The government wants to back Britain’s fastest-growing firms. If you qualify, you could claim back some international hiring costs, making this a very attractive scheme.
This is a bold, direct intervention designed to make it cheaper for ambitious scale-ups to hire the international talent they need to grow.
The scheme was announced by Business Secretary Peter Kyle as part of his grand ambition to “nurture the UK’s first trillion-dollar company.” For founders and people teams navigating the cost and complexity of cross-border hiring, it’s a meaningful development, but the funding is limited, and the window to act is narrow.
So here’s everything you need to know.
Under the new Scale-Up Visa Reimbursement Scheme, eligible UK companies can claim back the visa fees they pay when sponsoring international hires on the following routes:
The scheme is accompanied by a new government concierge service that could help founders unblock growth barriers.
The scheme is aimed at high-growth companies in sectors the government has identified as central to the UK’s economic future: tech, clean energy, and life sciences.
To qualify, your company must:
One important note: applications must be made by the sponsor employer, not the individual worker.
The UK needs more talent.
AWS research found that nearly half of UK businesses now cite a lack of AI talent as the biggest obstacle to scaling the technology.
At the same time, the cost of sponsoring overseas workers has continued to rise and uptake of the Scale-Up Visa in particular has been underwhelming. Charlie Fowler, a partner in Collyer Bristow’s immigration team, noted that the visa route hasn’t gained the traction it should have, precisely because of cost barriers.
France, the US, and Singapore have run similar incentive programmes which have helped to bolster their economies. The UK is catching up.
There are two things to be aware of:
Funding is limited. This isn’t an open-ended entitlement. There is a finite pot of money, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.
You pay first, then claim back. Employers must cover visa costs upfront before receiving reimbursement. Plan your cashflow accordingly.
The scheme is open until 1st March 2027, but we advise against leaving this to the last minute.
If your company is growing fast and you’re hiring, or planning to hire internationally, the first step is confirming whether you qualify specifically for the reimbursement scheme. The eligibility criteria around growth rates and sponsor licensing can be nuanced, and getting the application right matters.
At Centuro Global, we work with scale-ups at exactly this stage, whether that’s helping companies obtain or manage their sponsor licence, advising on the right visa route for each hire, or ensuring they’re structured correctly to take advantage of schemes like this one.
If you want to understand whether you’re eligible and how to apply, book a call with our team.
Don’t leave money on the table.
*According to the U.K. government website, an ‘established presence’ is defined as follows:
“A “fixed establishment” is an establishment of business that has a sufficient degree of structure and permanence in terms of human and technical resources to enable it provide the services that it supplies.
A company may generally be considered to have a “fixed establishment” in the UK if it has a real trading presence in the UK, that is to say, if: it has a permanent place of business in the UK, and that place of business comprises sufficient human and technical resources for it to carry on its business activities.”
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-groups/vgroups02400
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