Recouping visa costs from pay could break your Skilled Worker salary threshold
18 Aug 2026
If you're on a Skilled Worker visa and your employer is recovering any visa or sponsorship costs from your pay, it's worth checking how that arrangement is structured. Immigration law firm Fragomen has warned that these repayments can be counted against you when the Home Office checks whether you still meet the salary threshold.
The firm explains that "payments made by a worker to their sponsor will generally be deducted from salary for threshold assessment purposes," and that deduction is spread out over the whole repayment period. Fragomen gives a concrete example: recovering £3,105 from a worker over three years works out to "£1,035 per year being deducted from the assessed salary," which "could push someone below the minimum threshold." That could put your visa extension or a job change at risk if your salary was already close to the line.
There is one important exception. Fragomen notes that "a genuine loan provided on top of salary will not impact the threshold," so how your employer sets up the repayment matters. If you're repaying sponsor licence fees, Certificate of Sponsorship fees, the Immigration Skills Charge, or related legal costs through deductions from your pay, ask your employer or HR team whether this has been structured as a loan or as a straight deduction, and check your payslips against your contracted salary to make sure you're still clear of the threshold for your route.
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