As a UK employer holding a sponsor licence, maintaining compliance with Home Office duties is crucial. If minor breaches are identified, such as inadequate record-keeping or failure to report changes, the Home Office may downgrade your licence from A-rating to B-rating rather than suspending or revoking it outright. This downgrade triggers a Home Office sponsor action plan, a mandatory set of corrective measures designed to address compliance issues and restore your A-rating.
The following guidance for UK-sponsors examines the Home Office enforcement process for non-compliance with your sponsorship duties, including the various stages involved in that process if you’re suspected of being, or proven to be, in breach of UK sponsorship rules.
Section A: What is a Home Office sponsor action plan?
As a Home Office approved employer with a sponsorship licence, your organisation will be placed on the national register of sponsors, and you’ll be given a licence rating. You’ll automatically get an A-rated licence if your application is approved. An A-rated licence will allow you to start assigning Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) to prospective migrant workers to come to work for you in the UK.
An A-rated licence essentially means that you’ve been able to demonstrate to the Home Office that you have the necessary HR systems in place to monitor sponsored employees, together with trustworthy people capable of carrying out your sponsorship duties. However, where the Home Office has reason to believe that you’re failing to meet your responsibilities as a sponsor, typically following a compliance visit, this could potentially result in your licence being downgraded from an “A” rating to a “B” rating, and a sponsor action plan being put in place.
Action plans are outlined in the “Workers and Temporary Workers: Guidance for Sponsors – Part 3: Sponsor Duties and Compliance”.
While the plan is running you cannot assign any CoS to new hires or add branches or new routes, but you may assign a CoS to someone you were already sponsoring for an in‑country extension only (UKVI will cap the number you can issue).
Section B: How does a Home Office sponsor action plan work?
A sponsor action plan is a plan designed to address relatively minor breaches of duty as a licensed sponsor, in circumstances where the sponsor is willing and able to correct any issues. The plan will set out the steps that need to be taken to help reinstate “A” licence rating.
If your licence rating is downgraded, and a sponsor action plan imposed, although you’ll still be able to issue CoS to workers you already employ who want to extend their permission to stay in the UK, you’ll not be able to issue new certificates until you’ve made improvements and upgraded back to an A-rating. Any overseas recruitment will therefore be put on hold.
The process begins with a Home Office notification via email or letter, detailing the proposed downgrade and reasons (e.g., breaches listed in Annex C2 or C3 of the guidance, like lacking processes to manage sponsored workers).
You have only 20 working days to respond, or to surrender the licence, otherwise UKVI will revoke the licence.
If you accept the action plan, you will need to pay the fee of £1,579 using the SMS under the ‘Action plan payments’ function. You should do this within 10 working days.
The plan itself is tailored to your organisation’s breaches, for instance, enhancing HR processes, limiting CoS assignments, or improving inter-branch communication, and lasts a fixed 3 months, the maximum time deemed necessary for rectification.
The downgrade means your licence becomes B-rated, restricting activities. Your CoS allocation is effectively reduced or set to zero during this period: you cannot sponsor new workers, add branches or routes, or assign new CoS, though extensions for existing workers may be allowed if eligible. This means you may assign a CoS only to workers you were already sponsoring, for in‑country extensions; UKVI sets the extension‑only CoS cap.
During the plan, you must implement all specified steps, cooperating with Home Office checks (digital or on-site) and providing evidence like updated records or training logs. Progress is monitored, and you can request an early compliance review if confident of completion before 3 months.
At the end of the action plan, if you’ve satisfactorily completed all the steps, you’ll be upgraded to an A-rating.
A second action plan is issued (with a fresh £1,579 fee) only if you finish the first one but new issues, not serious enough for revocation, are found. You can only be B‑rated twice in any rolling 4‑year period. If UKVI finds you need downgrading again after that, they must revoke the licence.
Note that provisional sponsors on the UK Expansion Worker route cannot be downgraded; UKVI will revoke immediately if they fail to meet duties.
Section C: Home Office action plan costs and timescales
If your licence rating is downgraded, you’ll have to pay for a sponsor action plan at a cost of £1,579 to upgrade your licence to an A-rating. You must pay this fee within 10 working days of the date of being informed by the Home Office of its decision to downgrade. If you fail to make payment in full, you’ll lose your licence because of this. If you’re given another B-rating after your first sponsor action plan, you’ll have to follow a new action plan and pay the fee again.
