A sponsor licence allows UK employers to recruit and sponsor workers from overseas, but sponsorship also comes with ongoing compliance duties and Home Office scrutiny.
DavidsonMorris is a leading UK provider of sponsor licence legal and compliance services, advising employers across the complete sponsorship lifecycle — from obtaining and managing a licence to compliance, corporate change, Home Office investigation, suspension and revocation.
Everything you need to know about sponsor licensing
Our sponsor licence expertise is reflected in an extensive body of guidance, insight and resources developed specifically for employers. From understanding eligibility and making an application to managing sponsorship, meeting compliance duties, navigating business change and responding to Home Office enforcement, we provide practical insight into every major aspect of the sponsorship regime.
We also track the rules, guidance, policy developments, case law and enforcement trends shaping sponsor licensing, helping employers understand not only what their obligations are today, but how the sponsorship landscape is changing.
Our Sponsor Licence Knowledge Centre brings this expertise together in six dedicated areas, providing a single point of reference for employers looking to obtain, manage and protect their sponsor licence.
We have organised our sponsor licence knowledge and experience into six specialist areas, giving employers a single point of reference for navigating the sponsorship system.
Sponsor licences involve more than immigration. The employment arrangements behind your sponsorship will be assessed to verify they are lawful, accurate and compliant.
Employment contracts & documents
UKVI can request contracts, job descriptions and other employment records when assessing or reviewing a sponsor. We check that your documents are consistent with the role being sponsored, your sponsor records and UK employment law.
We audit key employment documents, identify inconsistencies or compliance risks, and recommend any changes needed before they are scrutinised by UKVI.
Learn more about documentation audits >
Pay & hours
Sponsored worker pay can be complex, particularly where hours, deductions, allowances or variable working patterns are involved. We review salary and working-time arrangements against sponsorship and minimum wage requirements and help you evidence the position where needed.
We assess sponsored worker pay, hours, deductions and allowances, identify potential compliance issues, and provide clear calculations and supporting evidence where required.
Learn more about pay & hours reviews >
Corporate changes & TUPE
Mergers, acquisitions, restructures and TUPE transfers can affect your sponsor licence and sponsored workers.
We advise on the employment and sponsorship implications of corporate change, helping you protect your licence, manage sponsored workers correctly and meet relevant UKVI deadlines.
Learn more about corporate change advisory >
A sponsor licence is an authorisation granted by the Home Office to an eligible organisation to sponsor overseas workers under UK immigration routes that require sponsorship.
For employers that rely on international recruitment, the licence provides the regulatory framework through which they can sponsor eligible workers to apply for permission to work in the UK.
Holding a sponsor licence also brings significant responsibilities. Licensed sponsors are subject to ongoing Home Office requirements relating to the workers they sponsor, record keeping and reporting, management of the licence and compliance with wider UK law. The Home Office can check compliance before or after a licence is granted and can take enforcement action where a sponsor fails to meet the required standards.
The sponsor licence therefore operates as more than an administrative permission to recruit overseas workers. It creates an ongoing regulatory relationship between the sponsoring organisation and the Home Office.
Once licensed for the relevant route, an organisation can assign a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to an eligible worker.
A CoS is an electronic sponsorship record containing information about the worker and the role being sponsored. The worker uses the CoS when applying for immigration permission under the relevant sponsored work route.
The basic relationship is:
Home Office → Sponsor Licence → Certificate of Sponsorship → Worker Immigration Application → Sponsored Employment
These are separate stages.
The sponsor licence authorises the organisation to participate in the sponsorship system.
The Certificate of Sponsorship connects an individual worker and role to the sponsorship process.
The worker must then make their own immigration application and satisfy the requirements of the relevant immigration route.
No.
A sponsor licence gives the organisation permission to sponsor eligible workers. It does not itself give an individual immigration permission or a right to work in the UK.
Likewise, assigning a Certificate of Sponsorship does not guarantee that the worker’s immigration application will be successful.
Both the sponsor and worker must satisfy the requirements that apply to the relevant route.
This distinction is important because sponsor licensing and individual immigration permission are separate regulatory processes.
An organisation can hold a valid sponsor licence while an individual worker may still fail to qualify for immigration permission. Equally, a worker who would otherwise satisfy the requirements of a sponsored work route cannot normally use that route without sponsorship from an appropriately licensed organisation.
The sponsor licensing system covers sponsored work routes within the Worker and Temporary Worker categories.
The principal sponsored work route for many UK employers is the Skilled Worker route.
Other sponsored routes operate for particular types of work and circumstances. An organisation must be licensed for the appropriate route before it can sponsor a worker under that route.
The scope of the organisation’s licence is therefore important. Holding a sponsor licence does not necessarily authorise the organisation to sponsor workers under every sponsored work route.
The Home Office broadly divides work sponsorship into Worker and Temporary Worker routes.
Worker routes generally concern longer-term or otherwise specified categories of sponsored employment.
Temporary Worker routes provide sponsorship mechanisms for particular forms of temporary work.
An organisation can apply for the categories and routes relevant to its recruitment requirements, provided it satisfies the applicable eligibility and suitability requirements.
Obtaining a sponsor licence means accepting ongoing sponsor duties.
These include requirements relating to:
These duties continue throughout the period in which the organisation holds and uses its sponsor licence.
The Home Office can undertake compliance activity to assess whether the organisation is meeting these requirements.
Where a sponsor fails to comply, UKVI can take enforcement action. Depending on the circumstances and the applicable sponsor guidance, this can include downgrading, suspension or revocation of the licence.
| Sponsor Licence | Current position |
|---|---|
| Regulator | Home Office, through UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) |
| Purpose | Allows an eligible organisation to sponsor qualifying workers under specified UK immigration routes |
| Main licence categories | Worker and Temporary Worker |
| Main sponsored work route | Skilled Worker |
| Management system | Sponsor Management System (SMS) |
| Key personnel | Authorising Officer, Key Contact and Level 1 User |
| Certificate of Sponsorship | Electronic sponsorship record assigned by a licensed sponsor to an eligible worker |
| Licence rating | Sponsors are generally granted an A-rating; a licence can be downgraded to a B-rating in specified circumstances |
| Licence duration | Most Worker and Temporary Worker sponsor licences no longer require routine renewal and generally continue unless surrendered, revoked or otherwise brought to an end |
| Compliance duties | Continue while the organisation holds and uses its sponsor licence |
| Home Office compliance checks | Can take place before or after a licence is granted |
| Potential enforcement | Can include downgrading, suspension or revocation, depending on the circumstances |
A sponsor licence is the Home Office authorisation that allows an eligible organisation to sponsor qualifying workers under specified UK immigration routes. It does not itself give a worker permission to work. Holding the licence also subjects the organisation to ongoing sponsorship and compliance duties.
From preparation to ongoing compliance and, where necessary, enforcement.
For an employer, sponsorship can be understood as an ongoing lifecycle:
Eligibility → Sponsor Licence Application → Licence Granted → Key Personnel & SMS → Certificate of Sponsorship → Worker Immigration Application → Sponsored Employment → Ongoing Compliance → Organisational or Worker Changes
The licence sits at the centre of this system.
Obtaining the licence is therefore only the beginning of the organisation’s relationship with the sponsorship regime. Employers need to understand how to obtain the licence, how to use it correctly and how to maintain compliance throughout its lifecycle.
An organisation must satisfy the Home Office’s eligibility and suitability requirements before it can be granted a sponsor licence.
The Home Office will consider whether the organisation is genuine and operating lawfully in the UK, whether it is capable of carrying out its sponsor duties and whether there are reasons why it should not be trusted to participate in the sponsorship system.
Eligibility is therefore not simply a question of whether an organisation wants to recruit an overseas worker. The applicant must demonstrate that it is an appropriate organisation to hold a sponsor licence and that it has the systems and personnel needed to manage sponsorship.
A range of organisations can potentially apply for a sponsor licence, including:
The organisation must be able to demonstrate that it has a genuine presence and is operating lawfully where required by the applicable sponsor guidance.
The precise evidence required will depend on the organisation, its circumstances and the sponsorship route being requested.
The Home Office will generally consider whether the organisation:
The organisation must also apply for the sponsorship licence type appropriate to the workers it intends to sponsor.
The Home Office needs to be satisfied that the applicant is a genuine organisation operating lawfully in the UK.
Evidence will depend on the nature of the organisation.
The supporting documents required for sponsor licence applications are principally addressed in Appendix A to the sponsor guidance.
Depending on the organisation, evidence can relate to matters such as its registration, regulatory position, tax arrangements, business premises and trading activities.
The application should be made by the correct legal entity.
This is particularly important where a business operates through:
A sponsor licence belongs to the licensed organisation. It should not be assumed that a licence held by one group company automatically permits another legal entity within the group to sponsor workers.
The Home Office will consider whether the organisation is genuine and operating lawfully.
The evidence required will depend on the applicant’s circumstances, and different considerations can apply to newly established organisations and particular types of applicant.
A new organisation is not necessarily prevented from obtaining a sponsor licence simply because it has a limited trading history.
However, it must still satisfy the relevant Home Office requirements and provide the required supporting evidence.
An applicant needs to be capable of carrying out its sponsor duties.
The Home Office can assess the organisation’s systems for managing matters such as:
The Home Office does not require every organisation to use a particular HR software system.
A smaller employer can use relatively simple processes, provided those processes allow it to meet its sponsor duties effectively.
The key question is whether the organisation can demonstrate effective control over sponsorship.
The organisation must appoint individuals to undertake the key sponsor licence roles.
These include:
The individuals appointed must satisfy the requirements applying to the relevant role.
The Home Office can consider matters including the individuals’ connection with the organisation and their suitability to undertake sponsorship functions.
Key personnel are considered in more detail in Section D.
Eligibility and suitability are related but distinct issues.
An organisation can be a genuine operating business but still encounter sponsor licence problems because of suitability concerns.
The Home Office can consider matters relating to the organisation and relevant individuals involved with it, including previous immigration compliance and conduct falling within the suitability provisions of the sponsor guidance.
This can include, depending on the circumstances, issues involving:
The precise effect depends on the applicable sponsor guidance and the facts of the case.
Previous sponsorship history can affect a new application.
For example, where an organisation, relevant individual or connected entity has previously been involved with a sponsor licence that was revoked, surrendered in particular circumstances or subject to compliance action, the Home Office can consider that history when assessing the new application.
Restrictions can also apply to making another sponsor licence application following certain Home Office decisions.
Changing the corporate vehicle does not necessarily remove the significance of previous sponsor compliance history.
Where an organisation intends to sponsor workers, the roles must satisfy the requirements of the relevant immigration route.
The Home Office can scrutinise whether a proposed sponsored role is genuine.
A role should reflect an actual vacancy within the organisation and should not have been created or structured primarily to enable an individual to obtain immigration permission.
For Skilled Worker sponsorship, the role must also satisfy the applicable route requirements, including those relating to eligible occupations and salary.
Holding a sponsor licence does not allow an organisation to sponsor any worker for any job.
An organisation can apply for a sponsor licence because it expects to need sponsorship for its recruitment.
However, the Home Office can ask for information about the roles the organisation intends to sponsor and the reasons sponsorship is required.
The applicant should therefore understand its proposed sponsorship requirements before applying.
This includes identifying:
Proposed role → Relevant immigration route → Occupation → Salary → Expected sponsorship requirement
The organisation should be able to explain its intended use of the licence credibly.
Sponsor licence applications generally require supporting documents and information.
The precise requirements depend on the type of organisation and sponsorship route.
Applicants should identify the required evidence under the current sponsor guidance before submitting the online application.
The documents should relate to the organisation applying for the licence and should be consistent with the information provided in the application.
Supporting documentation is considered further in Section C.
The Home Office can conduct a compliance check before deciding a sponsor licence application.
This can be used to assess whether the organisation is capable of meeting its sponsor duties and whether the information in the application reflects the reality of the business.
UKVI can examine areas such as:
An organisation should therefore be compliance-ready when it submits its application rather than assuming that systems can be created after the licence has been granted.
A sponsor licence application can encounter difficulties where, for example:
The precise consequence will depend on the particular requirement and circumstances.
Before applying, an organisation should establish:
Legal entity
Who is actually applying?
↓
Business evidence
Can the organisation demonstrate its status and lawful operation?
↓
Sponsorship requirement
Which routes and roles are required?
↓
Key personnel
Are suitable individuals available?
↓
HR systems
Can sponsor duties be met?
↓
Compliance history
Are there issues that could affect suitability?
↓
Supporting documents
Can the required evidence be provided?
This assessment can identify potential problems before the application is submitted.
To qualify for a sponsor licence, an organisation must satisfy the Home Office that it meets the relevant eligibility and suitability requirements, including being a genuine organisation operating lawfully and being capable of carrying out its sponsor duties. The Home Office can examine the applicant’s systems, key personnel, proposed sponsorship activity and compliance history and can conduct a pre-licence compliance check before deciding the application.
An organisation that meets the relevant eligibility and suitability requirements can apply to the Home Office for a sponsor licence.
The application process requires more than completing an online form. The organisation needs to determine which sponsorship routes it requires, appoint suitable key personnel, prepare the required supporting evidence and demonstrate that it is capable of meeting its sponsor duties.
The application should therefore be prepared around the organisation that will actually employ and sponsor the workers.
The sponsor licence application process broadly involves:
Confirm eligibility and suitability
↓
Identify the sponsorship routes required
↓
Appoint key personnel
↓
Prepare supporting documents and information
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Complete the online sponsor licence application
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Pay the applicable application fee
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Submit the required supporting evidence
↓
Respond to any Home Office enquiries or compliance activity
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Receive the Home Office decision
The organisation should complete the preparatory work before submitting the online application.
The organisation needs to identify the routes under which it intends to sponsor workers.
Sponsor licences are broadly divided between Worker and Temporary Worker routes.
For many employers recruiting overseas workers into longer-term roles, the principal route will be Skilled Worker.
Other routes apply to particular categories of sponsored work.
The organisation should apply for the routes that correspond with its genuine recruitment requirements rather than assuming that one sponsor licence category automatically covers every form of sponsored employment.
The application is made on behalf of the organisation seeking the licence.
