Relocation Packages: Which Visa Costs the Employer Must Pay, and Which You Can Negotiate

Imagine you are an engineer in Lagos. After months of interviews, the email finally comes: a job offer in the UK. You read it twice at the kitchen table while your children sleep. The salary is real. The words "visa support included" are right there.

Then you reach page four. If you resign within two years, you must repay several thousand pounds. And nobody has said who pays for your wife's visa, or your two children's.

You convert the numbers into naira, and your stomach drops. Is this normal? What can you ask for without losing the offer?

The short answer: Employers pay part of the visa bill, and in several countries the law decides which part. Bucket one is costs the employer cannot pass to you: in the UK, Home Office sponsor guidance bans passing on the Immigration Skills Charge or the sponsor licence fee; in Canada, the employer pays the Labour Market Impact Assessment fee to Employment and Social Development Canada and cannot recover it; in Australia, the Skilling Australians Fund levy stays with the business; in New Zealand, accreditation and job check fees are the employer's. Bucket two is costs employers usually pay without a law forcing them, such as sponsorship document fees and recruitment fees. Bucket three is costs that almost always land on you: dependant visa fees, often the UK Immigration Health Surcharge, flights, deposits, translations, medicals and police certificates.

Every figure below was checked in August 2026. UK Visas and Immigration, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the Australian Department of Home Affairs, Immigration New Zealand and the Irish Department of Enterprise revise fees, usually yearly. Check each one before you sign. This is general information. A licensed or registered adviser, or an employment lawyer in the destination country, should confirm your own case.

Who this article is for

This is for nurses, engineers, skilled workers and families moving from South and Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East into Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Ireland and the Gulf. The three buckets work in all of them. The amounts change by country.

Think of it like renting a flat. Some costs belong to the landlord whatever the lease says. Some a good landlord usually adds, like fresh paint before you move in. Some are always yours, like your own electricity bill. Knowing which is which is half the negotiation.

Bucket one: costs the employer is not allowed to recover from you

Learn these by name. An employer who bills you for them breaks a rule its own sponsor licence depends on. That gives you leverage.

The UK Immigration Skills Charge

The Home Office charges a sponsor this levy for each sponsored Skilled Worker, per year of sponsorship. As published, it has sat at roughly £364 to £480 per year for small or charitable sponsors and roughly £1,000 to £1,320 per year for medium and large sponsors, after an uplift announced in 2025. It is one of the fastest-moving numbers in UK immigration, so confirm it on the government's sponsorship fees page.

The recovery rule is clear in Home Office sponsor guidance. A sponsor must not pass the charge on to the worker, in whole or in part, by any means. That includes salary deductions, invoices, and clawback agreements that kick in if you leave early. Doing so is a licence compliance failure.

Over a five-year sponsorship with a large employer, it runs into several thousand pounds. If a contract asks you to repay it, raise that first, in writing.

The UK sponsor licence fee and related sponsor costs

The employer pays UKVI a licence fee banded by size. Home Office guidance introduced from late 2024 also bans sponsors from passing on the licence fee and related admin costs, and the ban has widened since. It now touches the certificate of sponsorship for Skilled Worker sponsorships assigned after certain dates. Read the current, dated version of the sponsor guidance itself.

If a UK agreement asks you to repay anything called a licence cost, sponsorship admin cost or certificate of sponsorship cost, ask a UK employment or immigration solicitor before you sign.

Canada's LMIA fee and the employer compliance fee

A Canadian employer hiring through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program applies to Employment and Social Development Canada for a Labour Market Impact Assessment. ESDC has published the fee at CA$1,000 per position. Check the current amount, and any exemption for your job or wage, on ESDC's page. The employer must pay it and cannot recover it from you. Employers and third-party recruiters also cannot charge you for recruitment tied to an LMIA-based hire.

For employer-specific permits under the International Mobility Program, where no LMIA is needed, the employer pays a compliance fee, last published by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada at CA$230, and submits the offer through the employer portal. That is also the employer's cost.