A Home Office sponsor action plan is time-limited, where the maximum time a business can be the subject of an action plan is 3 months. You may request an early compliance check once you believe every action is complete.
As a downgraded sponsor, you’ll therefore need to respond to the recommendations contained within the plan, both quickly and effectively.
If you fail to comply with all necessary steps set out within your sponsor action plan, and your licence is revoked as a result, you cannot appeal, but you can reapply. However, you’ll have to wait at least 12 months before being able to do so, without any guarantee that your new application will be successful. This will be treated in the same way as any other application, requiring you to pay the relevant fee, submit the necessary documentation in support, and be able to satisfy the Home Office that you’re capable of carrying out your sponsorship duties.
Section D: Received a Home Office sponsor action plan – what next?
If you have been notified that your organisation’s sponsor licence has been downgraded and that you are now subject to an action plan, you will need to take action quickly. With appropriate advice and remedial steps, you can rectify the issues and reinstate your A-rating. However, failing to act or to address the issues raised could result in more damaging and serious enforcement action.
First, you should review the notification carefully. It details the breaches (e.g., from Annex C2 or C3) and the plan’s specifics. You will normally have 20 working days to respond pre-downgrade. If contested unsuccessfully, focus on execution. The plan is fixed at 3 months and will be tailored to your issues, like improving HR processes or limiting CoS assignment, and aims to restore compliance without full revocation.
You will also need to pay the £1,579 fee, usually within 10 working days, via the SMS. Use your Level 1 user to accept and process payment. Non-payment leads to revocation, so prioritise this. Refunds may be possible if delays stem from Home Office errors e.g., technical glitches.
Next, implement the plan immediately. Assign a dedicated team member such as your Authorising Officer to oversee actions. For instance, if records are faulty, audit Appendix D documents and provide training to staff. Document everything as evidence. Cooperate with Home Office monitoring, which may include digital audits.
During the B-rating period, restrictions will apply. No new CoS assignments, branch additions or route expansions are permitted, but you can extend existing workers if eligible. Your CoS allocation drops to zero or minimal. Monitor sponsored workers closely to avoid further breaches, like unreported absences or salary reductions.
If you complete actions early, request a compliance review via SMS for potential A-rating restoration ahead of 3 months.
At the end, a final check occurs; success upgrades the licence, but failure may trigger another plan, up to a maximum of two B-ratings in 4 years from licence grant. A third will result in licence revocation.
Section E: Other penalties for non-compliance
If you fail to comply with your sponsorship duties, instead of downgrading your licence rating and putting in place a sponsor action plan, there are various other sanctions that may be imposed by the Home Office, depending on the nature and seriousness of any breach. For example, where there’s been a significant or systematic failing, and you pose a serious threat to immigration control, or you no longer meet the eligibility or suitability requirements for holding a sponsorship licence, you’re at risk of having your licence suspended or revoked.
The Home Office will suspend your sponsorship licence where it needs to investigate the matter further before making any decision. This could then result in the revocation of your licence. In some cases, however, where a breach is especially serious and indefensible, the Home Office has the power to revoke your licence altogether without prior suspension.
You’ll be at risk of losing your licence if you’ve been found to be employing illegal workers. If you’ve failed to carry out prescribed right to work checks to establish a statutory excuse against illegal working, you’ll also be facing a possible civil penalty of up to £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach, and up to £60,000 for repeat breaches, and potentially criminal prosecution. If you’re found guilty of employing a migrant who you knew, or had reasonable cause to believe, didn’t have permission to work in the UK, you could be given a custodial sentence of up to 5 years and be ordered to pay an unlimited fine.
Even in the context of relatively minor breaches, your licence will be revoked if you fail to comply with any Home Office sponsor action plan designed to reinstate your licence rating. If your sponsorship licence is revoked, this can have a serious impact on your business, especially if you’re heavily reliant on migrant workers. Having revoked your licence, the Home Office will also curtail the leave of any migrant workers currently employed by you.
Section F: How to avoid a Home Office sponsor action plan
Avoiding the imposition of a costly and time-consuming Home Office sponsor action plan, or any other possible sanctions that could be imposed, including suspension and revocation, is all about understanding and complying with your sponsorship duties at all times.