Before applying, it is important to identify the correct legal entity.
For businesses operating through groups or multiple entities, the applicant should establish:
Which entity will employ the workers?
Which entity requires permission to sponsor them?
Which entity is providing the supporting evidence?
The sponsor licence is granted to the licensed organisation and cannot simply be treated as belonging to the wider corporate group.
As part of the application, the organisation must nominate the individuals who will undertake the required sponsor management roles.
These include:
The individuals nominated must satisfy the applicable Home Office requirements.
The same person can hold more than one key personnel role where the relevant requirements are met.
The roles and responsibilities of key personnel are considered in Section D.
Most sponsor licence applications require supporting documents.
The requirements are principally set out in Appendix A to the sponsor guidance.
The precise documents depend on factors such as:
Applicants should therefore determine the evidence required for their particular organisation rather than relying on a generic document checklist.
For many applications, the sponsor guidance requires the organisation to provide a specified minimum number of documents from the documents permitted under Appendix A.
However, the precise documentary requirement varies according to the type of organisation and the circumstances.
Certain organisations can be subject to different evidential requirements, while additional information or documents can be required for particular routes or applications.
The correct approach is therefore to work through the current Appendix A requirements for the specific applicant.
The Home Office can require information beyond the core supporting documents.
Depending on the application, this can include information about:
The information should be consistent with the organisation’s supporting evidence and actual business operations.
Before submitting the application, the organisation should check that the information provided across the application is consistent.
For example:
Legal entity name should correspond with the supporting evidence.
Trading and operating information should reflect the organisation’s actual activities.
Key personnel should satisfy the relevant requirements.
Proposed sponsored roles should correspond with genuine recruitment requirements.
Supporting documents should relate to the organisation making the application.
Inconsistencies can result in Home Office enquiries and can undermine confidence in the application.
Sponsor licence applications are made using the Home Office online application process.
The organisation will provide information about itself, the routes for which it wishes to be licensed and its nominated key personnel.
The applicable sponsor licence application fee is paid as part of the process.
Home Office fees can change, so the organisation should check the current fee applicable to its circumstances when applying.
Sponsor licence costs are considered further in Section M.
The required supporting documents and information must be provided in accordance with the procedure and deadline specified by the Home Office.
Applicants should ensure that:
The organisation should not assume that UKVI will give it an opportunity to correct every evidential deficiency after submission.
The Home Office will assess whether the organisation meets the requirements for a sponsor licence.
UKVI can:
The organisation should monitor correspondence relating to the application and respond within any deadlines imposed by the Home Office.
UKVI can conduct a compliance check before deciding whether to grant the licence.
The purpose can include assessing whether the organisation genuinely operates as described and whether it has systems capable of meeting its sponsor duties.
The Home Office can examine matters such as:
Applicants should therefore have functioning compliance arrangements when they apply.
Home Office processing times are subject to change and should be checked when the application is made.
Processing can also take longer where UKVI:
Employers should therefore build sufficient time into international recruitment plans.
A proposed worker cannot simply begin sponsored employment because the organisation has submitted a sponsor licence application.
An eligible applicant may be able to request expedited consideration through the Home Office’s pre-licence priority service, subject to the current eligibility requirements, availability and applicable fee.
Priority processing does not relax the substantive requirements for obtaining a licence and does not guarantee that the application will be approved.
Where UKVI needs further evidence or compliance activity, this can affect the overall timetable.
Where the application is successful, the organisation will be granted a sponsor licence for the approved routes.
The organisation can then access the sponsorship system through its authorised users and begin using the licence in accordance with the applicable requirements.
Depending on the route and worker, further steps can include:
Licence granted
↓
Appropriate CoS obtained or available
↓
CoS assigned
↓
Worker makes immigration application
↓
Immigration permission granted
↓
Prescribed right to work check completed
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Sponsored employment
Grant of the sponsor licence does not itself grant immigration permission to any worker.
Where the Home Office refuses the application, the organisation will not be able to sponsor workers under the licence it applied for.
There is no general statutory right of appeal against refusal of a sponsor licence application.
The organisation should examine the reason for refusal before deciding what to do next.
Depending on the circumstances, this can involve considering whether:
Submitting the same application again without addressing the reason for refusal can result in the same outcome.
A practical pre-application review should cover:
Applicant
Correct legal entity identified.
↓
Routes
Correct Worker or Temporary Worker routes selected.
↓
Key personnel
Suitable individuals appointed.
↓
Documents
Appendix A requirements identified and evidence prepared.
↓
Roles
Proposed sponsorship requirements understood.
↓
Systems
HR and compliance processes capable of meeting sponsor duties.
↓
History
Previous immigration or sponsor compliance issues identified.
↓
Application
Information checked for accuracy and consistency.
This preparation reduces avoidable application risk and helps ensure that the organisation is ready to operate as a licensed sponsor if approval is granted.
A sponsor licence application is made online to the Home Office, but organisations should first establish the correct applicant entity, sponsorship routes, key personnel, supporting documents and compliance systems. UKVI can request further information or conduct a pre-licence compliance check before reaching a decision. If the licence is granted, the organisation can begin sponsoring eligible workers under the approved routes, subject to the continuing requirements of the sponsorship system.
Our immigration lawyers help organisations at every stage of the sponsorship lifecycle.
A sponsor licence must be managed by individuals appointed to specific key personnel roles. These roles form part of the Home Office’s system for ensuring that responsibility for sponsorship is allocated to appropriate people within or connected with the sponsoring organisation.
The principal key personnel roles are:
The same individual can hold more than one of these roles where the relevant requirements are met.
The organisation remains responsible for compliance with its sponsor duties regardless of how responsibilities are divided between its key personnel.
The Authorising Officer is the senior and competent person responsible for the actions of the organisation’s staff and representatives who use the Sponsor Management System.
The role should therefore be held by an appropriately senior person with sufficient authority within the organisation to oversee sponsorship.
The Authorising Officer does not necessarily need to carry out the organisation’s routine SMS administration personally.
Their role is principally one of responsibility and oversight.
The organisation should ensure that the Authorising Officer understands the significance of the sponsor licence and has sufficient visibility of the systems used to manage sponsored workers.
The Authorising Officer should maintain appropriate oversight of the organisation’s sponsorship arrangements.
In practical terms, this can include ensuring that:
The Authorising Officer should not be treated simply as a name required for the sponsor licence application.
The Key Contact acts as the main point of contact between the sponsoring organisation and the Home Office in relation to the sponsor licence.
The Key Contact can therefore receive communications concerning sponsorship matters.
The role is distinct from that of the Authorising Officer.
The Authorising Officer provides senior oversight of sponsorship, while the Key Contact primarily provides the communication link with the Home Office.
A Level 1 User is responsible for carrying out day-to-day sponsor management activity through the Sponsor Management System.
Level 1 Users can undertake a broad range of SMS functions permitted by the Home Office.
Depending on the circumstances and the permissions available, these can include:
Because Level 1 Users can carry out significant actions on behalf of the sponsor, access to the SMS should be carefully controlled.
Yes, one individual can potentially act as:
Authorising Officer + Key Contact + Level 1 User
provided they satisfy the Home Office requirements applying to each role.
This is common in smaller organisations.
Larger sponsors may prefer to separate the roles between different individuals to provide greater operational resilience and oversight.
The appropriate structure will depend on the organisation.
External representatives can undertake certain sponsorship functions where permitted by the sponsor guidance.
However, the Home Office places requirements on who can perform particular roles and on the organisation’s own involvement in managing its licence.
An organisation should therefore not assume that it can outsource responsibility for the sponsor licence entirely to an immigration adviser.
Even where an external representative is permitted to access or assist with the SMS, the licensed organisation remains responsible for complying with its sponsor duties.
The Home Office imposes requirements relating to the people appointed to key personnel roles.
Depending on the particular role and circumstances, the sponsor guidance can impose requirements concerning matters such as:
The organisation should check the current sponsor guidance before making an appointment.
The Home Office can consider the suitability of individuals involved in managing a sponsor licence.
An appointment can create problems where the proposed individual has relevant immigration, criminal or sponsor compliance history.
This is particularly important where an individual has previously been involved with an organisation whose sponsor licence was subject to Home Office enforcement.
The applicant should therefore assess key personnel before naming them in the sponsor licence application.
Key personnel arrangements need to remain current throughout the life of the licence.
If an Authorising Officer, Key Contact or SMS user leaves the organisation or ceases to perform the relevant role, the sponsor should take the action required under the sponsor guidance.
This can include updating the licence and appointing an appropriate replacement.
The organisation should not wait until it needs to undertake an urgent sponsorship action before discovering that its recorded personnel or SMS access arrangements are no longer workable.
Sponsors should ensure they retain appropriate Level 1 User access to the SMS.
Reliance on a single operational user can create risk if that person:
The organisation should structure SMS access so that required sponsor activity can continue when personnel change.
This is particularly important because sponsor reporting requirements can be subject to strict time limits.
Sponsor Management System access should be treated as privileged regulatory access.
Users should not share their SMS credentials with other individuals.
The organisation should maintain control over:
Access should be reviewed when employees change roles or leave the organisation.
The formal Home Office roles should sit within a wider internal governance structure.
For example:
Authorising Officer
Senior sponsor oversight
↓
Level 1 Users
Operational SMS management
↓
HR / Recruitment / Payroll
Identify sponsorship events
↓
Line Managers
Escalate worker changes
This helps ensure that information reaches the individuals capable of taking the required sponsorship action.
The Level 1 User cannot report a change that nobody within the business tells them has occurred.
During Home Office compliance activity, UKVI can examine how the organisation manages its sponsor licence.
The organisation should be able to explain:
Who has overall responsibility?
Who communicates with the Home Office?
Who operates the SMS?
How are relevant changes identified?
How are those changes communicated to the sponsor team?
How is SMS access controlled?
The Home Office can therefore look beyond the names recorded on the licence and consider whether the sponsor’s governance arrangements work in practice.
Sponsors should periodically review their key personnel and SMS arrangements.
A review can consider:
Changes should be dealt with in accordance with the applicable Home Office requirements.
A practical governance check can be structured as:
Authorising Officer
Appropriate seniority → Current → Understands sponsor responsibilities
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Key Contact
Current → Contactable → Correct details recorded
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Level 1 Users
Eligible → Trained → Sufficient coverage → Access controlled
↓
Internal teams
Know what events must be escalated
↓
Review
Personnel and SMS access checked periodically
This helps prevent sponsor management from becoming dependent on outdated personnel arrangements.
Sponsor licences are managed through three principal key personnel roles: the Authorising Officer, Key Contact and Level 1 User. The same person can hold more than one role where the applicable requirements are met. Sponsors should ensure their key personnel remain suitable and current, maintain appropriate Level 1 User coverage and control access to the Sponsor Management System. The organisation itself remains responsible for sponsor compliance even where external advisers assist with sponsorship administration.
Book a telephone consultation for legal advice specific to your organisation.
BOOK NOWThe Sponsor Management System (SMS) is the Home Office online system used by licensed sponsors to manage their sponsor licence and carry out sponsorship activity.
Once a sponsor licence has been granted, authorised users access the SMS to perform functions such as assigning Certificates of Sponsorship, reporting specified changes relating to sponsored workers and updating certain information about the sponsoring organisation.
The SMS is therefore the principal administrative interface between a licensed sponsor and the Home Office.
The SMS is the online platform through which sponsors administer their licence.
Depending on the sponsor’s licence, routes and user permissions, the system is used for activities including:
The SMS should not be viewed simply as an administrative portal. Actions taken through the system form part of the sponsor’s regulatory record.
Access to the SMS is restricted to authorised users.
The principal operational role is the Level 1 User.
Level 1 Users have broad access to sponsor management functions and can undertake significant actions on behalf of the organisation.
Sponsors can also appoint Level 2 Users where appropriate. Level 2 Users have more restricted permissions than Level 1 Users and can perform only specified functions within the system.
The organisation should ensure that individuals given SMS access satisfy the applicable Home Office requirements.
Level 1 Users carry out much of the day-to-day administration of the sponsor licence.
Their functions can include:
The exact functions available depend on the sponsor’s circumstances and the permissions provided by the system.
Because these actions can have immigration and compliance consequences, Level 1 User access should be limited to appropriate individuals.
A Level 2 User is an SMS user with more limited permissions.
Level 2 access can be useful where an organisation wants an individual to undertake specified sponsorship functions without providing the wider access available to a Level 1 User.
The sponsor should determine what level of access an individual actually requires rather than providing broader permissions as a matter of convenience.
SMS access should be treated as sensitive regulatory access.
Each authorised user should use their own credentials.
Login details should not be shared between colleagues or used as a general departmental account.
The organisation should maintain oversight of:
Where an SMS user leaves the organisation or changes responsibilities, their access should be addressed promptly in accordance with the applicable requirements.
One of the most important SMS functions is the assignment of Certificates of Sponsorship.
Before assigning a CoS, the sponsor should ensure that the proposed sponsorship satisfies the requirements of the relevant immigration route.
The process should not be treated as simply entering information into the SMS.
A suitable internal process can be:
Sponsorship request
↓
Role and worker assessed
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Relevant route identified
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CoS information checked
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Internal approval obtained
↓
Authorised user assigns CoS
The sponsor remains responsible for the accuracy of the information provided through the SMS.
Certificates of Sponsorship are considered in more detail in Section F.
Sponsors are required to report specified changes and events relating to sponsored workers.
Depending on the circumstances, reportable matters can include changes concerning:
Not every employment change is dealt with in the same way. Some changes can be reportable through the SMS, while others can have wider sponsorship or immigration consequences.
The organisation should therefore assess the immigration implications of a proposed change rather than assuming that making an SMS report is always sufficient.
The SMS is also used to notify the Home Office of specified changes relating to the sponsor itself.
These can include relevant changes concerning matters such as:
Corporate changes can have consequences beyond a routine SMS update.
For example, some changes involving ownership, legal entities, mergers or business transfers can affect whether an existing licence can continue to be used.
These issues are considered further in Section K on organisation changes.
Sponsor reporting duties are subject to Home Office deadlines.
The applicable timeframe depends on the type of change or event.
