UK Visa Sponsorship explained

EOR UK Visa Sponsorship: How It Works and What It Costs

You have found a brilliant candidate in another country. They need a visa to work in the UK. You are using an Employer of Record to hire there. So the obvious question is: can the EOR sponsor their visa?

The short answer is: usually not directly. But the full picture is more nuanced than that, and there are workarounds worth understanding.

This guide explains exactly how visa sponsorship works (and does not work) through an EOR, what it costs, and what your options are if your chosen candidate needs a visa.

For a broader overview of how to hire in the UK without your own entity, see our guide on hiring in the UK without setting up an entity.

Can an Employer of Record Sponsor a UK Visa?

In most cases, no. Here is why.

To sponsor a worker on a Skilled Worker visa (the most common work visa route), an organisation needs a sponsor licence from the Home Office. To get that licence, the organisation must be a genuine UK employer with a trading presence, a UK bank account, and HR systems that can manage sponsor duties like tracking attendance and reporting changes.

An EOR is a UK employer, but it employs people on behalf of other companies. The Home Office has historically been cautious about this model because the EOR does not control the worker's day-to-day role. The concern is that the EOR is acting as a pass-through rather than a genuine employer.

Some EORs do hold sponsor licences, but this is the exception rather than the rule. And even when they do, there are significant limitations:

• The EOR can only sponsor roles that genuinely fall under their business activities. If you are a software company and the EOR is a payroll services firm, sponsoring a senior software engineer becomes questionable.
• The Home Office may scrutinise the arrangement more closely, increasing the risk of a refused application.
• The EOR takes on sponsor compliance duties, which many are reluctant to do because the penalties for non-compliance are severe (licence revocation, civil penalties, and criminal prosecution in serious cases).

Our guide to using an Employer of Record in the UK explains how the EOR model works in general.

What UK Visa Types Exist for Skilled Workers?

Before we get into the alternatives, it helps to understand the main visa routes that bring skilled workers to the UK.

Skilled Worker visa

This replaced the old Tier 2 (General) visa. It requires a job offer from a licensed sponsor, a role at RQF Level 3 or above (roughly A-level equivalent), and a minimum salary threshold. Since 22 July 2025, the general minimum salary is £41,700 per year, or the "going rate" for the role, whichever is higher.

Global Business Mobility (GBM) visa

This replaced several old routes including the Intra-Company Transfer visa. It has several sub-categories:

• Senior or Specialist Worker: For employees being transferred from an overseas branch to a UK branch of the same company. Requires at least 12 months' employment with the overseas entity.
• Graduate Trainee: For transfers as part of a graduate training programme.
• Service Supplier: For workers coming to the UK to deliver a contract covered by a trade agreement.
• UK Expansion Worker: For overseas businesses sending workers to set up a UK branch. This is particularly relevant for companies considering their own entity.

Scale-up visa

For workers with a job offer from an approved UK scale-up sponsor. The sponsoring company must have grown by at least 20% annually in either headcount or turnover over the previous three years, and have had at least 10 employees at the start of that period.

Global Talent visa

For leaders and potential leaders in academia, research, arts, culture, and digital technology. This does not require a job offer or sponsor licence, but it does require endorsement from an approved body like Tech Nation or the Royal Society.

Youth Mobility Scheme visa

For young people (18 to 30 or 35, depending on nationality) from certain countries. This allows them to work in the UK for up to two years without a sponsor (up to three years for some nationalities, such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada). Useful for hiring graduates from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, and other participating countries.

How Much Does UK Visa Sponsorship Cost?

If you do go down the sponsorship route (whether through your own entity or an EOR that holds a licence), here is what it costs.‍

Sponsor licence application fee

• Small or charitable sponsor: £611
• Medium or large sponsor: £1,682

Since 6 April 2024, sponsor licences no longer need to be renewed every four years.

Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS)

• Defined CoS (for workers applying from outside the UK): £525 per certificate
• Undefined CoS (for workers switching visa categories within the UK): Assigned from the sponsor's annual allocation (£525 per certificate)

Skilled Worker visa application fee (paid by the worker or employer)

• Up to three years, applying from outside the UK: £819
• More than three years, applying from outside the UK: £1,618
• Up to three years, applying from inside the UK (extension or switch): £943
• More than three years, applying from inside the UK: £1,865

Immigration Skills Charge (paid by the sponsor)

• Small or charitable sponsor: £480 for the first 12 months, then £240 for each additional 6 months
• Medium or large sponsor: £1,320 for the first 12 months, then £660 for each additional 6 months

For a medium or large company sponsoring a Skilled Worker on a three-year visa, the total cost looks roughly like this:

• Sponsor licence: £1,682
• CoS: £525
• Visa fee: £819
• Immigration Skills Charge: £3,960 (£1,320 for the first year, plus 4 × £660)
• Total: approximately £6,986

And that is before you factor in legal fees for the application, any priority processing fees, and the time it takes to prepare the documentation.

These figures change periodically. Always check the current fees on GOV.UK before budgeting.

How Do Right to Work Checks Affect This?

Regardless of how you hire someone in the UK, you must conduct a right to work check before they start. This is a legal requirement under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006.

When you use an EOR, they handle the right to work check. But the process is different depending on the employee's immigration status:

British or Irish citizens, or those with settled status (EU Settlement Scheme, indefinite leave to remain). A straightforward document check. The EOR verifies identity documents and keeps copies.

Workers with a valid visa. The EOR checks the visa conditions, confirms the employee can work for the specific employer (if restricted), and notes the visa expiry date for future checks. Some visas have conditions that limit the number of hours the person can work or restrict them to a specific employer.

Workers awaiting a visa decision. An employer can carry out a "positive verification notice" check with the Home Office Employer Checking Service to confirm the person has the right to work while their application is pending.

If an EOR discovers that an employee does not have the right to work, they cannot employ them. This is non-negotiable. Civil penalties for employing illegal workers are up to £60,000 per person.

The right to work check is not a one-time exercise. If an employee has a time-limited right to work (like a visa with an expiry date), the employer must carry out a follow-up check before the visa expires. Failure to do so means you lose the statutory excuse against a civil penalty if the person's right to work lapses.

Our guide to right to work checks in the UK covers this in more detail.

How Does Agility EOR Handle Visa-Related Hiring?

At Agility EOR, we are transparent about what we can and cannot do regarding visa sponsorship.

What we do:

• Conduct thorough right to work checks for every employee
• Employ workers who already have the right to work in the UK (British citizens, EU Settled Status holders, dependants, Youth Mobility visa holders, Global Talent visa holders, and others)
• Advise on the visa options available for candidates who do not yet have the right to work
• Support companies that are setting up their own entity and sponsor licence alongside an EOR arrangement

What we do not do:

• Sponsor Skilled Worker visas directly (we do not hold a sponsor licence)
• Provide immigration advice or submit visa applications (we can refer you to specialist immigration solicitors)

If your candidate needs a visa, we will help you understand your options and, if appropriate, support a transition from EOR to your own entity once the sponsor licence is in place.

The most common path we see: a company hires their first UK employee through Agility EOR (someone who already has the right to work), then uses that time to set up a UK entity and apply for a sponsor licence. By the time they need to hire someone who requires a visa, the entity and licence are ready.

This approach has a few advantages. You validate the UK market before committing to a full entity. You get revenue and momentum in the UK while the paperwork is in progress. And when the sponsor licence comes through, you already have an established UK presence, which strengthens your application.

The transition from EOR to your own entity is straightforward. The employee's contract transfers from the EOR to your new UK company. Under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE), the employee's terms and conditions, length of service, and rights are preserved. The employee does not lose anything in the move. Our guide to using an EOR in the UK explains the full process.