Being a UK sponsor is a significant responsibility, where the rules can be complex and subject to constant change, often resulting in confusion or incompetency, and exposing employers to serious compliance risks. If there is ever any uncertainty, to avoid action being taken against you, you should always seek expert advice from an immigration specialist. In this way, you can have the peace of mind that you’re not falling foul of the law.
An experienced immigration specialist can advise you on all aspects of your sponsorship duties. Your adviser can also support and guide you through any Home Office investigation, looking for ways to mitigate potential liability for any failures on your part, and find ways to help you put in place adequate HR systems that will enable you to meet your responsibilities.
1. Sponsorship duties
The grant of a sponsorship licence will allow you, as a Home Office approved sponsor, to recruit someone from outside the UK who doesn’t otherwise have immigration status to undertake work, or the work in question — provided they meet the requirements for a visa.
However, having been granted Home Office approval, significant trust is placed in you as a licence holder to act in accordance with the sponsorship requirements and to prevent abuse of the UK’s immigration system. As a licensed sponsor, you’re therefore agreeing to meet the various duties associated with sponsoring a migrant worker, including:
Reporting any change in circumstances of a sponsored worker, such as regular absences or resignation, within prescribed timescales. You must also report certain changes to your business, such as a change in details, like your address or allocated roles for those responsible for managing your licence under the Sponsor Management System (SMS). The SMS is the Home Office online portal that allows UK sponsors to manage their migrant workforce, and related sponsor activities, such as issuing CoS, and reporting any relevant changes to your own or a migrants’ circumstances;
Monitoring and recording employee attendance to ensure that all sponsored workers are complying with the conditions of their work visa. If, for example, you’re privy to information that suggests or shows that a migrant worker is breaching the conditions of their grant of leave, this must be reported to the Home Office through the SMS;
Complying with the law, not least only assigning CoS to workers when the job is suitable for sponsorship, checking that migrant workers have the necessary skills, qualifications or professional accreditations to do their jobs, and conducting regular prescribed right to work checks on all prospective employees — as well as repeat checks for any employees with time-limited permission to work in the UK. In this way, you’ll not only help to prevent illegal working, but to avoid any civil or criminal penalty for employing illegal workers;
Maintaining accurate and up-to-date records for all sponsored migrant workers, comprising, for example, their UK address and contact details. You must also retain copies of any online or manual right to work checks, to prove the entitlement of your migrant employees to work in the UK and undertake the work in question;
Cooperating with the Home Office, whenever required, such as responding to any requests for further information or documentation, and providing access during any compliance visits. Naturally, the duty to co-operate includes acting honestly in any dealings with the Home Office, such as not making false or misleading statements.
2. Who is responsible for meeting these sponsorship duties?
As a licensed sponsor, you’re required to allocate certain responsibilities to key personnel within your business, some or all of whom will have access to the SMS once your sponsorship licence has been granted by the Home Office.
The authorising officer must be a senior and competent person within your business, as they will be responsible for the activities of all SMS users, and ensuring that you meet your responsibilities as a licensed sponsor. The key contact will be your main point of contact with the Home Office, whilst the Level 1 user is the person responsible for the day-to-day management of your sponsorship licence via the SMS. These roles can be filled by either the same person or different people. You can also appoint optional Level 2 users, with more restricted permissions than a Level 1 user, once your licence has been granted.
That said, as a licensed sponsor, you retain overall responsibility for ensuring compliance with the rules. As such, if either the authorising officer, or any system user, fails in their duties, you’ll still be strictly accountable to the Home Office. This means that you should always exercise caution, and carry out thorough background checks, to ensure that the individuals appointed to act as your key personnel are honest, dependable and reliable.
Section G: Need assistance?
DavidsonMorris’ business immigration specialists are highly experienced in supporting sponsor licence holders facing Home Office enforcement action. We have a dedicated team of sponsor licence lawyers who work with employers to resolve compliance issues, deal with the Home Office and advise on how to prevent future compliance breaches through auditing and training. Contact us to minimise the impact and disruption to your organisation of Home Office scrutiny.
Section H: Sponsor action plan FAQs
How much is a Home Office Sponsor Action Plan?
The Home Office will charge the sponsor £1579 for an action plan to resolve compliance issues.
How long does it take to get a sponsor licence in the UK?
Most sponsor licence applications are dealt with in less than 8 weeks, although UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) may want to first visit your business to ensure that you’re capable of meeting you responsibilities as a sponsor.