Sponsors should therefore have internal systems that allow reportable events to reach the appropriate SMS user promptly.
The practical compliance chain is:
Business or worker event
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Relevant employee identifies change
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Sponsor team notified
↓
Immigration consequence assessed
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SMS action taken within applicable deadline
The practical compliance chain is:
A technically capable Level 1 User cannot protect the organisation from late reporting if relevant information does not reach them in time.
Information submitted through the SMS should be accurate.
This applies both to Certificates of Sponsorship and to reports or requests made after the licence has been granted.
Sponsors should take care when entering information concerning matters such as:
Errors should be addressed in accordance with the applicable sponsor guidance.
Repeated or material inaccuracies can create compliance concerns.
The SMS should not be the organisation’s only source of sponsorship information.
The sponsor should maintain its own appropriate records of:
This allows the organisation to reconcile its own records against the information held within the sponsorship system.
For significant sponsorship actions, the organisation should be able to establish:
The practical compliance chain is:
What happened?
When did it happen?
Who identified it?
What immigration assessment was made?
What SMS action was taken?
When was it taken?
Maintaining an internal audit trail can help the sponsor demonstrate how it manages its compliance responsibilities.
It can also make internal audits and responses to Home Office enquiries more effective.
UKVI can examine SMS activity when assessing sponsor compliance.
The Home Office can compare information recorded through the sponsorship system with:
The sponsor should therefore ensure that the information it provides through the SMS reflects the reality of the sponsored employment.
Problems can arise where:
These are governance problems as much as technical SMS problems.
Sponsors should periodically review SMS users.
A practical review can ask:
Who currently has access?
Are they still employed or otherwise appropriately authorised?
Do they remain eligible?
Do they require their current level of access?
Is there sufficient Level 1 User coverage?
Should any access be removed?
This is particularly important following staff departures or internal restructuring.
The SMS records and communicates sponsorship activity, but it does not identify every compliance issue automatically.
The organisation still needs systems capable of identifying events that require action.
For example:
Line manager changes worker’s duties
↓
HR identifies sponsorship implications
↓
Sponsor team assesses the change
↓
Required SMS or immigration action is taken
The weakness often occurs before the SMS stage.
Effective sponsor management therefore depends on connecting the SMS with the organisation’s wider HR and management processes.
The Sponsor Management System is the Home Office online platform used by licensed sponsors to administer their licence, assign Certificates of Sponsorship and report specified worker and organisational changes. Access should be restricted to authorised users, information submitted through the system should be accurate and reporting deadlines must be met. Sponsors should integrate SMS administration with their wider HR and compliance systems so that relevant changes are identified and acted on promptly.
Book a telephone consultation for legal advice specific to your organisation.
BOOK NOWA Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) is an electronic record assigned by a licensed sponsor to a worker it intends to sponsor under an eligible immigration route.
Despite its name, a CoS is not a physical or paper certificate. It is created and assigned electronically through the Sponsor Management System and has a unique reference number that the worker uses when making the relevant immigration application.
Assigning a CoS is a significant sponsor action. Before assignment, the organisation should be satisfied that the worker and proposed role meet the applicable sponsorship requirements and that the information recorded on the CoS is accurate.
A Certificate of Sponsorship links three important elements of the sponsorship process:
Sponsor → Worker → Sponsored role
The CoS contains information relevant to the worker’s immigration application, which can include:
The Home Office uses this information when considering the worker’s immigration application.
No.
A CoS does not grant immigration permission and does not itself establish a right to work in the UK.
The worker uses the CoS reference when applying under the relevant sponsored immigration route.
The sequence is:
Licensed Sponsor
↓
Certificate of Sponsorship
↓
Worker Immigration Application
↓
Home Office Decision
↓
Immigration Permission, if granted
The worker must independently satisfy the requirements of the relevant immigration route.
Under the Skilled Worker route, Certificates of Sponsorship are divided into Defined and Undefined CoS.
The correct type depends principally on the nature of the worker’s application.
Sponsors need to identify the correct CoS before assignment because the processes for obtaining and using Defined and Undefined CoS differ.
A Defined CoS is generally required when sponsoring a Skilled Worker who is applying for entry clearance from outside the UK.
The sponsor requests the Defined CoS through the Sponsor Management System.
The Home Office considers the request before the CoS becomes available for assignment.
The sponsor must provide the required information about the proposed role when making the request.
Once the Defined CoS has been granted to the sponsor, it can be assigned to the relevant worker.
Undefined CoS are used for Skilled Worker applications where a Defined CoS is not required, including relevant in-country applications, and for other routes where the Undefined CoS system applies.
Sponsors can have an annual allocation of Undefined CoS.
Where the organisation does not have sufficient CoS available, it may need to request an increase or otherwise obtain the required allocation through the Sponsor Management System.
Sponsors should therefore monitor their CoS requirements as part of workforce planning.
Holding a sponsor licence does not necessarily mean that the organisation has an unlimited number of Certificates of Sponsorship available.
The sponsor needs to manage its CoS position through the SMS.
Depending on the type of CoS, this can involve:
Organisations planning substantial international recruitment should consider CoS availability before committing to immigration-dependent start dates.
Before assignment, the sponsor should confirm that the proposed sponsorship satisfies the relevant requirements.
A pre-assignment check can include:
Worker
Is the individual eligible for the proposed sponsored route?
↓
Role
Is there a genuine role that meets the applicable sponsorship requirements?
↓
Occupation code
Has the appropriate occupation code been identified?
↓
Duties
Do the actual duties correspond with the occupation being sponsored?
↓
Salary
Does the proposed remuneration satisfy the applicable requirements?
↓
Hours
Are the working hours correctly recorded and compatible with the salary assessment?
↓
Location
Is the work location accurately stated?
↓
Dates
Are the proposed employment and sponsorship dates accurate?
↓
CoS type
Is the correct type of CoS being used?
Only after these matters have been checked should the CoS be assigned.
For sponsored routes where occupation eligibility is relevant, the sponsor needs to identify the appropriate occupation code for the role.
The code should be based on the actual duties of the position rather than selected simply because its title appears convenient.
Job titles alone are not determinative.
Two employers can use the same job title for materially different roles, while two differently titled roles can potentially involve substantially similar duties.
The sponsor should therefore consider the substance of the job.
The salary recorded on the CoS should accurately reflect the sponsored employment and satisfy the requirements of the relevant immigration route.
For Skilled Worker sponsorship, salary eligibility can depend on several factors under the Immigration Rules.
The sponsor should therefore assess the applicable salary requirement for the individual sponsorship rather than relying on a single universal Skilled Worker salary figure.
Salary information should also be consistent with the worker’s employment arrangements.
Working hours can be relevant to sponsorship eligibility and salary calculations.
The sponsor should accurately record the working arrangements required by the CoS and ensure that the employment documentation and payroll arrangements correspond with the sponsorship information.
Where hours or salary subsequently change, the sponsor should assess whether this creates a reporting requirement or a more significant immigration consequence.
The CoS should accurately reflect the worker’s work location or locations as required.
Changes to where a sponsored worker performs their role can have sponsor reporting implications.
Employers operating hybrid, remote or multi-site working arrangements should therefore ensure that sponsorship records remain consistent with the worker’s actual working arrangements and current Home Office requirements.
The sponsor is responsible for the information it provides when assigning a Certificate of Sponsorship.
The organisation should therefore check the CoS carefully before assignment.
Particular attention should be given to:
Errors can affect the worker’s immigration application and can also create sponsor compliance issues.
The appropriate action depends on the nature of the error and when it is identified.
Some matters can potentially be addressed through the mechanisms available within the sponsorship system, while more significant errors can require different action.
Sponsors should therefore not assume that every mistake can simply be corrected by adding a note after assignment.
The current sponsor guidance should be followed for the particular error.
A Certificate of Sponsorship must be used for the worker’s immigration application within the validity period specified by the Immigration Rules and sponsor guidance.
Sponsors should check the applicable timeframe when assigning the CoS.
A CoS should not be assigned substantially in advance without considering when the worker will actually be able to make the relevant application.
A fee is generally payable when a sponsor assigns a Certificate of Sponsorship.
The applicable amount depends on the sponsorship route and current Home Office fee structure.
This is separate from:
Sponsor licence costs are considered in Section M on costs.
The Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) applies to specified sponsorship under the Skilled Worker and Senior or Specialist Worker routes, subject to the applicable rules and exemptions.
Where payable, it is a sponsor-side charge associated with the sponsorship of the worker.
The amount can depend on matters including the size or status of the sponsor and the duration of sponsorship.
The sponsor must not pass the Immigration Skills Charge on to the sponsored worker.
Sponsors should be careful when seeking to recover sponsorship-related costs from workers.
Home Office requirements restrict the passing of specified sponsorship costs to sponsored workers.
Employers should therefore distinguish between:
Sponsor-side costs
and
Worker-side immigration costs
before using contractual repayment or clawback provisions.
A general contractual provision stating that an employee must repay all immigration costs does not override restrictions imposed by the sponsor regime.
For organisations sponsoring workers regularly, CoS assignment should be subject to an internal approval process.
For example:
Recruitment identifies sponsorship requirement
↓
HR confirms employment details
↓
Immigration eligibility checked
↓
Occupation code and salary reviewed
↓
CoS information prepared
↓
Authorised approval
↓
Level 1 User assigns CoS
This helps prevent certificates from being assigned solely as an administrative response to a recruitment request.
UKVI can compare information recorded on the CoS with the worker’s actual employment.
For example:
CoS job duties ↔ Actual duties
CoS salary ↔ Payroll
CoS hours ↔ Working arrangements
CoS location ↔ Actual work location
Material discrepancies can create sponsor compliance concerns.
The CoS should therefore reflect the genuine employment arrangement at the point of sponsorship, with subsequent changes dealt with in accordance with the applicable sponsor requirements.
A CoS is assigned by a particular sponsor to a particular worker for the relevant sponsored employment.
It cannot simply be transferred between employers.
Where a sponsored worker changes employer in circumstances requiring new sponsorship, the new employer will generally need to hold the appropriate sponsor licence and assign a new CoS, with the worker taking any required immigration action.
Separate provisions can apply in certain corporate transfer situations, which are considered in Section K on organisation changes.
Sponsors should periodically reconcile CoS records against actual sponsored employment.
A practical review can examine:
CoS
↓
Worker
↓
Immigration permission
↓
Job
↓
Occupation code
↓
Salary
↓
Hours
↓
Location
↓
Current employment position
This can identify discrepancies before they develop into wider compliance problems.
A Certificate of Sponsorship is the electronic record through which a licensed sponsor supports an eligible worker’s application under a sponsored immigration route. It does not itself grant immigration permission. Sponsors should use the correct type of CoS, verify the role, occupation code, salary and other information before assignment, and ensure that the sponsored worker’s actual employment remains consistent with the sponsorship arrangements.
Book a telephone consultation for legal advice specific to your organisation.
BOOK NOWHolding a sponsor licence places ongoing duties on the sponsoring organisation. These duties apply throughout the period in which the organisation holds and uses its licence and are central to the Home Office sponsorship regime.
The purpose of the sponsor duties is to ensure that licensed organisations maintain appropriate oversight of the workers they sponsor, keep specified records, report relevant changes and use the sponsorship system in accordance with the Immigration Rules and sponsor guidance.
Sponsor duties should therefore be incorporated into the organisation’s HR and management processes rather than treated as a one-off requirement associated with obtaining the licence.
The principal sponsor duties can broadly be grouped into:
The precise requirements depend on the sponsored route and circumstances.
Sponsors must retain specified records relating to the workers they sponsor.
The Home Office’s document retention requirements are principally set out in Appendix D to the sponsor guidance.
Required records can include, depending on the worker and circumstances:
The sponsor should ensure records are retained for the required period and can be produced if requested by the Home Office.
Sponsors are expected to maintain systems that allow them to monitor relevant aspects of sponsored workers’ employment.
This includes maintaining appropriate oversight of matters such as:
The Home Office does not prescribe one universal HR system that every sponsor must use.
The organisation must, however, have systems capable of enabling it to meet its sponsor duties in practice.
Sponsors must report specified changes and events to the Home Office within the applicable reporting periods.
Reportable events can relate both to individual sponsored workers and to the sponsoring organisation.
Worker-related matters can include specified changes concerning:
Organisational matters can include specified changes to the sponsor’s:
The precise reporting requirement and deadline depend on the particular event.
One of the main practical difficulties for sponsors is ensuring that the people operating the Sponsor Management System are told when a relevant change occurs.
For example:
Line manager changes a worker’s duties
↓
HR is informed
↓
Sponsor team identifies immigration implications
↓
Required action is determined
↓
SMS report made within the applicable timeframe
The sponsor therefore needs internal escalation processes as well as technically competent SMS users.
Sponsors should maintain the contact information required under the sponsor guidance for sponsored workers.
Where relevant details change, the organisation should update its internal records.
A practical system should allow the sponsor to maintain appropriate current information for the worker rather than relying solely on details collected when employment began.
Sponsors need systems capable of monitoring sponsored workers’ attendance and identifying relevant absences.
The organisation should be able to establish whether a sponsored worker is attending work as expected and investigate circumstances where they are not.
Where an absence or other event falls within a Home Office reporting requirement, the sponsor should take the required action within the applicable timeframe.
Changes to a sponsored worker’s employment should be assessed for immigration implications before implementation wherever possible.
Relevant changes can include:
Some changes can be dealt with through sponsor reporting.
Others can require a new Certificate of Sponsorship and a new immigration application before the worker can undertake the changed role.
The employer should therefore not assume that every employment change can be regularised simply by updating the SMS.
The sponsor should monitor the salary paid to sponsored workers and ensure that applicable immigration requirements continue to be met.
Where salary changes, the organisation should consider:
Does the new salary continue to satisfy the applicable route requirements?
Is the change permitted under the worker’s existing sponsorship?
Does the change need to be reported?
Is further immigration action required?
Payroll and HR processes should therefore be connected with sponsor compliance.
Periods of unpaid or reduced-pay absence can have sponsorship implications.
The sponsor guidance contains requirements dealing with sponsored workers who are absent from work without pay or on reduced pay, including specified exceptions.
The correct treatment depends on the reason for the absence, its duration and the applicable sponsorship provisions.
