAT

→All work delivered under IAA Level 1 regulation — Regulation No. F202537009

Common questions

Questions employers ask us.

A Worker route CoS — used for Skilled Worker, Health and Care, Senior or Specialist Worker, Scale-up, Minister of Religion, and long-engagement International Sportsperson assignments — costs £525. A Temporary Worker route CoS — used for Charity Worker, Creative Worker, Seasonal Worker, and similar routes — costs £55. The fee was £239 prior to April 2025, so any older third-party content quoting £239 is out of date.

The sponsoring employer pays it in full at CoS assignment. The Home Office's published position is that the sponsor must pay the CoS fee for Skilled Worker, Senior or Specialist Worker, Minister of Religion, International Sportsperson, Scale-up, and Seasonal Worker routes — and cannot ask the worker to pay it. A sponsor licence can be revoked for trying to recover the fee from the worker.

At the moment the CoS is assigned through the Sponsor Management System. It is not paid at licence application, not at allocation request, and not when the worker's visa is granted. Payment is taken via the SMS account at the point of assignment.

Refunds are possible in defined circumstances — for example where the worker's visa is refused — but they are not automatic. If you assign a CoS and the worker does not use it within three months, the CoS simply expires and the fee is generally lost. Cancelling an assigned CoS does not automatically trigger a refund.

No. Health and Care Worker sponsorship uses the Worker route CoS, so the fee is the same £525 paid by any other Skilled Worker sponsor. There is no CoS-fee discount for the Health and Care route, despite the discounted visa fees and Immigration Health Surcharge exemption that apply to the worker side.

Yes — they are two separate fees, both paid by the sponsor at the same moment of CoS assignment. The CoS fee is a fixed per-assignment £525 for Worker routes. The Immigration Skills Charge varies by sponsor size and sponsorship duration. For most SME sponsors, the ISC is the larger of the two by a significant margin.

Related services & resources

IAA

Regulated immigration advice

Harveys Legal is regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority.

Firm Reg No. F202537009. Verify on the IAA register before engagement.

Get the full sponsorship cost picture before you assign.

The CoS fee, the ISC, the worker's own visa fee, and your professional fees all hit within a tight window. We help UK SME employers see all of it before you commit. Harveys Legal supports immigration applications, sponsor compliance preparation and related legal processes. Final decisions remain with the Home Office or relevant decision-maker.

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Harveys Legal supports immigration applications, sponsor compliance preparation and related legal processes. Final decisions remain with the Home Office or the relevant decision-maker.