Skip to content
Menu

F2 Offer line, stop 2 of 5

Check the visa cost clauses in your contract

Your employer must not pass its sponsorship costs to you, but a clause may reclaim your own visa costs. Ask HR about any such clause in writing.

Checked against gov.uk, 7 October 2026

Who pays the Immigration Skills Charge: The employer, never the worker.

gov.uk warns sponsors they can lose their licence for passing that charge, or the costs of their application, on to you (source 1).

Search your contract for these words

  • repay, reimburse, refund, clawback
  • deduct, deduction from salary
  • Immigration Skills Charge, sponsorship costs
  • visa fee, health surcharge, relocation
  • certificate of sponsorship, CoS

Each hit is a clause to read against the plates below.

Read each clause against its plate

Four kinds of clause turn up in sponsored offers. Each plate says what the wording looks like, how to read it, and one line to send HR.

A deduction or repayment for the Immigration Skills Charge

What it looks like. Words like "Immigration Skills Charge" or "skills charge" next to "deduct" or "repay".

How to read it. This clause should not be there. Who pays the Immigration Skills Charge: The employer, never the worker. Switching from a Student visa? Immigration Skills Charge when switching from a study visa: Not payable. That covers a switch from a Student visa, not from the Graduate visa.

Ask HR

Could you confirm in writing that I will not repay the Immigration Skills Charge in any circumstances, including if I leave early?

Repay visa and health surcharge costs if you leave

What it looks like. Words like "visa application fee", "health surcharge" or "relocation costs" next to "if you resign" or "within".

How to read it. This clause is about the costs of your own application. Some employers pay them and ask for a refund if you leave early. Find out exactly which costs it covers and the amount for each.

Ask HR

Could you list each cost this clause covers, the amount for each, and whether the Immigration Skills Charge or the certificate is among them?

A sliding clawback by months served

What it looks like. A table or sentence where the share you repay falls the longer you stay, for example all in the first year and less after.

How to read it. Work out what you would owe if you left at each point in the table. A falling scale is easier to plan around than a flat sum. Check the scale only covers costs you may lawfully be asked to repay.

Ask HR

Could you confirm the amount I would repay at each point of the scale, and which costs the scale applies to?

A clause naming the Certificate of Sponsorship cost

What it looks like. Words like "certificate of sponsorship fee", "CoS" or "sponsorship costs" in the repayment section.

How to read it. The certificate is assigned by your sponsor. What a sponsor may pass on to a worker is set out in gov.uk's sponsor guidance part 3. Read that section before you sign, and ask HR to point to it.

Ask HR

Could you show me where the sponsor guidance allows this cost to be recovered from me, or remove it from the clause?

Check the rule on gov.uk, the amounts elsewhere

The sponsor guidance names what a sponsor must not recover from a Skilled Worker: the sponsor licence fee (recouped on or after 31 December 2024), the certificate of sponsorship fee (certificate assigned on or after 31 December 2024), the Immigration Skills Charge and any associated administrative costs. Recovering any of them is a ground for revoking the licence.

Read part 3, on sponsor duties, before you sign anything you are unsure of: gov.uk sponsor guidance part 3 (opens gov.uk).

This page reads the wording, not the prices. For amounts, check the fees themselves, listed on ukvisasponsorguide.com (opens ukvisasponsorguide.com) before you talk numbers with HR.

Before you sign

  • Every cost clause has a written answer from HR.
  • No clause makes you repay the Immigration Skills Charge.
  • You know what you would owe at each point.
An empty Underground platform curves beside the rails into a dark tunnel mouth under a tiled ceiling.
Underground platform and tunnel, London.Jacek Herbut, Pexels Licence.

Before you ask

Can my employer make me pay the Immigration Skills Charge?

No. gov.uk says the employer must pay it, and a sponsor that asks the worker to pay it may have its licence revoked.

Is a repayment clause for my own visa fee allowed?

Some employers pay your own application costs and ask for them back if you leave early. Ask HR to list each cost and amount, and check gov.uk sponsor guidance part 3 before you sign.

HR will not change the clause. What now?

Get their answer in writing, then decide with the full numbers. If you think the clause breaks the sponsor guidance, ask a regulated immigration adviser or a solicitor before you sign.

Checkpoint

Flip each switch when it is done. They stay set on this device only.

Go back to the offer checklist for salary and hours, read the scam check if anyone has asked you for money up front, or see all three checks.

Sources

  1. gov.uk guidance, UK visa sponsorship for employers: Immigration skills charge (opens gov.uk)
    "You must pay the immigration skills charge yourself. Your licence may be revoked if you ask the sponsored worker to pay the fee or any costs linked to your application."
    Checked 7 October 2026
  2. gov.uk guidance, UK visa sponsorship for employers: Immigration skills charge (opens gov.uk)
    "You will not have to pay the charge if they switch to either a Skilled Worker or Senior or Specialist Worker visa and then extend their stay on the new visa."
    Checked 7 October 2026
  3. Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors, Part 1, L6.17 (opens gov.uk)
    "L6.17. You are responsible for paying the sponsorship fees listed above. If you are granted a licence, we will normally revoke your licence if you recoup, or attempt to recoup, by any means, the following fees from a worker you are sponsoring:"
    Checked 7 October 2026
  4. gov.uk: Workers and Temporary Workers, guidance for sponsors part 3: sponsor duties and compliance (opens gov.uk)
    "If we reasonably suspect that you are failing to comply with your sponsor duties, we may take action against you."
    Checked 7 October 2026

Updated Checked against gov.uk on

What changed

  • 7 October 2026: First published.
  • 7 October 2026: Bound the new shared rules values (version 2).

This is a playbook, not immigration advice. Before you act, check the rule on gov.uk or ask a regulated immigration adviser or a solicitor.