UK Certificate of Sponsorship and Immigration Skills Charge: What Pakistani Workers Should Know (2026)

What is a certificate of sponsorship?

A certificate of sponsorship, usually shortened to CoS, is not a paper document and not a visa. It is an electronic record held on the Home Office's sponsorship management system. A UK employer that holds a sponsor licence creates it for a specific worker and a specific job. Each one has a unique reference number, and that number is what you enter on your visa application.

The certificate records the details the caseworker will check: your name and passport, the job title and occupation code, the duties, the salary and hours, the start and end dates, the work address and whether the employer will cover your maintenance for the first month. If any of those details are wrong, the visa can fail even when everything else is in order.

Defined and undefined certificates

There are two kinds. A defined certificate is for someone applying for a Skilled Worker visa from outside the UK, and the employer has to request each one individually through the system. An undefined certificate is for most other cases, such as someone already in the UK switching or extending, and comes out of an annual allocation the employer estimates when it applies for its licence.

From Pakistan, you will almost always be on a defined certificate. That matters because the employer has to apply for it and wait for approval before it can assign it, so there is usually a short gap between a job offer and the moment a CoS number exists.

Who pays for it, and how much?

The employer pays. As of 13 November 2026, GOV.UK sets the certificate fee at £525 for a Worker certificate, which covers Skilled Worker and Senior or Specialist Worker roles, and £55 for a Temporary Worker certificate.

GOV.UK is explicit that a sponsor must pay the certificate fee itself when sponsoring a Skilled Worker, anyone on the Global Business Mobility routes, a Minister of Religion, an International Sportsperson, a Scale-up Worker or a Seasonal Worker. It also warns that a licence may be revoked if the employer asks the worker to pay the fee or any costs linked to the employer's application.

Before it can issue any certificate, the employer needs a licence. As of 13 November 2026, a Worker sponsor licence costs the employer £611 if it is a small or charitable sponsor and £1,682 if it is medium or large. That is a cost of being a sponsor, and it is the employer's business expense, not yours.

What is the immigration skills charge?

The immigration skills charge, or ISC, is a separate levy an employer pays when it assigns a certificate to someone applying for a Skilled Worker or Senior or Specialist Worker visa. It applies to applications from outside the UK for work of 6 months or more, and to applications from inside the UK for any length.

As of 13 November 2026, the immigration skills charge is £1,320 for the first 12 months and £660 for each additional 6 months for a medium or large sponsor, and £480 for the first 12 months and £240 for each additional 6 months for a small or charitable sponsor. These rates took effect on 16 December 2025, when the charge went up sharply from the earlier £1,000 and £364 annual rates.

The charge is calculated on the dates written on the certificate and paid in one go when the certificate is assigned. As of 13 November 2026, GOV.UK puts the most an employer can pay for a five-year certificate at £6,600 for a medium or large sponsor and £2,400 for a small or charitable one.

Small or large sponsor?

An employer is usually a small sponsor if at least two of these apply: annual turnover of £15 million or less, total assets of £7.5 million or less, and 50 employees or fewer. Registered charities pay the small rate too.

When no charge is due

• Certain research and higher education roles, including the scientist codes 2111 to 2119, research and development managers and higher education teaching professionals.
• Dependants: the charge is never payable for a worker's partner or children.
• A worker switching from a visa that allowed study, such as a Student visa, into Skilled Worker, and then extending on that route.
• Some EU intra-company transfers on the Senior or Specialist Worker route.

The Home Office guidance for sponsors says an employer must not pass on any of the skills charge to a sponsored worker or try to recoup it, and that if it does, the licence will normally be revoked. GOV.UK also says the employer receives a full refund if the visa is refused or withdrawn, or if the worker never comes to work. So there is no legitimate reason for a worker to fund it.

Which costs does the worker actually pay?

Three things, and all are paid to the UK government during your own application, not to the employer or an agent.

1. The visa application fee. As of 13 November 2026, GOV.UK says the standard Skilled Worker visa fee ranges from £819 to £1,865 depending on the length of the certificate and where you apply from, with £819 the fee for a certificate of three years or less applied for from outside the UK.
2. The immigration health surcharge, usually £1,035 per year for each adult. Our explainer on how the UK immigration health surcharge works covers the rates and how they are calculated.
3. Maintenance funds. Unless your sponsor certifies maintenance on the certificate, you will usually need at least £1,270 available to support yourself on arrival. Partners and children need their own amounts.

Separately, you may pay for an English test, a TB test certificate from an approved clinic in Pakistan, certified translations and a priority visa service if you choose one. None of those is a sponsorship cost either.

Who pays what, at a glance

How long is a certificate valid?

Once a certificate is assigned, you must use it to apply for your visa within 3 months, and you cannot apply more than 3 months before the start date of the job. If the certificate lapses because you were slow to apply, or a document such as your TB certificate or English test result was not ready, the employer has to assign a new one and pay again.

The dates on the certificate also set how long your visa will be. A certificate for three years or less carries the lower visa fee, and one for longer carries the higher fee and a larger health surcharge payment up front. The maximum sponsorship period on one certificate is five years.

Which jobs can still be sponsored?

The 2025 reforms narrowed the route considerably. Since 22 July 2025, new Skilled Worker applicants generally need a job listed as higher skilled, which in practice means graduate level work. Jobs listed as medium skilled can only be sponsored in limited cases, for example if they are on the immigration salary list or the temporary shortage list, or for people extending who got their first certificate before 22 July 2025.