How much does it cost to sponsor a skilled worker?
There are various costs associated with sponsoring a skilled worker, from the fee to apply for a sponsor licence and issue Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS), to the Immigration Skills Charge when assigning an CoS.
How long does it take for a CoS to be issued?
A Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) is an electronic record to confirm that the conditions under the relevant visa route have been met. A CoS can be issued using the online sponsorship management system, with approval taking around one working day.
What is sponsor evidence for UK visa?
Sponsor evidence for a UK visa comes in the form of a unique reference number found on a Certificate of Sponsorship issued by a Home Office approved employer, and can be used to submit a valid visa application.
Section I: Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Sponsor Licence | A permit issued by the Home Office allowing UK organisations to sponsor foreign workers or students. |
| Home Office | The UK government department responsible for immigration, security, and law and order. |
| Sponsor Action Plan | A document issued by the Home Office outlining specific compliance actions a sponsor must take to retain or restore their licence. |
| Compliance Officer | A Home Office official who assesses sponsor licence holders to ensure they meet required standards. |
| Licence Revocation | The removal of a sponsor licence by the Home Office due to non-compliance with sponsorship duties. |
| Tier 2/Tier 4 Sponsorship | Former categories of sponsorship under the UK’s Points-Based Immigration System, now replaced by Skilled Worker and Student routes. |
| Skilled Worker Route | The visa category allowing employers to sponsor skilled foreign workers to fill job vacancies in the UK. |
| Right to Work Checks | Legal checks conducted by employers to ensure an individual has the right to work in the UK. |
| Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) | An electronic document assigned by a sponsor to a migrant worker, enabling their visa application. |
| Key Personnel | Individuals appointed by the sponsor to manage sponsorship duties, including Authorising Officer and Level 1 Users. |
| Immigration Compliance | Adherence to Home Office rules and regulations regarding the employment or education of foreign nationals. |
| Action Plan Fee | A fee charged by the Home Office for issuing a Sponsor Action Plan to address non-compliance. |
| Licence Downgrade | A penalty imposed by the Home Office, reducing a sponsor licence from an A-rating to a B-rating due to non-compliance. |
| B-Rating | A temporary status for sponsor licences that require corrective actions outlined in an action plan. |
| Points-Based System (PBS) | The UK immigration system that assigns points for criteria such as job offer, salary, and English proficiency. |
Section J: Additional Resources
UK Home Office – Sponsorship Guidance
https://www.gov.uk/uk-visa-sponsorship-employers
Comprehensive guidance for UK employers on obtaining and maintaining a sponsor licence to hire foreign workers.
UK Home Office – Worker and Temporary Worker Sponsorship Guidance
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/workers-and-temporary-workers-guidance-for-sponsors
Detailed instructions for sponsors on compliance, assigning Certificates of Sponsorship, and immigration rules.
UK Home Office – Skilled Worker Route
https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa
Explains the Skilled Worker visa category, eligibility, and sponsor responsibilities.
ACAS – Employer Responsibilities
https://www.acas.org.uk/employer-responsibilities
A guide for employers on legal and ethical obligations, including employment checks and compliance.
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) – Employing Foreign Workers
https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/emp-law/employment-foreign-workers
Resources for employers on hiring foreign workers, legal considerations, and managing sponsorship duties.
Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA)
https://www.ilpa.org.uk/
A professional association offering expert advice and resources on UK immigration law and sponsorship compliance.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – Foreign Workers
https://www.hse.gov.uk/migrantworkers/index.htm
Guidance on health and safety responsibilities for employers hiring foreign workers.
Trade Union Congress (TUC) – Migrant Workers Rights
https://www.tuc.org.uk/migrant-workers
Information on workers’ rights, including protection for migrants employed under sponsor licences.
Author
Founder and Managing Director Anne Morris is a fully qualified solicitor and trusted adviser to large corporates through to SMEs, providing strategic immigration and global mobility advice to support employers with UK operations to meet their workforce needs through corporate immigration.
She is a recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers as a legal expert and delivers Board-level advice on business migration and compliance risk management as well as overseeing the firm’s development of new client propositions and delivery of cost and time efficient processing of applications.
Anne is an active public speaker, immigration commentator, and immigration policy contributor and regularly hosts training sessions for employers and HR professionals
