The Migration Cost Surveys (MCS) project is a joint initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) and the International Labor Organization (ILO). The project was initiated to support methodological work on developing a new Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator (10.7.1) on worker-paid recruitment costs. The surveys of migrant workers conducted in multiple bilateral corridors between 2015 and 2017 provide new systematic evidence of financial and some non-financial costs incurred by workers to obtain jobs abroad. The compiled dataset is divided into two waves (2015 and 2016) based on the questionnaire version used in the surveys.