UK skilled worker visa now costs 970% more than rival nations
Key Points
- UK visa costs for skilled workers, researchers and students are up to nine times the international average.
- A five-year skilled worker visa costs 970% more upfront than equivalent routes in other leading science nations.
- The £54 million Global Talent Fund had placed just 18 researchers as of June 2026 against a 60-80 target.
- MPs said the fund lacked ambition and failed to address high upfront costs.
The total upfront cost of a five-year UK skilled worker visa is 970% higher than the average for equivalent routes across other leading science nations, the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee said in a report published on Tuesday (7 July).
Citing Royal Society research, the committee said UK visa costs for skilled workers, researchers and students were up to nine times higher than the international average, and up to 22 times higher when the UK was excluded from the calculation.
The Wellcome Trust told the committee the costs were “blocking talented international researchers from UK careers”, while one organisation said the best “efforts to attract talent will fail if HMG does not remove structural financial barriers”.
Former FCDO Chief Scientific Adviser Charlotte Watts said cost was the key barrier to attracting talent.
“It is the fees. It is the visa costs of entry. It is the costs linked to health services. When you add up those figures, it just makes the UK unattractive,” she said.
“At one level we are going out diplomatically and saying, ‘We welcome talent and we want to collaborate,’ but on another level we are not demonstrating that in the bureaucratic challenges and the costs that are then layered on.”
New talent fund a wash
The government launched a £54 million Global Talent Fund in July 2025 to attract 60-80 top researchers and their teams, alongside a global talent taskforce.
However, applicants must come through existing visa routes, meaning costs remain high, and as of June 2026 just 18 researchers had been announced as taking up roles under the fund.
The committee said the fund was welcome but “lacks ambition and scale”.
“It is short-sighted to promote the UK as a destination for global talent while retaining financial barriers that make it less competitive than its peers,” it said.
The report contrasted the UK’s approach with competitor schemes launched after President Trump’s cuts to US science funding.
Canada announced a US$1.2 billion fund in December 2025 to bring in up to 1,000 leading researchers, the EU committed €500 million, and France launched a separate €100 million fund that has since awarded grants to 46 researchers, 41 of them from US institutions.
Around 23% of students at UK academic institutions are from overseas, more than three times the OECD average, and a third of academic staff are non-UK nationals.