Salary matters as much as the job title. As of 13 November 2026, GOV.UK says a new Skilled Worker usually needs a salary of at least £41,700 a year or the going rate for the occupation code, whichever is higher. Lower thresholds apply to new entrants such as recent graduates and people under 26, to some PhD holders, to jobs on the immigration salary list and to certain healthcare and education roles on national pay scales.

The certificate has to match reality. The occupation code must describe the duties you will actually do, and the salary must be what you will actually be paid. A caseworker who thinks the code was chosen to clear the threshold, rather than to describe the job, can refuse the application.

If you are already studying in the UK, our guide to the Student to Skilled Worker switch explains the lower new-entrant thresholds and why switching from study also removes the skills charge for the employer.

How do you check the employer and the certificate are genuine?

A few checks, done before any money moves, filter out most problems.

1. Search the register of licensed sponsors. The Home Office publishes it on GOV.UK. Match the company's exact legal name and town, and confirm it is licensed for the Skilled Worker route.
2. Look the company up on Companies House. Check it is active, has filed accounts and has a trading history that fits the job it is offering.
3. Confirm the job exists. A real employer interviews you, sends a written offer with duties and salary, and can answer questions about your manager, workplace and hours.
4. Ask for the CoS details in writing. You are entitled to know the reference number, occupation code, salary and dates. GOV.UK tells applicants to ask their employer for a copy if they do not have one.
5. Pay nothing to anyone for sponsorship. The visa fee and health surcharge go to the Home Office through the official application. Nothing else should be needed for the certificate.

Why are CoS scams so common in Pakistan?

Because demand for UK work routes far exceeds the number of real sponsored jobs, and because most families do not know the employer is supposed to pay. The care sector made this worse before 2025, when many small care providers obtained licences, assigned certificates and then had no work to give.

The common patterns are easy to spot once you know them. An agent offers a "ready CoS" for a fixed price. A company you have never interviewed with sends a reference number. A salary is written well above anything the role would pay, to clear a threshold. Or a worker arrives and finds the job does not exist, leaving them without income and with a visa that depends on a sponsor who has nothing to offer.

The consequences reach further than lost money. If a caseworker finds the job is not genuine, or that false information was given, the refusal can carry a finding of deception, and that can lead to a long re-entry ban. Our guide to the deception refusal and the 10-year re-entry ban explains how that works.

Is the certificate being replaced?

Gradually, and in name more than in substance. The current Home Office fees table describes a new system called Sponsor a Worker, which gives an employer approval to recruit for a specific role, running in parallel with certificates while it is rolled out and used by select sponsors only. The fees are the same under both. For a worker in Pakistan nothing changes in practice: you still need a licensed employer, a specific approved job and a reference to use in your visa application.

What happens from job offer to visa, step by step?

1. Interview and written offer. Duties, salary, hours and start date in writing from a licensed employer.
2. Employer requests a defined certificate. It applies through the sponsorship management system and waits for approval.
3. Certificate assigned. The employer pays the £525 fee and the skills charge, then gives you the reference number.
4. Prepare your documents. Passport, English evidence, TB certificate, maintenance evidence or sponsor certification, and relationship documents for any family.
5. Apply online. Pay the visa fee and health surcharge, within the 3-month window and no more than 3 months before the start date.
6. Biometrics and decision. Attend the visa centre, then receive the decision and your eVisa.
7. Travel and start work. The employer checks your right to work and reports if you do not start.

Which mistakes lead to refusals?

A code that does not match the duties

Choosing a higher skilled code for what is really a medium skilled job is one of the commonest refusal reasons since July 2025.

Applying after the certificate has lapsed

Three months passes quickly when you are waiting for a TB appointment or an English test result. Book those as soon as the offer is firm.

Missing maintenance evidence

If the employer has not ticked the box certifying maintenance, you need your own funds held for the required period, and family members need theirs.

An employer that is not what it seems

A licence can be suspended or revoked after your certificate is issued. If that happens before your decision, the application usually fails.

Paying for the certificate

Beyond the money, an arrangement where the worker pays can unravel the whole application if it comes to light.

A worked example with dates and costs

Imran, a software developer from Faisalabad, is offered a job by a medium sized UK company at £48,000 a year under a higher skilled occupation code whose going rate is below that salary. The employer holds a licence and is a medium or large sponsor.

• 2 December 2026: written offer received. Imran checks the register of licensed sponsors and Companies House.
• Early December: the employer requests a defined certificate. Imran books his TB test and English test.
• Mid January 2027: the certificate is assigned for three years. The employer pays £525 plus a skills charge of £3,960 (£1,320 plus four further 6-month periods at £660). Imran pays nothing to the employer.
• Late January 2027: Imran applies, well inside the 3-month window, paying the £819 visa fee and £3,105 in health surcharge for three years.
• February 2027: decision, then travel for a March start date.

The employer's government costs come to £4,485 for this one hire. Imran's own government costs are £3,924 before his maintenance funds. If the employer had asked him to cover any of its £4,485, that alone would have been reason to walk away.

For the wider picture of UK routes, including those that need no sponsor, see our UK hub and our guide to the UK Global Talent visa from Pakistan.

Frequently asked questions