Immigration is getting harder and more expensive for employers in most major destination countries. Salary thresholds have risen, skill requirements have tightened, and sponsorship costs have increased. The practical consequence is that a role you could fill by relocating someone two years ago may not be fillable that way now.
Here is what an employer actually needs to handle, and the alternative worth considering before starting a visa application. Last updated September 2026.
| Employer obligation | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Sponsor licence | Required before you can sponsor anyone in most systems |
| Right to work checks | Verifying and documenting eligibility, with penalties for failure |
| Salary and skill thresholds | Rising, and now excluding many roles that previously qualified |
| Ongoing sponsor duties | Reporting changes, record keeping, cooperating with audits |
| Tax and social security | Obligations in one or both countries, depending on the arrangement |
Why is employer-sponsored immigration harder now?
Because destination countries have tightened the criteria, not because the process has become more bureaucratic.
The UK is a clear illustration. Since July 2025 sponsored roles must be at degree level, which removed well over a hundred occupations from eligibility, and the general salary threshold rose to £41,700. English requirements rose to CEFR B2 in January 2026, and the Immigration Skills Charge increased around 32%. See UK Skilled Worker sponsorship in 2026.
Several other major destinations have moved in the same direction, generally through higher salary floors and narrower occupation lists rather than outright restrictions.
For employers the effect is practical: sponsorship now works for senior and specialist roles and increasingly does not work for mid-level ones.
What are an employer's actual obligations?
Sponsor licence
In most sponsorship-based systems you must hold a licence before you can bring anyone in. Applications require evidence that the organisation is genuine, operating lawfully, and able to meet its duties.
Right to work checks
Verifying that everyone you employ is entitled to work, and keeping the evidence. Penalties for failure are significant and apply regardless of whether the failure was deliberate.
In the US this means Form I-9, with its own rules on remote document examination. See remote I-9 verification.
Ongoing sponsor duties
Sponsorship is not a one-off transaction. You report changes in role, salary or location, maintain records, and cooperate with compliance visits. Sponsor licences are revoked more often for administrative failures than for anything dramatic.
Correct role classification
Occupation codes determine eligibility and minimum salary. Misclassification is among the most common causes of refusals and licence problems.
What does it cost?
More than the visa fee, and the total is routinely underestimated.
Licence fees, certificate fees, skills charges levied per year of sponsorship, legal costs, and the salary itself, which must meet a threshold that may exceed what you would otherwise pay for the role.
Relocation adds more: travel, temporary accommodation, sometimes schooling and spousal support. Our guide to preparing employees for overseas assignments covers what that involves in practice.
When is immigration the right answer?
When the person genuinely needs to be in that country.
Roles requiring physical presence. Positions where a specific individual must establish or lead something in that market. Transfers where the point is moving knowledge between locations. Client-facing work that has to happen in person.
In those cases sponsorship is the route, and the cost is the cost.
When is hiring locally the better option?
When the work can be done from where the person already lives, which covers more roles than most employers assume.
Employing someone in their own country through an Employer of Record removes the visa question entirely. No sponsor licence, no skills charge, no salary threshold set by immigration policy, no dependency on rules that change annually.
It also works in the reverse direction. An existing employee who wants to relocate to a country where you have no entity would otherwise have to resign. An EOR employs them in the new location so the relationship continues.
The practical comparison: sponsorship takes months and is subject to refusal. Employing locally through an EOR typically takes days to a few weeks and is not.
How do you decide?
Ask what the role actually requires.
Does the work need to happen in that country? If not, the immigration question may be avoidable entirely.
Does the role meet the salary and skill thresholds? If not, sponsorship is not available regardless of how much you want the person.
Can you absorb the timeline? Months, with the possibility of refusal, versus weeks with local employment.
Is this one hire or a pattern? A sponsor licence makes sense if you will use it repeatedly. For a single role it is a substantial overhead.
Country-level employment and immigration requirements are in CountryPedia.
Work with Global Expansion
We handle global immigration alongside employment, payroll and compliance across 214 countries and territories. That means we can advise on the visa route where relocation is necessary, and employ people locally where it is not.
Talk to our team about the roles you are trying to fill.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need a sponsor licence to hire someone from abroad?
To bring them into your country on a work visa, generally yes. To employ them in the country where they already live and have the right to work, no. That distinction decides most of these questions.
How long does employer-sponsored immigration take?
Months in most systems, longer where the licence application comes first. Processing times vary by country and category, and applications can be refused. Avoid committing to a start date before approval.
What happens if a role does not meet the salary threshold?
It cannot be sponsored through the standard route. Some countries maintain shortage lists with lower thresholds, usually with conditions attached such as restrictions on dependants. Otherwise the options are raising the salary or employing the person elsewhere.
What are an employer's ongoing obligations after a visa is granted?
Reporting material changes such as role, salary or work location, maintaining records, and cooperating with compliance audits. Licences are more often lost through administrative lapses than through serious breaches.
Can an employee work remotely from another country instead?
Only if someone can employ them lawfully there. Working remotely from a country where you have no entity creates tax and employment obligations in that country. An Employer of Record resolves it by becoming the legal employer locally.
Is it cheaper to sponsor a visa or hire locally?
Hiring locally is almost always cheaper and faster, because it avoids licence fees, skills charges, relocation costs and immigration-driven salary floors. Sponsorship is the right answer when the role genuinely requires the person to be in that country.