Several provinces also ban recruiters from charging workers. Check the province's own rules before paying anyone.

Australia's Skilling Australians Fund levy and the payment-for-visas prohibition

Australian employers pay the Skilling Australians Fund levy at nomination. It varies with the business's turnover and the nomination's length and type, and the business cannot pass it to you. Check the current bands on the Home Affairs fees pages.

Australia goes further. The Migration Act bans "payment for visa sponsorship" with criminal and civil penalties. Asking for, receiving, offering or giving a benefit for sponsorship is unlawful, including for the person paying, so your own visa is at risk. Home Affairs publishes ways to report it.

New Zealand accreditation and job check fees

Under the Accredited Employer Work Visa, the employer pays for accreditation and the job check, and Immigration New Zealand bans recovering those costs from you. Charging a worker a premium for a job is also unlawful under New Zealand employment law. Check current amounts and wording on Immigration New Zealand's employer pages.

Ireland, Germany and the Gulf

Irish employment permits law bans employers from deducting the permit cost from your pay or recovering it from you. The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment publishes current fees and refund rules.

Germany has no sponsorship levy. The main costs are the visa or residence fee, recognition and translation, and no law makes the employer pay them. So Germany is a negotiation country. Employers competing for engineers and health staff often cover recognition and relocation, and asking is normal.

Across the Gulf states, labour law generally puts recruitment and work permit costs on the employer and bans deducting them from wages. Enforcement varies more than in Canada or New Zealand. Get the split into the offer letter, and keep your own copy.

Bucket two: costs customarily paid by the employer

No law forces these, but a serious employer pays them. If they are missing, ask.

• Certificate of sponsorship, nomination or offer-of-employment fees. Employers pay these as standard. In the UK, it has moved into bucket one for Skilled Worker sponsorships under recent guidance.
• Recruitment and agency fees. The company pays the agency. The International Labour Organization's employer-pays principle says workers should never bear recruitment fees, and many countries have written a version into law.
• Legal and adviser fees for the sponsorship. If the employer hired an immigration firm, that firm works for the employer.
• Your own visa application fee. Common in competitive hiring, especially healthcare and engineering, but far from universal. It is one of the most negotiable lines.
• Skills or qualification recognition costs. Nursing registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council or Ahpra, engineering assessment, trade recognition in Germany. Some employers repay on start, some pay up front, many pay nothing. Ask which.

If you are still working out which body assesses your qualifications, our guide on how to get your qualifications recognised abroad explains who assesses what.

Bucket three: costs that are almost always yours

Budget as if nobody will pay these. Treat any help as a bonus.

• Dependant visa fees. Charged per person everywhere. This is usually the biggest surprise in a family move, and the line most worth negotiating, because employers rarely offer it.
• The UK Immigration Health Surcharge. Charged per person, per year, and paid up front for the whole visa. As published by the Home Office, it has been £1,035 per year for most adults and £776 per year for children, students and their dependants. A family of four on a five-year visa faces a five-figure sterling bill before arrival. It is like paying a whole family's gym membership for five years on day one. Confirm current rates and exemptions on the government's surcharge page. Some employers repay it. No rule makes them.
• Flights and shipping. Sometimes covered for you but not your family. Read the wording.
• Rental deposits and temporary housing. One to three months' rent is normal, plus agency or guarantor fees in Germany and parts of Europe.
• Translation, apostille and legalisation. Confirm which form is accepted before you order.
• Medicals, police certificates and biometrics. Per person, with police certificates from every country you have lived in.
• Language tests. IELTS, PTE, OET or a Goethe exam, often sat more than once.

What it costs: the three buckets by destination

A planning summary checked in August 2026. Verify each amount at the source in the last column before you use it in a negotiation.

Before you negotiate, make sure the route itself works for your job, qualifications and family. A generous package on a route you cannot finish is worth nothing. The free eligibility check asks 6 questions (age, education, experience, English, target countries) and gives you a quick read on your options in 2 minutes.