Sponsors should assess extended unpaid or reduced-pay absence rather than treating it solely as an employment or payroll issue.
Changes to where a sponsored worker performs their role can create reporting obligations.
This is particularly relevant for organisations operating:
The sponsor should ensure that the worker’s actual working arrangements remain appropriately reflected in its sponsorship records and that required reports are made.
Where a sponsored worker leaves the organisation or sponsorship otherwise ends, the sponsor can be required to report this to the Home Office.
This can include circumstances such as:
The sponsor should have a process linking employee termination with sponsorship reporting.
Ending the employment relationship and ending sponsorship are related but distinct processes.
Sponsor licence holders remain subject to the UK’s separate prevention of illegal working regime.
Sponsorship does not replace the employer’s obligation to undertake the prescribed right to work check.
The organisation should therefore ensure that sponsored workers have the required permission to undertake the work and that the prescribed evidence is obtained and retained.
Where follow-up checks are required, these should be carried out at the appropriate time.
Sponsors are expected to comply with wider UK law.
Depending on the organisation and circumstances, this can include legal obligations relating to areas such as:
Sponsor compliance is therefore not isolated from the organisation’s wider legal obligations.
Licensed sponsors must cooperate with Home Office compliance activity.
UKVI can request information or documents and can conduct compliance checks in connection with the sponsor licence.
The organisation should be able to provide relevant records and explain how its sponsorship systems operate.
Failure to cooperate with the Home Office can itself create sponsor compliance problems.
Using an external immigration adviser, payroll provider, HR consultant or other third party does not transfer the sponsor’s regulatory responsibility to that provider.
The licensed organisation remains responsible for meeting its sponsor duties.
Where functions are outsourced, the sponsor should ensure that:
Line managers can play an important role because they may be the first people to know that a sponsored worker’s circumstances have changed.
Managers should know which events need to be escalated.
A practical internal rule is:
If a sponsored worker’s role, duties, pay, hours, location, attendance or employment status changes, notify the sponsor team before the change is implemented wherever possible.
The sponsor team can then determine whether Home Office action is required.
Sponsor duties should operate throughout the employment relationship:
Recruitment
Sponsorship requirements identified.
↓
Onboarding
Immigration status and right to work established; required records obtained.
↓
Employment
Attendance, contact information and sponsored employment monitored.
↓
Changes
Immigration implications assessed and required reports made.
↓
Immigration expiry
Continued permission and any further sponsorship addressed.
↓
Termination
Required sponsor reporting completed.
This lifecycle approach reduces the risk that sponsorship is treated as an issue only at recruitment.
Failure to comply with sponsor duties can result in Home Office enforcement action.
Depending on the nature of the breach and the applicable sponsor guidance, consequences can include:
Certain breaches can have more serious consequences than others, and the sponsor guidance distinguishes between different enforcement circumstances.
Compliance and Home Office audits are considered in Section H, while licence ratings and enforcement are addressed in Section I and Section J.
A practical sponsor compliance framework can be summarised as:
Records
Do we hold the required documents?
↓
Workers
Do we know where and how our sponsored workers are working?
↓
Changes
Can HR and managers identify immigration-relevant events?
↓
Reporting
Are required reports made within the applicable timeframe?
↓
Right to work
Do workers have the required permission and have prescribed checks been completed?
↓
Organisation
Are relevant business and licence details current?
↓
Home Office
Can we produce records and explain our systems if UKVI checks compliance?
Licensed sponsors have continuing duties relating to record keeping, worker monitoring, reporting, immigration compliance, wider UK law and cooperation with the Home Office. These duties should be integrated into the organisation’s HR and management systems throughout the sponsored worker lifecycle. Failure to meet sponsor duties can expose the organisation to Home Office enforcement and place the sponsor licence at risk.
Book a telephone consultation for legal advice specific to your organisation.
BOOK NOWThe Home Office can check whether a licensed sponsor is complying with its sponsor duties both before and after a sponsor licence is granted.
For existing sponsors, compliance activity can involve reviewing the organisation’s systems, records and sponsored workers to establish whether the sponsor continues to meet the requirements of the sponsorship regime.
A compliance check can be announced or unannounced. Sponsors should therefore maintain their systems on the basis that they need to be compliant throughout the life of the licence, rather than preparing only when a Home Office visit is expected.
A sponsor compliance check is an assessment by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) of an organisation’s compliance with its sponsorship obligations.
The Home Office can use compliance activity to examine whether the organisation:
Compliance checks can take place at different points in the sponsorship lifecycle.
UKVI can carry out a compliance check while considering a sponsor licence application.
The purpose can include testing whether the organisation is genuinely operating as described in its application and whether it is capable of carrying out its sponsor duties.
The Home Office can examine matters such as:
A sponsor licence applicant should therefore have appropriate systems in place when it applies.
The Home Office can also investigate compliance after a sponsor licence has been granted.
This can happen while the organisation is actively sponsoring workers and does not depend on the historic four-year sponsor licence renewal process.
UKVI can assess whether the sponsor’s actual practices continue to correspond with the requirements of the sponsorship regime.
Home Office compliance visits can be announced or unannounced.
Where advance notice is provided, the organisation should use the available time to organise the practical management of the visit and ensure that relevant personnel and records can be accessed.
An announced visit should not be treated as an opportunity to construct compliance retrospectively.
An unannounced visit can provide the Home Office with a more immediate view of how sponsorship systems operate in practice.
Sponsors should therefore maintain continuous audit readiness.
The scope of a compliance check depends on the circumstances, but UKVI can examine areas including:
The Home Office can compare information from different sources to determine whether the sponsor’s records are consistent.
Worker files are a central part of sponsor compliance.
For each sponsored worker, the organisation should be able to establish matters such as:
Who is the worker?
↓
What immigration permission do they hold?
↓
What CoS was assigned?
↓
What role were they sponsored to perform?
↓
What work are they actually performing?
↓
What are they being paid?
↓
Where are they working?
↓
Have relevant changes been reported?
The required documentary records should be maintained in accordance with Appendix D to the sponsor guidance.
UKVI can assess whether the role being performed corresponds with the role for which the worker was sponsored.
This can involve comparing:
Certificate of Sponsorship
with
Job description
with
Employment contract
with
Actual duties
The Home Office is not limited to considering the job title.
The substance of the work can be important when determining whether the sponsored role is genuine and whether the appropriate occupation code has been used.
Salary compliance can also be examined.
UKVI can compare the salary stated in the sponsorship records against:
The sponsor should be able to explain relevant differences and demonstrate that the worker continues to satisfy applicable sponsorship requirements.
Sponsors are required to maintain appropriate systems for monitoring sponsored workers.
During compliance activity, the Home Office can examine how the organisation identifies and records attendance and relevant absence.
The sponsor should be able to explain:
The appropriate system will depend on the organisation and working arrangements.
UKVI can examine whether sponsored workers are working at the locations recorded or otherwise notified through the sponsorship system.
This can be particularly relevant where workers:
The sponsor should ensure that actual working arrangements are assessed against applicable reporting requirements.
As part of compliance activity, Home Office officers can speak to sponsored workers and relevant employees.
Workers may be asked about matters such as:
The purpose is not to train workers to provide predetermined answers.
The organisation should instead ensure that the sponsored role genuinely operates in the manner represented to the Home Office.
UKVI can also examine whether the people responsible for sponsorship understand how the organisation manages its duties.
Relevant personnel may need to explain matters such as:
This can reveal whether compliance exists in practice rather than merely within written policies.
Written sponsor compliance policies can be useful, but they are not sufficient by themselves.
The Home Office can examine whether the organisation actually follows its stated procedures.
For example:
Policy says managers report sponsored worker changes to HR
↓
UKVI checks actual worker changes
↓
UKVI checks whether HR was notified
↓
UKVI checks whether required SMS reports were made
A sophisticated written policy can therefore create difficulties if the organisation cannot demonstrate that it operates the policy in practice.
Sponsors should maintain audit readiness through ongoing compliance rather than waiting for a visit.
A practical internal review can cover:
Licence
Rating → Routes → Key personnel → SMS users
Workers
CoS → Immigration status → Right to work → Employment
Roles
Occupation code → Duties → Salary → Hours → Location
Records
Appendix D documents → Contact details → Attendance
Reporting
Worker changes → Organisational changes → SMS history
Systems
Recruitment → HR → Payroll → Management escalation
Any discrepancies should be investigated.
Periodic internal audits can help identify weaknesses before they become Home Office enforcement issues.
An audit can test whether:
The frequency and scope of internal audits can be proportionate to the organisation’s size, sponsorship activity and risk profile.
The outcome depends on the nature and seriousness of the findings and the applicable sponsor guidance.
Potential outcomes can include:
The sponsor guidance distinguishes between different types of breach and enforcement consequences.
The Home Office does not necessarily respond to every compliance failure in the same way.
Where UKVI identifies potential problems, the organisation should establish the factual position before responding.
A useful approach is:
Home Office concern
↓
Applicable sponsor requirement
↓
Relevant worker or organisational records
↓
Facts established
↓
Breach confirmed or disputed
↓
Remedial action where required
↓
Home Office response
This helps distinguish genuine compliance failures from factual misunderstandings or incorrect assumptions.
Where an internal or Home Office audit identifies a genuine weakness, the organisation should consider both the immediate issue and its underlying cause.
For example:
Problem A worker’s change of work location was not reported.
Immediate action Assess and take the appropriate sponsor action.
Root cause The line manager did not notify HR.
System correction Introduce an immigration escalation requirement for sponsored worker location changes.
Remediation does not necessarily erase an historic breach, but correcting the underlying system can reduce the risk of recurrence.
A sponsor should be capable of answering six basic questions about each sponsored worker:
Who are they?
Why were they sponsored?
What role are they sponsored to perform?
What are they actually doing?
What are they being paid?
Have relevant changes been identified and reported?
The organisation should be able to answer these questions from its existing records and systems.
The Home Office can audit sponsor compliance before or after a licence is granted and can conduct announced or unannounced compliance activity. UKVI can examine sponsored workers, HR systems, records, CoS information, salaries, duties, reporting and wider licence management. Sponsors should maintain continuous audit readiness and periodically test their own systems so that compliance problems can be identified and addressed before they lead to Home Office enforcement.
Book a telephone consultation for legal advice specific to your organisation.
BOOK NOWSponsor licences are subject to a Home Office rating system. Organisations granted a sponsor licence will generally receive an A-rating, which allows them to carry out sponsorship activity under the routes covered by their licence.
Where an existing sponsor fails to meet certain sponsor requirements, the Home Office can in specified circumstances downgrade the licence from an A-rating to a B-rating.
A B-rating indicates that the sponsor must make specified improvements to its compliance arrangements under a Home Office action plan.
An A-rating is the standard rating for a sponsor that has been granted a licence and is permitted to undertake sponsorship activity in accordance with the scope of that licence.
An A-rated sponsor can, subject to the requirements of the relevant route:
An A-rating does not mean that the organisation is exempt from future Home Office scrutiny.
The sponsor remains subject to its ongoing duties and UKVI can conduct compliance activity while the licence remains in force.
A B-rating is a compliance rating that can be imposed on an existing sponsor in circumstances specified by the sponsor guidance.
A sponsor downgraded to a B-rating is required to follow a Home Office action plan designed to address identified compliance weaknesses.
The sponsor remains licensed, but restrictions apply while it is B-rated.
A B-rating should therefore be distinguished from suspension or revocation.
A-rating
Licence operating normally.
B-rating
Licence remains in force but is subject to an action plan and restrictions.
Suspension
Sponsorship activity is significantly restricted while Home Office concerns are considered.
Revocation
The sponsor licence is terminated.
Downgrading can arise where the Home Office identifies compliance failures and the applicable sponsor guidance allows the organisation to address them through an action plan.
Potential concerns can relate to areas such as:
Not every breach will result in downgrading.
Some breaches can lead to more serious enforcement action, including suspension or revocation, depending on the circumstances and the applicable sponsor guidance.
A sponsor action plan specifies improvements the organisation must make to address the compliance weaknesses identified by the Home Office.
The sponsor is required to comply with the action plan within the period specified by UKVI.
The plan can require improvements to areas such as:
The organisation should treat each requirement in the action plan as a formal regulatory obligation.
Yes. A sponsor that is downgraded and required to follow an action plan must pay the applicable Home Office fee.
Home Office fees are subject to change, so the current amount should be checked when the action plan is imposed.
Failure to pay the required fee can have consequences for the sponsor licence.
A B-rated sponsor is subject to restrictions while it works through its action plan.
In particular, the organisation’s ability to sponsor new workers can be restricted.
The sponsor should check the precise restrictions applying under the current sponsor guidance and its Home Office action plan before undertaking new sponsorship activity.
The organisation remains responsible for its existing sponsored workers and must continue complying with its sponsor duties.
Downgrading to a B-rating does not automatically terminate the immigration permission of workers already sponsored by the organisation.
The sponsor must continue to meet its duties in relation to those workers.
This includes, where applicable:
The organisation should therefore continue operating its sponsorship compliance systems while completing the action plan.
The organisation must satisfactorily complete the requirements imposed by the Home Office.
UKVI can assess whether the required improvements have been made.
The sponsor should be able to demonstrate not merely that new policies have been written, but that the required compliance improvements have actually been implemented.
For example:
Home Office identifies weak absence monitoring
↓
Sponsor introduces revised process
↓
Managers are trained
↓
Process is implemented
↓
Records demonstrate that it operates
↓
UKVI assesses compliance
The objective is operational improvement rather than documentation alone.
Failure to make the required improvements can result in further Home Office action.
Depending on the applicable sponsor guidance and circumstances, this can ultimately place the licence at risk of revocation.
The sponsor should therefore monitor completion of every action-plan requirement and retain evidence demonstrating the changes made.
No. A B-rating is intended to provide a limited opportunity to remedy specified compliance failures.
The sponsor cannot simply choose to remain permanently B-rated as an alternative to maintaining full sponsor compliance.
The action-plan process is designed to result in the organisation either making the required improvements or facing further consequences under the sponsor regime.
Downgrading and suspension serve different purposes.
