How Much Does a Work Visa Actually Cost, Country by Country?

A work visa's true cost usually splits across two different people: the worker and the employer sponsoring them. Confusing the two is the easiest way to badly misjudge what a move for work actually costs whoever's asking. Here's what four major destinations charge each side.

United States: no flat number, and a newly contested $100,000 layer

The H-1B has no single applicant fee the way a tourist visa does. It's an employer-filed petition (Form I-129) with a mix of fees that vary by company size and whether it's a first-time or renewal filing, paid by the employer, not the worker. The number attached to every recent H-1B headline is separate: a $100,000 fee created by a September 2025 presidential proclamation, charged to the employer for new petitions where the worker is outside the US without a valid H-1B already. It isn't settled law. A federal court vacated the fee in June 2026, then paused that ruling days later pending the government's appeal, so USCIS is currently still collecting it while the case continues, likely toward the Supreme Court. Budgeting around this fee, in either direction, means checking its live legal status, not a fixed number.

United Kingdom: a fee that scales with the visa's length, atop a genuinely large surcharge

A Skilled Worker visa applicant pays £943 for a visa of three years or less, or £1,865 for anything longer, plus the Immigration Health Surcharge at roughly £1,035 per year, paid upfront for the entire visa period rather than annually. A standard five-year Skilled Worker visa means clearing over £5,000 in surcharge alone before the application fee is even added. Separately, the sponsoring employer pays its own Certificate of Sponsorship fee (£525) and an Immigration Skills Charge running £480 to £2,400 per year of sponsorship, on top of whatever it pays the worker in salary. Check your own passport against the UK.

Canada: cheap for the worker, real money for the employer

The worker-paid side is CAD $155 for the work permit itself plus an $85 biometrics fee, CAD $240 total, similar to what Canada charges international students. But when the job requires a Labour Market Impact Assessment, the employer pays a separate CAD $1,000 per position, non-refundable even if the LMIA is denied, and Canadian law specifically bars employers from passing that cost on to the worker. Check your own passport against Canada.

Australia: the highest applicant-paid fee of the four, before the employer's share

The Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) costs AUD $3,115 for the main applicant, well above what any of the other three governments charge a worker directly. The sponsoring employer adds its own costs on top: a sponsorship application fee, a nomination fee, and the Skilling Australians Fund levy, running AUD $1,200 to $1,800 per year of sponsorship depending on the employer's size. Check your own passport against Australia.

Why the worker/employer split matters

A work visa quoted as "AUD $3,115" or "£943" is telling you what the employee pays, not what the move actually costs. The employer-side numbers, sponsorship fees, skills levies, LMIA charges, routinely add up to more than the applicant's own fee, and who's contractually on the hook for which piece varies by country and sometimes by company policy. Ask specifically which half you, or your employer, will actually be paying before treating any single figure here as the whole picture.