How repayment and clawback clauses actually work

A clawback clause says that if you leave within a set period, you repay some or all of the relocation and immigration spend, often on a sliding scale. A well-drafted one is legitimate. Four things decide whether yours is a problem.

What it covers. A clause that reaches into bucket one is the clearest problem. In the UK, making you repay the Immigration Skills Charge conflicts with the sponsor guidance, and such clauses have been challenged. A clause covering real bucket two and three spending is on firmer ground.

Whether it is a fair estimate or a penalty. In common law countries, a repayment far above the employer's real loss can be attacked as a penalty and may not be enforceable. Repaying real, evidenced spend on a taper is far more likely to hold.

Whether it tapers. Think of a phone contract where the early-exit fee shrinks each month. A clause demanding full repayment on day 364 and nothing on day 366 is aggressive. A taper, such as 100 percent in the first six months, 50 percent in the second six, and nothing after two years, is standard.

What triggers it. Does it fire only if you resign, or on any ending? Push back if it fires when the employer makes you redundant or when you resign because the employer broke the contract. Ask to limit it to voluntary resignation and dismissal for gross misconduct.

Clawback and an employer-tied visa are a bad mix. Leaving usually means finding a new sponsor within a short grace period or leaving the country. A large debt on top turns a bad job into a trap. Where the tie lasts for years, as on Korea's E-7, the risk is higher again. Our guide to the three-year route from an employer-tied E-7 to F-2-7 residence status in Korea shows what that period demands.

What to ask for in writing, and how to ask

Negotiate once, before you sign, in one organised message with a reason for each ask. Cover five lines:

1. The split. "Please confirm which immigration costs the company pays directly and which I am expected to pay, itemised, including any charge the company is required by law or by sponsor guidance to bear."
2. Dependant costs. The highest-value ask for families. Ask for dependant visa fees and, in the UK, the dependants' health surcharge. If the company says no, ask for a one-off relocation allowance sized to them. Finance teams often approve that more easily than a policy exception.
3. A relocation allowance with a number. A fixed cash sum paid on or before your start date. It removes arguments about receipts.
4. Clawback terms. Ask for a taper, a trigger limited to voluntary resignation, and an explicit exclusion of any cost the employer must bear by law.
5. Timing. Repayment after 90 days is very different from payment up front when you are paying four people's visa fees from a weaker currency. If cash flow is tight, say so and ask the company to pay the fees directly.

Put every agreed point into the signed offer letter or a written addendum. A recruiter's verbal promise means nothing when finance decides what to repay.

When this does not work

Public sector and health employers usually run fixed schemes with published bands. Ask which band you fall into.

Junior roles rarely come with a relocation budget. Sponsorship itself may be the whole concession.

Labour hire and staffing firms often offer a worse split and a harsher clawback. Read those contracts with extra care.

In a crowded occupation, asking for too much can cost you the offer. A path to permanent residence you cannot get any other way can justify costs a pure money calculation would reject.

How to check a fee at the source in ten minutes

Start from the authority, never a blog, forum or recruiter's spreadsheet. For the UK, that is the visa and sponsorship fee tables on gov.uk, plus the dated sponsor guidance. For Canada, IRCC's fee list and ESDC's Temporary Foreign Worker Program pages. For Australia, the Home Affairs fees and charges pages. For New Zealand, Immigration New Zealand's fees and levies pages. For Ireland, the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. For Germany, the Federal Foreign Office for visas, the local immigration office for residence permits, and the recognition portal for qualifications.

Next to every figure, write the amount, the currency, the date you checked, and the page. If finance later disputes a repayment, that note is your whole argument.

Check the unit as closely as the amount. "Per adult per year" versus "per application" can turn a small cost into a five-figure one for a family of four. Check how the fee is paid, too. People paying from countries with exchange controls or card limits often find out at the payment screen. If that is you, ask the employer early to pay directly. Use all of this to shape your questions for a registered or licensed adviser.