A B-rating generally provides a structured opportunity for the sponsor to address specified compliance weaknesses through an action plan.
A suspension is a more serious enforcement measure under which the Home Office restricts sponsorship activity while it considers concerns about the organisation’s compliance or suitability.
The Home Office’s available response depends on the particular breach and the provisions of the sponsor guidance.
Sponsors can reduce the risk of downgrading by maintaining effective compliance systems and periodically testing them.
A practical review can examine:
Records
Are required documents retained?
↓
Monitoring
Can the organisation track sponsored workers appropriately?
↓
Reporting
Are relevant changes identified and reported?
↓
SMS
Is the licence being managed correctly?
↓
Key personnel
Are the appropriate people in place?
↓
Employment
Do sponsored roles, salaries and working arrangements remain compliant?
↓
Audit
Can the organisation demonstrate that its systems work in practice?
Weaknesses should be addressed before they develop into Home Office enforcement issues.
Where the Home Office downgrades the licence, the organisation should identify both the individual failures and their underlying causes.
For example:
Finding
Late sponsor reports.
↓
Immediate issue
Relevant changes were not reported within the required timeframe.
↓
Root cause
Line managers did not notify the sponsor team.
↓
Remediation
Introduce a mandatory escalation procedure and train managers.
↓
Evidence
Maintain records showing the revised process is operating.
This approach helps the organisation address the compliance system rather than merely correcting individual files.
Sponsors will generally hold an A-rated licence. Where specified compliance failures are identified, the Home Office can in appropriate circumstances downgrade an existing sponsor to a B-rating and require it to follow a paid action plan. Restrictions apply while the sponsor is B-rated, and failure to make the required improvements can result in further enforcement action. A B-rating is therefore a temporary remedial status rather than an alternative long-term form of sponsor licence.
Book a telephone consultation for legal advice specific to your organisation.
BOOK NOWThe Home Office can suspend or revoke a sponsor licence where it identifies serious concerns about an organisation’s compliance with its sponsor duties or its suitability to remain licensed.
Suspension and revocation are distinct enforcement measures.
Suspension restricts the organisation’s sponsorship activity while the Home Office considers compliance concerns.
Revocation brings the sponsor licence to an end.
Both can have significant consequences for the organisation, its recruitment activity and its sponsored workforce.
The Home Office can suspend a sponsor licence where it has grounds for concern about the sponsor’s compliance.
During suspension, the licence remains in existence, but the organisation’s ability to undertake new sponsorship activity is restricted.
The sponsor should continue to comply with its duties towards existing sponsored workers while the licence is suspended.
Suspension can arise following:
A compliance visit is therefore not required in every case before a licence can be suspended.
The Home Office will notify the sponsor of the suspension and the compliance concerns it has identified.
The organisation should examine the notice carefully and establish:
What allegations have been made?
Which sponsor requirements are engaged?
Which workers or records are involved?
What evidence is available?
What response deadline applies?
The sponsor should then investigate each allegation and prepare its response within the applicable timeframe.
A suspension response should be based on the specific allegations made by the Home Office.
A practical structure is:
Home Office allegation
↓
Applicable sponsor requirement
↓
Relevant facts
↓
Supporting evidence
↓
Accepted / Partially accepted / Disputed
↓
Remedial action where appropriate
↓
Sponsor representations
The organisation should avoid making unnecessary admissions before establishing the factual position.
Equally, where a compliance failure clearly occurred, the sponsor should consider how it can demonstrate that the issue has been understood and appropriately addressed.
Existing sponsored workers do not automatically lose their immigration permission merely because the sponsor licence has been suspended.
The sponsor remains responsible for complying with its duties towards those workers.
However, suspension can affect the organisation’s ability to sponsor new workers and can affect immigration applications connected with the sponsor.
The organisation should therefore identify any:
After considering the compliance concerns and any representations made by the sponsor, the Home Office can determine what further action is appropriate under the sponsor guidance.
Depending on the circumstances, this can include:
Reinstatement
The suspension is lifted and the licence continues.
Downgrading
Where permitted, the sponsor can be downgraded and required to follow an action plan.
Revocation
The sponsor licence is terminated.
The applicable outcome depends on the findings and the relevant enforcement provisions.
Revocation terminates the organisation’s sponsor licence.
Once the licence has been revoked, the organisation can no longer use that licence to sponsor workers.
Revocation is therefore fundamentally different from suspension.
Suspension = licence remains in existence while enforcement issues are considered.
Revocation = licence ends.
The sponsor guidance specifies circumstances in which the Home Office can or must revoke a licence.
Potential grounds can relate to matters such as:
The precise consequences depend on the particular breach and the applicable sponsor guidance.
An important distinction exists between circumstances where the sponsor guidance requires revocation and circumstances where the Home Office has discretion.
Where mandatory revocation applies, establishing the relevant facts can require the Home Office to revoke the licence.
Where the Home Office has discretion, the decision involves an assessment under the applicable sponsor guidance.
The first question in an enforcement case should therefore be:
What specific revocation provision is the Home Office relying on?
This determines the significance of factual challenges, remediation and other representations.
Revocation of the sponsor licence can have serious consequences for workers sponsored by the organisation.
The Home Office can take action affecting their immigration permission because the sponsorship on which that permission was based has ceased.
However, licence revocation should not be described as automatically cancelling every sponsored worker’s immigration permission at the exact moment the sponsor’s licence is revoked.
The individual worker’s position depends on their circumstances and any subsequent Home Office action affecting their permission.
Employers should therefore assess affected workers individually.
No universal rule guarantees every sponsored worker exactly 60 days following sponsor licence revocation.
Where the Home Office takes action to cancel a worker’s immigration permission following the loss of sponsorship, the resulting period depends on the applicable Immigration Rules, the worker’s existing permission and their individual circumstances.
Employers should therefore avoid telling sponsored workers automatically that they have “60 days to find another sponsor”.
The individual’s Home Office decision and immigration position need to be considered.
Sponsor licence status and an individual employee’s right to work are related but distinct issues.
The employer should establish:
What immigration permission does the worker currently hold?
Has the Home Office taken action against that permission?
Does the worker currently retain a right to work?
What restrictions apply?
Employment decisions should be based on the worker’s actual immigration and right to work position rather than on the licence revocation alone.
A sponsored worker affected by revocation may be able to obtain sponsorship from another appropriately licensed employer, provided the worker and new role satisfy the requirements of the relevant immigration route.
The new employer would ordinarily need to:
Hold the appropriate sponsor licence
↓
Offer an eligible role
↓
Assign a new Certificate of Sponsorship
↓
Worker makes the required immigration application
The former sponsor’s CoS cannot simply be transferred to the new employer.
There is no general statutory right of appeal against Home Office decisions to suspend or revoke a sponsor licence.
This makes the opportunity to respond to Home Office compliance concerns particularly important.
Where revocation has already occurred, the organisation should consider whether any applicable Home Office process is available and whether the decision may be susceptible to legal challenge.
An unlawful sponsor licence decision can potentially be challenged by judicial review.
Judicial review is concerned with the lawfulness of the Home Office’s decision-making rather than providing a general merits appeal.
Depending on the circumstances, relevant public law issues can include:
Judicial review is subject to strict procedural requirements and time limits. Organisations considering challenge should act promptly.
Suspension or revocation can extend beyond immigration administration.
The organisation may need to assess:
Immigration and employment law consequences should be considered together.
Where a sponsor receives a suspension or revocation decision, a practical response is:
Preserve evidence
↓
Identify every allegation and finding
↓
Identify the applicable sponsor guidance
↓
Establish the facts
↓
Assess whether findings are correct
↓
Determine whether the relevant consequence is mandatory or discretionary
↓
Take appropriate remedial action
↓
Assess representations or legal challenge
↓
Identify affected workers and pending applications
↓
Manage employment and operational consequences
This keeps the regulatory response separate from, but coordinated with, the organisation’s workforce response.
Suspension restricts a sponsor’s ability to use its licence while Home Office compliance concerns are considered, whereas revocation terminates the licence. Existing workers do not automatically lose their immigration permission merely because a licence is suspended, while revocation can lead to Home Office action affecting workers sponsored by the organisation. There is no general statutory appeal against suspension or revocation, although an unlawful decision may potentially be challenged by judicial review.
Book a telephone consultation for legal advice specific to your organisation.
BOOK NOWChanges to the structure, ownership or circumstances of a licensed sponsor can have significant implications for its sponsor licence.
A sponsor licence is granted to a specific organisation and is not transferable between legal entities. Corporate transactions and organisational changes should therefore be assessed from a sponsorship perspective, particularly where they affect the identity of the employer or the ownership and control of the licensed organisation.
Depending on the nature of the change, the sponsor may need to report it to the Home Office, provide supporting evidence, make changes through the Sponsor Management System or, in some circumstances, apply for a new sponsor licence.
Relevant changes can include:
Different changes have different sponsorship consequences.
The organisation should therefore establish the immigration implications of a proposed transaction before assuming that an existing sponsor licence will continue unchanged.
No. A sponsor licence cannot simply be transferred from one legal entity to another.
This is particularly important where a business or employees move between employers.
The fact that:
does not itself transfer the sponsor licence.
The organisation that will be responsible for sponsoring the workers must have the appropriate sponsor licence arrangements in place.
A change in ownership can have important sponsor licence consequences.
The precise effect depends on the legal structure of the transaction.
The sponsor should establish:
What entity currently holds the sponsor licence?
↓
What exactly is changing?
↓
Will the licensed legal entity continue to exist?
↓
Will the employer of the sponsored workers change?
↓
What reporting or licence action is required?
The commercial description of a transaction does not necessarily determine its sponsorship consequences.
In a share sale, the company whose shares are being acquired can remain the same legal entity even though its ownership changes.
This distinguishes a share acquisition from a transaction in which the business or employees move to a different legal entity.
However, changes in ownership can still have significant sponsor licence consequences under the Home Office sponsor guidance.
The sponsor should therefore assess the transaction rather than assuming that retention of the same employing company means no sponsorship action is required.
An asset sale can involve a business and its employees transferring from one legal entity to another.
Where sponsored workers move to a new employer, the existing sponsor licence does not transfer with them.
The acquiring organisation should establish whether it:
These issues should ideally be addressed as part of transaction planning rather than after completion.
The sponsor licence consequences of a merger or acquisition depend on how the transaction is legally structured.
Relevant questions include:
Which entity currently employs the sponsored workers?
Which entity holds the sponsor licence?
Which entities will exist after completion?
Who will employ the sponsored workers after completion?
Does the post-transaction employer hold the appropriate sponsor licence?
Are new sponsor licence arrangements required?
The answers determine what sponsorship action needs to be taken.
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) can protect employment rights where employees transfer between employers.
However, TUPE does not itself transfer a sponsor licence.
The sponsor guidance contains provisions dealing with sponsored workers affected by qualifying business transfers.
The organisations involved should therefore consider both:
Employment law
Does TUPE apply and what happens to the employment relationship?
and
Immigration law
What sponsor licence and Home Office action is required for the sponsored workers?
The two regimes interact but are not the same.
Where sponsored workers move between organisations as part of a qualifying corporate or business change, specific sponsorship provisions can apply.
Depending on the circumstances, the receiving organisation may be able to assume sponsorship responsibility for affected workers without each worker necessarily having to make a new immigration application solely because of the transfer.
However, this depends on the relevant sponsor requirements being satisfied.
The organisations should establish:
The position should not be assumed merely because TUPE applies.
Licensed sponsors must report specified organisational changes to the Home Office within the applicable timeframe.
The appropriate reporting mechanism depends on the nature of the change.
Some changes can be reported through the Sponsor Management System, while more fundamental changes can require additional action.
The sponsor should therefore determine:
What has changed?
↓
Is the change reportable?
↓
What reporting deadline applies?
↓
What evidence is required?
↓
Does the existing licence remain appropriate?
↓
Is a new sponsor licence required?
Corporate changes should not be treated as routine SMS updates without first considering their legal effect.
Changes to organisational details can require the sponsor licence record to be updated.
These can include changes to:
The sponsor should ensure that the information held by the Home Office remains accurate and provide supporting evidence where required.
A change in legal structure can be more significant than a simple change of business details.
For example, where a business moves from one legal entity to another, the sponsor licence implications should be considered because the licence belongs to the licensed entity.
The organisation should not assume that continuity of:
brand + premises + staff + management
necessarily means continuity of:
sponsor licence.
The legal identity of the sponsor is fundamental.
Insolvency events can also affect sponsor licensing.
The implications depend on the nature of the insolvency process and what happens to the licensed organisation and its business.
Where an organisation enters an insolvency process, relevant issues can include:
Immigration implications should therefore form part of insolvency and restructuring planning where sponsored workers are involved.
Where a business employing sponsored workers is being acquired, immigration compliance should form part of transaction due diligence.
Relevant information can include:
The buyer should understand both whether the workforce can continue to be sponsored and whether it is acquiring a business with existing immigration compliance risk.
Sponsor licence issues should ideally be addressed before completion.
A practical transaction review can be structured as:
Pre-transaction structure
Who employs the sponsored workers and who holds the licence?
↓
Transaction
What legal change is taking place?
↓
Post-transaction structure
Who will employ the workers?
↓
Sponsor position
Does that organisation hold the required licence?
↓
Worker position
Can existing sponsorship continue under the applicable transfer provisions?
↓
Home Office action
What reports, applications or evidence are required?
↓
Timing
When must each action be completed?
This allows immigration requirements to be incorporated into the transaction timetable.
Corporate transactions can operate to fixed commercial completion dates, while sponsor licence applications and Home Office processes operate to separate regulatory timetables.
Identifying a sponsor licence problem after completion can therefore create avoidable workforce risk.
Where sponsored workers are important to the business, the sponsor licence should be treated as part of the organisation’s regulatory infrastructure during transaction planning.
A sponsor licence belongs to the licensed organisation and cannot simply be transferred to another legal entity. Changes of ownership, mergers, acquisitions, TUPE transfers, restructurings and insolvency events can therefore create Home Office reporting requirements or require new sponsor licence arrangements. Organisations should assess the sponsorship consequences of corporate changes before implementation and identify the position of every affected sponsored worker as part of the transaction process.
Changes to the structure, ownership or circumstances of a licensed sponsor can have significant implications for its sponsor licence.
A sponsor licence is granted to a specific organisation and is not transferable between legal entities. Corporate transactions and organisational changes should therefore be assessed from a sponsorship perspective, particularly where they affect the identity of the employer or the ownership and control of the licensed organisation.
Depending on the nature of the change, the sponsor may need to report it to the Home Office, provide supporting evidence, make changes through the Sponsor Management System or, in some circumstances, apply for a new sponsor licence.
Relevant changes can include:
Different changes have different sponsorship consequences.
The organisation should therefore establish the immigration implications of a proposed transaction before assuming that an existing sponsor licence will continue unchanged.
No. A sponsor licence cannot simply be transferred from one legal entity to another.
This is particularly important where a business or employees move between employers.
The fact that:
does not itself transfer the sponsor licence.
The organisation that will be responsible for sponsoring the workers must have the appropriate sponsor licence arrangements in place.
A change in ownership can have important sponsor licence consequences.
The precise effect depends on the legal structure of the transaction.
The sponsor should establish:
What entity currently holds the sponsor licence?
↓
What exactly is changing?
↓
Will the licensed legal entity continue to exist?
↓
Will the employer of the sponsored workers change?
↓
What reporting or licence action is required?
The commercial description of a transaction does not necessarily determine its sponsorship consequences.
In a share sale, the company whose shares are being acquired can remain the same legal entity even though its ownership changes.
This distinguishes a share acquisition from a transaction in which the business or employees move to a different legal entity.
However, changes in ownership can still have significant sponsor licence consequences under the Home Office sponsor guidance.
The sponsor should therefore assess the transaction rather than assuming that retention of the same employing company means no sponsorship action is required.
An asset sale can involve a business and its employees transferring from one legal entity to another.
Where sponsored workers move to a new employer, the existing sponsor licence does not transfer with them.
The acquiring organisation should establish whether it:
These issues should ideally be addressed as part of transaction planning rather than after completion.
The sponsor licence consequences of a merger or acquisition depend on how the transaction is legally structured.
Relevant questions include:
Which entity currently employs the sponsored workers?
Which entity holds the sponsor licence?
Which entities will exist after completion?
Who will employ the sponsored workers after completion?
Does the post-transaction employer hold the appropriate sponsor licence?
Are new sponsor licence arrangements required?
The answers determine what sponsorship action needs to be taken.
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) can protect employment rights where employees transfer between employers.
However, TUPE does not itself transfer a sponsor licence.
The sponsor guidance contains provisions dealing with sponsored workers affected by qualifying business transfers.
The organisations involved should therefore consider both:
Employment law
Does TUPE apply and what happens to the employment relationship?
and
Immigration law
What sponsor licence and Home Office action is required for the sponsored workers?
The two regimes interact but are not the same.
Where sponsored workers move between organisations as part of a qualifying corporate or business change, specific sponsorship provisions can apply.
Depending on the circumstances, the receiving organisation may be able to assume sponsorship responsibility for affected workers without each worker necessarily having to make a new immigration application solely because of the transfer.
However, this depends on the relevant sponsor requirements being satisfied.
The organisations should establish:
The position should not be assumed merely because TUPE applies.
Licensed sponsors must report specified organisational changes to the Home Office within the applicable timeframe.
The appropriate reporting mechanism depends on the nature of the change.
Some changes can be reported through the Sponsor Management System, while more fundamental changes can require additional action.
The sponsor should therefore determine:
What has changed?
↓
Is the change reportable?
↓
What reporting deadline applies?
↓
What evidence is required?
↓
Does the existing licence remain appropriate?
↓
Is a new sponsor licence required?
Corporate changes should not be treated as routine SMS updates without first considering their legal effect.
Changes to organisational details can require the sponsor licence record to be updated.
These can include changes to:
The sponsor should ensure that the information held by the Home Office remains accurate and provide supporting evidence where required.
A change in legal structure can be more significant than a simple change of business details.
For example, where a business moves from one legal entity to another, the sponsor licence implications should be considered because the licence belongs to the licensed entity.
The organisation should not assume that continuity of:
brand + premises + staff + management
necessarily means continuity of:
sponsor licence.
The legal identity of the sponsor is fundamental.
Insolvency events can also affect sponsor licensing.
The implications depend on the nature of the insolvency process and what happens to the licensed organisation and its business.
Where an organisation enters an insolvency process, relevant issues can include:
Immigration implications should therefore form part of insolvency and restructuring planning where sponsored workers are involved.
Where a business employing sponsored workers is being acquired, immigration compliance should form part of transaction due diligence.
Relevant information can include:
The buyer should understand both whether the workforce can continue to be sponsored and whether it is acquiring a business with existing immigration compliance risk.
Sponsor licence issues should ideally be addressed before completion.
A practical transaction review can be structured as:
Pre-transaction structure
Who employs the sponsored workers and who holds the licence?
↓
Transaction
What legal change is taking place?
↓
Post-transaction structure
Who will employ the workers?
↓
Sponsor position
Does that organisation hold the required licence?
↓
Worker position
Can existing sponsorship continue under the applicable transfer provisions?
↓
Home Office action
What reports, applications or evidence are required?
↓
Timing
When must each action be completed?
This allows immigration requirements to be incorporated into the transaction timetable.
Corporate transactions can operate to fixed commercial completion dates, while sponsor licence applications and Home Office processes operate to separate regulatory timetables.
Identifying a sponsor licence problem after completion can therefore create avoidable workforce risk.
Where sponsored workers are important to the business, the sponsor licence should be treated as part of the organisation’s regulatory infrastructure during transaction planning.
A sponsor licence belongs to the licensed organisation and cannot simply be transferred to another legal entity. Changes of ownership, mergers, acquisitions, TUPE transfers, restructurings and insolvency events can therefore create Home Office reporting requirements or require new sponsor licence arrangements. Organisations should assess the sponsorship consequences of corporate changes before implementation and identify the position of every affected sponsored worker as part of the transaction process.
Book a telephone consultation for legal advice specific to your organisation.
BOOK NOWObtaining a sponsor licence is the beginning of an organisation’s responsibilities under the sponsorship system. The licence must then be actively managed throughout the period in which the organisation remains a sponsor.
Effective licence management involves maintaining accurate Home Office records, keeping key personnel and SMS access up to date, managing Certificates of Sponsorship, monitoring sponsored workers and ensuring that relevant worker and organisational changes are identified and dealt with correctly.
The objective is to ensure that the sponsor licence continues to reflect the organisation and its actual sponsorship activity.
Responsibility for sponsorship should be clearly allocated within the organisation.
Day-to-day management can involve:
The organisation should have sufficient internal oversight to ensure these functions continue during staff absences, departures and changes of responsibility.
Information recorded against the sponsor licence should remain accurate.
Depending on the circumstances, changes requiring action can relate to:
The appropriate action and reporting timeframe depend on the nature of the change.
More fundamental corporate changes can affect the licence itself and are considered in Section K
Sponsors should ensure that their:
remain appropriate and current.
If a key person leaves or changes role, the organisation should assess what Home Office action is required and ensure appropriate replacement arrangements are made.
The sponsor should also avoid becoming operationally dependent on a single individual where this could prevent it from meeting reporting or sponsorship requirements.
Access to the Sponsor Management System should be reviewed periodically.
The organisation should establish:
Who has access?
Do they still require access?
Are they still eligible to have access?
Is their level of access appropriate?
Have former personnel been removed?
Does the organisation have sufficient Level 1 User coverage?
SMS credentials should remain individual to authorised users and should not be shared.
Sponsors should maintain oversight of their Certificate of Sponsorship requirements.
This can include:
Certificates should not be assigned simply because a recruitment team requests sponsorship.
The role and worker should first be assessed against the requirements of the relevant immigration route.
Licence management should include continuing oversight of sponsored workers.
The organisation should have systems capable of identifying relevant changes involving matters such as:
Where a change has immigration implications, the organisation should determine what action is required.
Sponsors should monitor the immigration permission of workers whose right to work is time-limited.
A practical system should provide sufficient notice to determine:
Expiry management should therefore be proactive rather than dependent on the worker raising the issue shortly before their permission ends.
Proposed changes to sponsored employment should be assessed before implementation wherever possible.
For example:
Proposed promotion or role change
↓
Review duties and occupation code
↓
Review salary and hours
↓
Assess sponsorship implications
↓
Determine reporting or immigration action
↓
Implement change when appropriate
This reduces the risk of the organisation changing employment arrangements first and discovering afterwards that the worker’s sponsorship no longer reflects their role.
The organisation should continue maintaining the records required under the sponsor guidance throughout the relevant retention period.
Records should be:
Sponsors should periodically check worker files rather than assuming that documents collected during onboarding remain sufficient indefinitely.
Sponsorship often involves several parts of an organisation.
A practical governance structure can connect:
Senior management
Sponsor oversight
↓
Sponsor team / Level 1 Users
Immigration and SMS administration
↓
HR
Employment records and worker changes
↓
Recruitment
New sponsorship requirements
↓
Payroll
Salary and working information
↓
Line managers
Duties, location and attendance
Information should flow between these functions so that immigration-relevant events reach the sponsor team.
Sponsors should periodically review the operation of their licence.
A review can examine:
Licence
Are routes and organisation details correct?
Key personnel
Are the recorded individuals still appropriate?
SMS
Is access properly controlled?
CoS
Have certificates been assigned appropriately?
Workers
Do actual roles and employment arrangements remain consistent with sponsorship?
Records
Are required documents retained?
Reporting
Have relevant worker and organisational changes been reported?
Right to work
Are required checks and follow-up processes operating?
This can identify compliance weaknesses before they become Home Office concerns.
For most sponsors on Worker and Temporary Worker routes, the previous requirement to renew the sponsor licence every four years was removed from 6 April 2024.
Most affected licences were extended so that they no longer have an expiry date requiring routine renewal.
This means that, for most sponsors, licence management is now focused on maintaining continuing compliance rather than preparing a routine four-year renewal application.
However, sponsors should still check the status of their own licence and any route-specific requirements that apply to them.
The removal of routine renewal does not mean that a sponsor licence is permanent or unconditional.
A licence can still cease to operate in circumstances including:
The organisation must therefore continue to satisfy its sponsor obligations for as long as it holds the licence.
An organisation that no longer requires its sponsor licence can surrender it in accordance with the Home Office process.
Before doing so, the sponsor should consider the position of:
Surrendering a licence can have immigration consequences for workers whose permission depends on sponsorship by the organisation.
A common compliance risk is treating sponsorship as complete once a worker has obtained their immigration permission and started employment.
The more accurate lifecycle is:
Licence
↓
CoS
↓
Immigration application
↓
Right to work
↓
Employment
↓
Monitoring
↓
Reporting
↓
Employment changes
↓
Further immigration permission or termination
Sponsor management continues throughout this process.
The most effective sponsor licence management model is one in which immigration compliance is integrated into normal business processes.
For example:
Recruitment proposes overseas hire
→ Sponsor check
HR changes sponsored worker’s role
→ Sponsor check
Payroll changes salary
→ Sponsor check
Manager changes work location
→ Sponsor check
Employee leaves
→ Sponsor check
Corporate transaction proposed
→ Sponsor check
This makes sponsorship part of organisational governance rather than a separate administrative exercise.
Sponsor licence management is an ongoing responsibility. Sponsors should maintain accurate licence information, appropriate key personnel and SMS access, control Certificates of Sponsorship, monitor sponsored workers and ensure that immigration-relevant changes are identified and acted upon. Most Worker and Temporary Worker licences no longer require routine four-year renewal, but the organisation remains subject to sponsor duties and Home Office compliance requirements for as long as it holds the licence.
Book a telephone consultation for legal advice specific to your organisation.
BOOK NOWThe cost of sponsoring overseas workers can involve several separate Home Office charges. Employers should distinguish between the cost of obtaining and maintaining the sponsor licence, the cost of assigning Certificates of Sponsorship and worker-specific charges arising when an individual is sponsored.
The total cost will depend on factors including the size and status of the sponsoring organisation, the immigration route being used, the length of sponsorship and whether any exemptions apply.
Home Office fees are subject to change. Employers should therefore check the current fee schedule when making an application or assigning a Certificate of Sponsorship rather than relying on historic figures.
A fee is payable when an organisation applies for a sponsor licence.
The applicable fee depends on the organisation’s circumstances, including whether it qualifies as a small sponsor or charitable sponsor for Home Office fee purposes or falls within the higher fee category.
The sponsor should determine the correct category before submitting its application.
Payment of the application fee does not guarantee that the licence will be granted.
Lower sponsor charges apply in certain circumstances to organisations qualifying for the relevant small or charitable sponsor category.
Whether an organisation qualifies should be assessed against the applicable Home Office criteria.
Employers should not assume that being relatively small in commercial terms automatically places the organisation within the lower sponsor fee category.
A separate fee is generally payable when a Certificate of Sponsorship is assigned.
The applicable CoS fee depends on the sponsorship route.
This charge is separate from the original sponsor licence application fee.
An organisation recruiting multiple sponsored workers should therefore budget for sponsorship costs on a per-worker basis as well as for the licence itself.
The Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) is an additional sponsor-side charge that applies to specified sponsorship under the Skilled Worker and Senior or Specialist Worker routes, subject to the applicable exemptions.
Where the charge applies, the amount depends on factors including:
The ISC can therefore represent a substantial part of the overall cost of sponsoring a worker for a longer period.
Where applicable, the Immigration Skills Charge is paid as part of the Certificate of Sponsorship process.
The amount is calculated by reference to the relevant period of sponsorship and the sponsor’s applicable charging category.
The organisation should therefore identify the ISC implications before finalising the proposed sponsorship period.
The Immigration Skills Charge does not apply in every sponsored worker case.
Exemptions apply in specified circumstances under the relevant regulations and sponsorship arrangements.
Whether an exemption applies should be checked against the particular worker, route and role before the CoS is assigned.
Sponsors should not assume that an exemption applying to one sponsored worker necessarily applies to others.
No.
A sponsor must not seek to recoup the Immigration Skills Charge from the sponsored worker.