Common mistakes

Paying an agent for the job offer itself. Never pay to be placed in a sponsored job. It is unlawful in Australia, banned under recruitment rules in Canada and New Zealand, and the most common shape of overseas job scam. Upfront placement fees, guaranteed visas and payment to a personal account are the signs. Our guide on how to verify an overseas job offer covers the checks, and our guide on how to read the UK sponsor licence register shows how to confirm a UK employer holds a licence.

Assuming "visa costs covered" means what you think. It often means only the employer's own sponsorship costs, which it had to pay anyway. Ask about your fee, your family's fees and the health surcharge.

Signing a clawback that includes a cost the employer must bear. Even if it would likely fail, challenging it means a dispute abroad while your visa depends on that same company. Fix it before you sign.

Treating the package as the whole picture. You still need a buffer until your first pay day. Our breakdown of the true cost of migrating abroad covers the rest.

What to do next

1. Write down the destination and the exact visa route. A Skilled Worker sponsorship, an intra-company transfer and a Global Talent endorsement have different bucket one rules.
2. Look up each fee on the authority's own page today, in the destination currency, and note the date.
3. Ask the employer for the itemised split in writing before you sign.
4. If there is a repayment clause, have an employment lawyer in the destination country read it. It is a small cost against a debt that can reach five figures.
5. Check the employer and any agent on the public register, and check any adviser against the regulator: OMARA in Australia, the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants in Canada, the Immigration Advisers Authority in New Zealand, and in the UK the statutory regulator of immigration advisers, whose public register lists every regulated adviser. The UK body has been renamed in recent years, so confirm its current name and register on gov.uk.

Frequently asked questions

Does the employer pay for work visa sponsorship costs?

Partly. Employers must pay sponsorship levies and licence costs in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland, and cannot recover them from you. They usually pay sponsorship document and recruitment fees. You almost always pay your own visa fee unless agreed otherwise, plus dependant fees, health surcharges, medicals, translation and flights.

Can a UK employer make me repay the Immigration Skills Charge if I leave early?

Home Office sponsor guidance bans passing the charge to the worker by any means, including deductions, invoices and clawback agreements. Such clauses have been challenged. If your contract has one, raise it before signing and ask a UK employment or immigration solicitor to read it.

Is my employer required to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge?

No. It is charged to you, per person, per year, and paid up front. As published by the Home Office, it has been about £1,035 per year for most adults and £776 for children and students. Employers in competitive sectors often repay it, and it is fair to ask, especially for dependants.

Can a Canadian employer charge me for the LMIA?

No. ESDC requires the employer to pay the LMIA fee, published at CA$1,000 per position, and bans recovering it from you. Recruitment fees linked to an LMIA-based hire also cannot be charged to you, and several provinces add their own recruiter rules. If a recruiter asks you for money for a Canadian job, treat it as a warning sign.

What should a fair clawback clause look like?

It covers only real, documented costs the employer was not legally required to bear. It tapers the longer you stay. It fires only on voluntary resignation or dismissal for gross misconduct. It lists each item with an amount. Negotiate any clause that demands full repayment regardless of time served, includes statutory employer costs, or fires on redundancy.

Who pays for my family's visas?

Usually you. Dependant fees are the most overlooked cost in a family move, and the most valuable ask. If policy will not change, ask for a relocation allowance sized to those costs. Our guide on whether your spouse can work on a dependant visa shows what those visas allow, which affects what your household can absorb.

The bottom line

Split the bill into three buckets before you negotiate. Bucket one belongs to the employer by law: the Immigration Skills Charge, the sponsor licence fee, the LMIA fee, the Skilling Australians Fund levy, and the accreditation and job check fees. Bucket two is customary and worth asking for. Bucket three is yours, led by dependant fees and the health surcharge.

Get the split in writing, check every fee at the source on the day you use it, have someone qualified read any repayment clause, and never pay anyone for the job offer itself.