This should be taken into account when drafting employment contracts, repayment agreements and immigration cost clawback provisions.
The ISC is a sponsor cost.
Sponsors also need to comply with Home Office restrictions on recovering specified sponsorship costs from sponsored workers.
In particular, the sponsor should not seek to recoup a Certificate of Sponsorship fee from a sponsored worker where the sponsor rules prohibit this.
Cost recovery arrangements should therefore distinguish carefully between charges that legally fall on the sponsor and immigration costs that the employer may choose to fund on the worker’s behalf.
The worker’s immigration application can involve separate charges that are not part of the sponsor licence itself.
Depending on the route and circumstances, these can include:
Whether the employer agrees to pay some or all of these costs is a separate commercial and contractual question, subject to any applicable legal or sponsor restrictions.
Where available and where the applicant is eligible, an organisation may be able to use the Home Office pre-licence priority service to seek faster consideration of a sponsor licence application.
A separate fee applies.
Availability can be limited and use of the priority service does not guarantee that the sponsor licence will be granted.
The organisation must still satisfy all applicable sponsor requirements.
The Home Office also operates priority arrangements for certain eligible sponsor licence requests after a licence has been granted.
These can allow specified sponsor management requests to be considered more quickly on payment of the applicable fee, subject to eligibility and availability.
Not every sponsor request can be expedited through the service.
Where an existing sponsor is downgraded from an A-rating to a B-rating and required to follow a Home Office action plan, a fee is payable for the action plan.
This is a compliance-related cost rather than a routine sponsor licence charge.
The possibility of action-plan costs is another reason why sponsors should invest in maintaining effective compliance systems.
The direct Home Office fees are only part of the cost of operating a sponsor licence.
Employers should also consider the internal resources required for:
For organisations sponsoring significant numbers of workers, these governance costs can be material.
Some organisations also use immigration advisers to assist with matters such as:
Professional fees are separate from Home Office charges.
Using an adviser does not transfer responsibility for sponsor compliance away from the licensed organisation.
The cost of sponsorship is best assessed on a worker-by-worker basis.
A practical calculation can be structured as:
Sponsor licence cost
Organisation-level cost
Certificate of Sponsorship fee
Worker-level sponsorship cost
Immigration Skills Charge
Where applicable
Worker immigration application fee
Where funded by employer
Immigration Health Surcharge
Where applicable and funded by employer
Priority or application services
Where used
Professional fees
Where applicable
=
Total sponsorship and immigration cost
This gives employers a more realistic picture than considering the sponsor licence application fee alone.
Employers that fund immigration costs sometimes use contractual repayment provisions requiring employees to repay specified costs if they leave within a defined period.
Any such arrangement should identify precisely which costs are covered and should not require repayment of charges that sponsor rules prohibit the employer from passing to the worker.
Employment law considerations can also arise in relation to the drafting and enforcement of repayment provisions.
Employers should therefore avoid using a blanket provision requiring the worker to repay every sponsorship and immigration cost incurred.
Sponsor and immigration fees are regularly reviewed and can change.
For that reason, organisations should check the current Home Office fee schedule at the point the relevant transaction takes place.
This applies particularly to:
A master sponsor licence guide can become inaccurate quickly if historic fee figures are presented as permanent costs.
Sponsor licence costs extend beyond the initial licence application fee. Employers can also incur Certificate of Sponsorship fees, the Immigration Skills Charge where applicable, priority service charges and the internal cost of maintaining sponsor compliance. Worker visa fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge are separate immigration costs. Sponsors should also observe Home Office restrictions on passing specified sponsorship costs, including the Immigration Skills Charge, to sponsored workers.
The UK sponsor licence system operates within a wider framework of immigration legislation, the Immigration Rules and Home Office sponsor guidance.
A sponsor licence is not governed by a single standalone piece of legislation. The legal and regulatory framework instead combines the Immigration Rules governing sponsored workers with detailed Home Office guidance governing the organisations that sponsor them.
Sponsors therefore need to consider both the requirements applying to the individual worker and the separate requirements applying to the organisation as a licensed sponsor.
The Immigration Rules set out the requirements that individuals must satisfy when applying for permission under sponsored work routes.
For a Skilled Worker, for example, the applicable Rules determine matters including:
Other sponsored work routes have their own requirements.
Holding a sponsor licence does not override these rules. A worker must still qualify under the immigration route through which they are being sponsored.
The Home Office publishes detailed guidance governing organisations that hold or apply for sponsor licences.
For Worker and Temporary Worker sponsors, the guidance is divided into a number of parts dealing with different aspects of sponsorship.
The guidance covers matters including:
Sponsors should use the current version of the guidance when making sponsorship decisions because the guidance is amended periodically.
Appendix A to the sponsor guidance sets out the supporting document requirements for sponsor licence applications.
The documents required depend on factors including the type of organisation and the routes for which it is applying.
Appendix A is therefore particularly important when preparing an initial sponsor licence application.
An applicant should identify the requirements applying specifically to its organisation rather than relying on a generic sponsor licence document checklist.
Appendix D to the sponsor guidance specifies records that sponsors must retain in relation to sponsored workers and sponsorship activity.
These record-keeping requirements form an important part of ongoing sponsor compliance.
Sponsors should ensure that the required records are:
Appendix D should therefore be incorporated into the organisation’s sponsored worker file and document-retention processes.
The Immigration Skills Charge operates under separate legislation governing when the charge is payable and the circumstances in which exemptions apply.
The charge applies to specified sponsorship under relevant work routes rather than simply because an organisation holds a sponsor licence.
Sponsors should assess whether the charge applies when assigning the relevant Certificate of Sponsorship.
The Immigration Skills Charge is considered further in Section Mp>
Sponsor licence compliance also interacts with the UK’s prevention of illegal working regime.
Employers are responsible for ensuring that employees have the right to undertake the work for which they are employed.
A sponsor licence does not replace the requirement to carry out prescribed right to work checks.
The employer should therefore distinguish between:
Sponsorship compliance
Is the organisation complying with its duties as a licensed sponsor?
and
Right to work compliance
Has the employer established the individual’s right to undertake the work in accordance with the prescribed checking regime?
Both can apply to the same sponsored worker.
Licensed sponsors are expected to comply with wider UK law.
This can include, depending on the organisation and circumstances:
Non-compliance outside immigration law can therefore have sponsor licence implications in appropriate circumstances.
The sponsor guidance is central to the way the Home Office administers and enforces the sponsorship regime.
It specifies circumstances in which UKVI may or must take particular action against a sponsor.
This distinction can be important.
For example:
Mandatory provision
Where the specified conditions are established, the guidance requires the stated consequence.
Discretionary provision
The Home Office has a decision to make within the framework of the applicable guidance and public law.
When responding to enforcement action, the organisation should therefore identify the precise provision on which the Home Office relies rather than treating all sponsor breaches as having the same consequence.
Immigration Rules and sponsor guidance change regularly.
Changes can affect matters such as:
Sponsors should therefore avoid relying indefinitely on procedures established when the licence was first obtained.
Internal policies and training should be reviewed when material changes are introduced.
Where a compliance issue concerns an event that occurred in the past, it can be necessary to identify the requirements that applied at the relevant time.
Sponsor guidance is updated periodically.
The current guidance should not automatically be assumed to describe the requirement that applied when an historic event occurred.
In an enforcement case, the analysis can therefore require:
Date of alleged conduct
↓
Guidance applicable at that time
↓
Requirement in force
↓
Facts
↓
Potential breach
↓
Applicable enforcement consequence
This can be particularly important where the Home Office relies on historic sponsor conduct.
The legal framework maintains an important distinction between the sponsor and the sponsored worker.
The sponsor is responsible for its licence and sponsor duties.
The worker is responsible for satisfying the requirements of their immigration route.
The two systems interact through the Certificate of Sponsorship:
Sponsor licence
Organisation authorised to sponsor
↓
Certificate of Sponsorship
Sponsor confirms relevant worker and role information
↓
Immigration Rules
Worker must satisfy route requirements
↓
Home Office decision
Permission granted or refused
A valid sponsor licence and CoS therefore do not guarantee that an individual immigration application will succeed.
Sponsor licence decisions are administrative decisions made by the Home Office.
There is no general statutory appeal against decisions such as sponsor licence suspension or revocation.
However, Home Office sponsor decisions remain subject to public law principles.
Depending on the circumstances, an unlawful decision can potentially be challenged by judicial review.
Relevant issues can include whether the Home Office:
Judicial review does not operate as a general reconsideration of the merits of the sponsor’s case.
Sponsor compliance should therefore include a process for monitoring relevant changes to the sponsorship regime.
A practical governance model is:
Immigration Rules
What requirements apply to sponsored workers?
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Sponsor guidance
What requirements apply to the organisation?
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Appendices
What evidence and records are required?
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Right to work regime
What employment checks are required?
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Wider UK law
What other legal obligations affect sponsorship?
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Updates
Have any of these requirements changed?
This helps prevent sponsor systems from becoming outdated.
The sponsor licence regime is governed by a combination of the Immigration Rules, Home Office sponsor guidance and related legislation. Appendix A is central to sponsor licence supporting documents, while Appendix D governs sponsor record keeping. Sponsor compliance also interacts with right to work requirements and wider UK law. Because the Rules and guidance change regularly, sponsors should ensure that their policies and decisions are based on the requirements applicable at the relevant time.
Book a telephone consultation for legal advice specific to your organisation.
BOOK NOWNot necessarily.
A sponsor licence is required where an organisation intends to sponsor a worker under an immigration route that requires sponsorship.
Some overseas nationals already have immigration status that allows them to work in the UK without employer sponsorship. Examples can include individuals with indefinite leave to remain, status under the EU Settlement Scheme or permission under another immigration route that permits the proposed employment.
The employer should establish the individual’s right to work and any applicable restrictions before employment begins.
The Home Office will assess whether the organisation satisfies the eligibility and suitability requirements of the sponsor licensing regime.
This includes considering whether the organisation is genuine and operating lawfully, whether it has appropriate systems for meeting its sponsor duties, whether suitable key personnel have been appointed and whether there are compliance or suitability concerns that prevent the organisation from being licensed.
Eligibility is considered in more detail in Section B on Licence Eligibility.
No.
The organisation must be licensed for the relevant sponsorship route, and the worker and proposed role must satisfy the requirements applying to that route.
For Skilled Worker sponsorship, for example, requirements apply to matters including the role, occupation and salary.
Holding a sponsor licence does not remove the need to assess each proposed sponsorship individually.
The sponsor licence authorises the organisation to participate in the sponsorship system.
A Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) is an electronic record assigned by the licensed organisation to an individual worker for a particular sponsored role.
The relationship is:
Home Office → Sponsor Licence → Certificate of Sponsorship → Worker Immigration Application
The licence belongs to the sponsoring organisation. The CoS relates to an individual sponsorship.
No.
A CoS allows the worker to make an immigration application relying on the sponsorship recorded on it.
The worker must still satisfy the requirements of the relevant immigration route, and the Home Office will decide the application.
Most Worker and Temporary Worker sponsor licences no longer require routine renewal every four years.
The general renewal requirement was removed from 6 April 2024, and most affected licences were extended so that they no longer have a routine expiry date.
The licence can nevertheless be surrendered, revoked or otherwise brought to an end, and organisational changes can affect its continued operation.
Home Office processing times can change.
The time required can also be affected where UKVI requests further information, undertakes additional enquiries or conducts a pre-licence compliance check.
Applicants should check the current published processing position when planning an application.
An eligible applicant may also be able to request the Home Office’s pre-licence priority service, subject to availability, eligibility and payment of the applicable fee.
Yes, potentially.
There is no general requirement for an organisation to be a large employer before it can hold a sponsor licence.
A smaller organisation must still satisfy the relevant eligibility and suitability requirements and demonstrate that it can meet its sponsor duties.
The Home Office does not require every sponsor to operate a sophisticated HR software platform. The systems used should, however, be effective for the organisation’s circumstances.
Potentially, yes.
A limited trading history does not in itself necessarily prevent an organisation from obtaining a sponsor licence.
The organisation must nevertheless satisfy the applicable Home Office requirements and provide the supporting evidence required for its circumstances.
The supporting document requirements are principally set out in Appendix A to the sponsor guidance.
The documents required depend on the type of organisation, its circumstances and the sponsorship routes being requested.
Applicants should therefore identify the Appendix A requirements applying specifically to them rather than relying solely on a generic checklist.
Yes.
UKVI can conduct a pre-licence compliance check to assess whether an applicant is capable of meeting its sponsor duties and whether its application reflects the reality of the organisation.
The Home Office can also conduct compliance activity after a licence has been granted.
Yes.
Sponsor compliance visits can be announced or unannounced.
Licensed sponsors should therefore maintain continuous compliance rather than relying on advance notice of a Home Office inspection.
The three principal key personnel roles are:
The same individual can potentially perform more than one role where the applicable requirements are satisfied.
These roles are considered in Section D on Key Personnel.
The Sponsor Management System (SMS) is the Home Office online platform through which licensed sponsors administer their licence.
It is used for functions including assigning Certificates of Sponsorship, reporting specified changes and managing aspects of the sponsor licence.
SMS administration is considered in Section E.
For Skilled Worker sponsorship, a Defined Certificate of Sponsorship is generally required for a worker applying for entry clearance from outside the UK.
An Undefined Certificate of Sponsorship is used where a Defined CoS is not required, including relevant in-country Skilled Worker applications, and for other routes where the Undefined CoS system applies.
The correct CoS type should be established before assignment.
No.
A sponsor licence belongs to the organisation to which it was granted and cannot simply be transferred between legal entities.
Corporate transactions can, however, be subject to specific sponsor provisions affecting licences and sponsored workers.
Changes to ownership, mergers, acquisitions and business transfers should therefore be assessed under the applicable sponsor guidance.
These issues are considered in Section K.
It depends on how the transaction is structured.
A share sale, asset sale, merger or other restructuring can have different sponsorship consequences.
The key issues include whether the licensed legal entity continues to exist, whether ownership changes and whether sponsored workers move to a different employer.
The transaction should therefore be analysed before completion rather than assuming the existing licence will continue unaffected.
The immigration implications depend on the nature of the change.
Some changes can require sponsor reporting, while others can require a new Certificate of Sponsorship and a new immigration application before the worker undertakes the changed role.
Employers should therefore assess proposed changes to sponsored employment before implementation wherever possible.
A salary change should be assessed against the requirements of the worker’s immigration route and the sponsor guidance.
The employer should determine whether:
Salary changes should not be treated solely as a payroll matter.
Yes.
An existing A-rated sponsor can in specified circumstances be downgraded to a B-rating.
The sponsor will then generally be required to follow a Home Office action plan and will be subject to restrictions while B-rated.
Licence ratings are considered in Section I.
Suspension restricts the organisation’s sponsorship activity while the Home Office considers compliance concerns.
The licence has not at that stage been revoked.
The sponsor will ordinarily be notified of the concerns and should respond in accordance with the process and timeframe specified by the Home Office.
Existing sponsored workers do not automatically lose their immigration permission merely because the licence has been suspended.
Revocation terminates the sponsor licence.
The organisation can no longer use that licence to sponsor workers, and the Home Office can take action affecting workers whose immigration permission depends on sponsorship by the organisation.
The consequences can therefore be significant for both the employer and its sponsored workforce.
Suspension and revocation are considered in Section J.
No.
It should not be assumed that every sponsored worker automatically receives exactly 60 days following revocation.
The effect on an individual’s immigration permission depends on their circumstances and any action taken by the Home Office.
Affected workers should establish their individual immigration position.
There is no general statutory right of appeal against sponsor licence revocation.
Depending on the circumstances, an unlawful Home Office decision may potentially be challenged through judicial review.
The viability of any challenge depends on the facts and the legal basis of the decision.
An external adviser can assist with sponsor licence management and can undertake certain functions where permitted by the sponsor guidance.
However, using an adviser does not transfer the organisation’s sponsor duties to the adviser.
The licensed organisation remains responsible for compliance.
No.
Sponsor licensing and the prevention of illegal working regime are separate, although related.
Employers must still carry out the prescribed right to work checks for sponsored workers and comply with any applicable follow-up requirements.
Where the Immigration Skills Charge applies, it is a sponsor-side charge.
The sponsor must not pass the Immigration Skills Charge on to the sponsored worker.
Other restrictions can also apply to the recovery of sponsorship costs from workers.
The Home Office does not prescribe one universal internal audit frequency suitable for every sponsor.
The appropriate frequency will depend on matters such as:
Sponsors should nevertheless maintain continuous compliance and periodically test whether their systems are working in practice.
The organisation should be able to demonstrate that the information on which sponsorship is based corresponds with reality.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| A-rating | The standard sponsor licence rating generally given to an organisation when its sponsor licence is granted. An A-rated sponsor can undertake sponsorship activity under the routes covered by its licence, subject to the applicable requirements. |
| Authorising Officer | The senior and competent person responsible for the actions of the organisation’s staff and representatives who use the Sponsor Management System. The Authorising Officer provides senior oversight of the organisation’s sponsorship arrangements. |
| B-rating | A sponsor licence rating that can be imposed on an existing sponsor where specified compliance weaknesses are identified and the applicable Home Office guidance allows the sponsor an opportunity to address them through an action plan. |
| Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) | An electronic sponsorship record assigned by a licensed sponsor to an eligible worker. It contains information about the worker and sponsored role and provides a reference number used for the worker’s immigration application. A CoS does not itself grant immigration permission. |
| Compliance Check | Home Office activity used to assess whether an organisation meets or continues to meet its sponsor requirements. Compliance checks can take place before or after a sponsor licence is granted and can include announced or unannounced visits. |
| Defined Certificate of Sponsorship | A type of Certificate of Sponsorship generally required for a Skilled Worker applying for entry clearance from outside the UK. |
| Home Office | The UK government department responsible for immigration and the sponsorship system. Sponsor licensing is administered through UK Visas and Immigration. |
| Immigration Rules | The rules setting out the requirements for permission to enter or stay in the UK under the various immigration routes. Sponsored workers must satisfy the requirements of the relevant route in addition to having sponsorship from an appropriately licensed organisation. |
| Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) | A charge payable by sponsors in specified cases when sponsoring workers under the Skilled Worker and Senior or Specialist Worker routes, subject to applicable exemptions. Where payable, the ISC is a sponsor-side cost and must not be passed to the sponsored worker. |
| Key Contact | The individual who acts as the principal point of contact between the sponsoring organisation and the Home Office in relation to the sponsor licence. |
| Key Personnel | The individuals appointed to the principal sponsor management roles. These are the Authorising Officer, Key Contact and Level 1 User. |
| Level 1 User | An authorised user with broad access to the Sponsor Management System who can carry out day-to-day sponsor management functions on behalf of the organisation. |
| Level 2 User | An SMS user with more restricted permissions than a Level 1 User. Level 2 Users can undertake specified functions within the Sponsor Management System. |
| Licensed Sponsor | An organisation that has been granted a sponsor licence by the Home Office and is authorised to sponsor eligible workers under the routes covered by its licence. |
| Pre-Licence Compliance Check | A Home Office compliance check conducted while a sponsor licence application is being considered. UKVI can use the check to assess matters including the organisation’s operations, HR systems and ability to meet its sponsor duties. |
| Right to Work Check | A prescribed check undertaken by an employer to establish an individual’s right to undertake the proposed work in the UK. Holding a sponsor licence and sponsoring a worker do not remove the employer’s separate right to work obligations. |
| Skilled Worker | A sponsored immigration route allowing eligible individuals to work in qualifying jobs for Home Office-approved sponsors, provided the requirements of the Immigration Rules are satisfied. |
| Sponsor | An organisation licensed by the Home Office to sponsor eligible individuals under specified immigration routes. |
| Sponsor Action Plan | A Home Office plan imposed on a sponsor downgraded to a B-rating, specifying compliance improvements the organisation must make within the applicable period. A fee is payable for the action plan. |
| Sponsor Duties | The continuing obligations imposed on licensed sponsors. These include requirements relating to record keeping, worker monitoring, reporting, compliance with immigration and wider UK law and cooperation with the Home Office. |
| Sponsor Guidance | Home Office guidance governing organisations applying for and holding sponsor licences. It addresses matters including applications, key personnel, Certificates of Sponsorship, sponsor duties, compliance and enforcement. |
| Sponsor Licence | Home Office authorisation allowing an eligible organisation to sponsor qualifying workers under specified UK immigration routes. The licence belongs to the licensed organisation and does not itself grant immigration permission to an individual worker. |
| Sponsor Licence Downgrade | Home Office action changing an existing sponsor’s rating from A to B in circumstances where the applicable guidance permits the identified compliance weaknesses to be addressed through an action plan. |
| Sponsor Licence Revocation | Home Office action terminating a sponsor licence. Following revocation, the organisation can no longer use that licence to sponsor workers. |
| Sponsor Licence Suspension | Home Office enforcement action restricting sponsorship activity while concerns about the sponsor are considered. Suspension does not itself terminate the licence. |
| Sponsor Management System (SMS) | The Home Office online system used by licensed sponsors to administer their sponsor licence. Functions include assigning Certificates of Sponsorship and reporting specified worker and organisational changes. |
| Sponsored Worker | A worker whose immigration permission is based on sponsorship from an organisation licensed for the relevant immigration route. |
| Temporary Worker | The collective sponsor licence category covering specified temporary sponsored work routes. The particular requirements depend on the individual Temporary Worker route. |
| TUPE | The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. TUPE can protect employees when a business or undertaking transfers between employers. TUPE does not itself transfer a sponsor licence, although specific sponsorship provisions can apply to sponsored workers affected by qualifying business transfers. |
| UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) | The part of the Home Office responsible for administering the UK’s visa and immigration system, including sponsor licensing and sponsor compliance activity. |
| Undefined Certificate of Sponsorship | A Certificate of Sponsorship used where a Defined CoS is not required, including relevant in-country Skilled Worker applications and other sponsored routes to which the Undefined CoS system applies. |
| Worker Routes | The sponsor licence category covering specified sponsored work routes, including Skilled Worker. The requirements differ according to the particular immigration route. |
Sponsor licence requirements are governed by the Immigration Rules, Home Office sponsor guidance and related legislation. Because the sponsorship regime is regularly updated, organisations should check the current official materials when making sponsorship decisions.
The principal sources for sponsor licence applications, management and compliance are set out below.
| Resource | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Home Office Sponsor Guidance | The Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors is the principal Home Office guidance for organisations applying for and managing a sponsor licence. The guidance covers sponsor licence eligibility and suitability, applications, key personnel, the Sponsor Management System, Certificates of Sponsorship, sponsor duties, reporting, compliance checks, licence ratings, suspension, revocation and organisational changes. |
| Sponsor Guidance — Part 1: Apply for a Licence | Part 1 of the sponsor guidance addresses the sponsor licence application process. It covers who can apply, eligibility and suitability, the structure of the sponsor licence, key personnel, application procedures and Home Office consideration of applications. |
| Sponsor Guidance — Part 2: Sponsor a Worker | Part 2 addresses the process and requirements involved when a licensed organisation sponsors an individual worker. It should be considered when assessing proposed sponsorship and assigning Certificates of Sponsorship. Route-specific requirements must also be considered because the requirements for sponsoring a worker vary according to the immigration route being used. |
| Sponsor Guidance — Part 3: Sponsor Duties and Compliance | Part 3 addresses the continuing responsibilities of licensed sponsors. This includes requirements relating to sponsor duties, reporting, record keeping, compliance, Home Office checks and enforcement action. It is therefore particularly relevant to organisations managing an existing sponsor licence. |
| Appendix A — Supporting Documents | Appendix A: supporting documents for sponsor licence applications specifies the documentary evidence required from organisations applying for a sponsor licence. The requirements vary according to the nature and circumstances of the applicant. Organisations should work through the requirements applying specifically to them rather than assuming that every sponsor licence application requires the same evidence. |
| Appendix D — Keeping Documents | Appendix D: keeping documents – guidance for sponsors sets out the sponsor record-keeping requirements. It identifies records that sponsors are required to retain in connection with sponsored workers and sponsorship activity. Appendix D should form part of the organisation’s sponsor compliance and document-retention procedures. |
| Route-Specific Sponsor Guidance | Sponsors should also use the Home Office guidance applying to the particular immigration route under which a worker is being sponsored. Other Worker and Temporary Worker routes have their own requirements. |
| Immigration Rules | The Immigration Rules contain the requirements governing individual immigration routes. For sponsored work, relevant provisions can include Appendix Skilled Worker, appendices governing other sponsored work routes, relevant occupation and salary provisions, validity requirements and other applicable immigration requirements. The sponsor guidance and Immigration Rules perform different functions and should be read together where appropriate. |
| Appendix Skilled Worker | Appendix Skilled Worker to the Immigration Rules contains the requirements applying to individuals seeking permission under the Skilled Worker route. These include requirements concerning sponsorship and the qualifying employment, as well as other eligibility requirements applying to the worker. A valid sponsor licence and Certificate of Sponsorship do not remove the need for the applicant to satisfy these requirements. |
| Skilled Worker Sponsor Guidance | Organisations sponsoring Skilled Workers need to consider the sponsor guidance applicable to the Skilled Worker route alongside the general sponsor guidance. |
| Eligible Occupations and Occupation Codes | Where sponsorship depends on the occupation being eligible, sponsors should use the current Immigration Rules and relevant Home Office materials to identify the appropriate occupation code and applicable requirements. The assessment should be based on the actual role and duties rather than the job title alone. |
| Right to Work Guidance | Employers should also refer to the current Home Office guidance on right to work checks. Sponsor licence compliance and right to work compliance are separate regulatory requirements. A licensed sponsor must still undertake the prescribed right to work check and satisfy the requirements of the prevention of illegal working regime. |
| Immigration Skills Charge | Where the Immigration Skills Charge applies, sponsors should refer to the applicable legislation and current Home Office guidance. The organisation should establish whether the charge applies, whether an exemption is available, the correct amount payable and how the charge interacts with the proposed sponsorship period. The Immigration Skills Charge must not be passed on to the sponsored worker. |
| Home Office Sponsor Fees | Sponsor licence and sponsorship fees can change. Organisations should check the current official Home Office fee information before budgeting for a sponsor licence application, Certificate of Sponsorship assignment, priority services, sponsor action plans and other chargeable sponsor services. The applicable Immigration Skills Charge should be considered separately. |
| Sponsor Management System Guidance | Licensed sponsors should use current Home Office instructions when carrying out functions through the Sponsor Management System. The organisation should ensure that authorised users understand how to undertake relevant SMS actions and that the underlying sponsorship decision has been assessed before information is submitted. |
| GOV.UK | Official sponsor licence guidance, Immigration Rules, right to work guidance, fees and policy updates are published through GOV.UK. Where there is a conflict between historic internal procedures and current Home Office requirements, the organisation should establish the current legal and policy position before acting. |
Organisations sponsoring workers regularly can maintain their own controlled library of relevant sponsor materials.
This can include:
Current sponsor guidance
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Relevant Immigration Rules
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Appendix A
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Appendix D
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Route-specific guidance
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Right to work guidance
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Internal sponsor policies
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Training materials
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Audit records
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Home Office correspondence
Documents should be reviewed when Home Office requirements change.
Sponsor guidance changes over time.
Where an organisation is assessing a current sponsorship decision, it should use the current requirements.
Where it is investigating an historic compliance issue, it may also need to identify the guidance that applied when the relevant event occurred.
Maintaining copies or records of important guidance relied upon for material sponsorship decisions can therefore assist with future compliance reviews.
DavidsonMorris publishes guidance for employers on sponsor licensing, sponsored work routes and immigration compliance.
Related resources can provide more detailed guidance on individual areas covered by this master sponsor licence guide, including:
These detailed resources should be used alongside the current Immigration Rules and official Home Office guidance.
The matters contained in this article are intended to be for general information purposes only. This article does not constitute legal advice, nor is it a complete or authoritative statement of the law, and should not be treated as such. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the information is correct at the time of writing, no warranty, express or implied, is given as to its accuracy and no liability is accepted for any error or omission. Before acting on any of the information contained herein, expert legal advice should be sought.
