UK Visa Sponsorship For Employers Guide

The official route to allow companies to bring foreign workers into the country as a sponsor is open to anyone who employs staff in the UK, as long as they have no unspent criminal convictions for immigration-related offences, or certain other crimes, mostly involving any kind of deception. These include money laundering and fraud.

Through every stage of any sponsor licence application, you must provide the right information, as and when requested.

This guide will take you through the process, one step at a time, using information from trusted and reliable sources, and to detail each of the steps required towards obtaining your sponsor licence.

Page Contents

• Sponsoring an Employee in the UK
• What is Sponsorship Visa UK?
• Types of Sponsor Licence
• UK Sponsorship Visa Routes
• UK Sponsorship Visa Requirements
• UK Sponsor Licence Application Fee
• Applying For A UK Sponsorship Visa Licence
• After You Apply
• Collection
• What Are the Eligibility Requirements for a Sponsor Licence?
• How Long Will My Sponsor Licence Be Valid?
• What Is the Processing Time for a Sponsor Licence Application?
• How Can We Help?
• Frequently Asked Questions

A sponsorship visa UK is a document showing that you, as a UK-based employer, or the UK arm of multinational companies, are willing to endorse the credentials of the person/people who make a visa application as a skilled worker, so that they can enter and work in any part of the UK under the Skilled Worker visa route.

There are strict rules governing the types of work that someone who enters the UK under a visa sponsorship can do. As their employer, you must also make sure that they are paid the legal minimum wage, and do not work more hours than those laid down in the working time regulations, unless for voluntary overtime.

UK sponsor visas are available for people in a wide variety of skilled trades or professions, and the list of these jobs varies from time to time, according to variations in specific needs.

As an employer, you can obtain a licence which allows you to sponsor employees with skilled or long-term jobs, or temporary workers, carrying out specific temporary or seasonal occupations. You can also have a UK visa sponsorship for employers licence allowing you to sponsor both temporary and permanent workers at the same time.

The first is known as a Worker Sponsor Licence, and sponsorships are available for these under four categories:

• Skilled worker: someone who is entering the UK to fill a specific skilled role which is allocated an occupation code by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
• Senior/Specialist worker: the current name for the scheme under which companies can bring existing staff to work in the UK.
• Minister of Religion: a licence granted for someone who will be working for a designated religious organisation, and;
• International sportsperson: the permission given to allow elite sportspeople to be based in, train and compete in the UK.

As an employer, the UK sponsor visa requirements for a Temporary Worker licence mean that you will only be able to bring someone to the UK if they are:

• A ‘scale-up worker’: working for a fast-growing UK-based company;
• A creative worker, for example an entertainer or artist, and will only be in the UK for a maximum of two years;
• An unpaid charity worker (maximum licence duration of one year);
• A worker for a religious order or organisation (permitted for up to two years);
• Taking part in a Government-authorised exchange – for a maximum of one year to gain work experience, or for two years if undertaking practical medical or scientific training;
• A worker whose job is covered by international law, such as an employee of an overseas government;
• Under Global Business Mobility provisions, a graduate trainee, service supplier with a 6-12-month contract to provide services to a UK company, setting up a new branch or subsidiary of an overseas business, or is transferring to work for a different UK-based business under the terms of a high-value contract, or;
• A seasonal horticulture worker (e.g. fruit-picker) coming to work for up to six months, or a worker in poultry processing, working between 18 October and 31 December.

There are currently five main ways to sponsor a visa for employee recruitment.

A visa-holder must fall into one of the following categories:

• Skilled Worker
• Health and Care Worker
• Temporary Worker
• Eligible under Global Business Mobility provisions
• A ‘Scale-up’ or ‘Expansion’ Worker, that is, with skills essential to help a non-UK business become established here

A person who has been granted a Graduate visa for the UK must either re-apply for a new visa under one of the above criteria after two years. This mostly involves them applying via the Skilled Worker route.

Any of the ‘worker’ licence types on the above list allow a business to sponsor workers in a number of different skilled occupations, paying a minimum of £41,700 per year for skilled worker, or the current ‘going rate’ for the work you want to be done.

A senior or specialist worker licence covers any foreign employee transferring from an established business to the UK under Global Business Mobility rules.

Individual categories also cover Ministers of Religion, for people entering the UK to work for a religious organisation, and international sports competitors wishing to be based in the UK.

The temporary worker licence has 11 separate sub-categories, covering the likes of seasonal workers and several specific categories covered by the Global Business Mobility programme.

Your business will need to prove that it operates legitimately in the UK, and can offer genuine employment to those you sponsor.

You will also need to prove that you are approved by an appropriate regulator, for example the General Medical Council for medical practices, and to prove that you have the necessary planning permission or consent to run your class of business at your trading address.

You must also undertake to satisfy all requirements placed on the holder of a UK sponsor licence.

As an individual, rather than a business, your eligibility criteria for a sponsorship licence are if you are registered as a sole trader, and wish to sponsor someone to come and help with your business.

UK employers applying for a sponsor licence must first check the suitability of their job offer to their prospective foreign worker. To begin with, you must make sure that the job you are offering to your foreign staff complies with both the minimum wage and working time regulations depending on the job role and responsibilities in the UK.

Employers sponsoring a Skilled Worker, Senior or Specialist Worker, Graduate Trainee, UK Expansion Worker, Scale-up Worker, or Seasonal Worker, will have to ensure that the proposed salary for the job meets or exceeds the minimum salary thresholds for those routes respectively. For other sponsored work routes where the Immigration Rules do not specify a minimum salary threshold, the worker must be paid in accordance with UK National Minimum Wage legislation.

Moreover, depending on the immigration route for your sponsored foreign worker, the job offer has to meet the other criteria needed for their particular visa. For example, if you are sponsoring for the Skilled Worker route, the offered job will have to be:

• For a skilled role at Regulated Qualifications Framework level 3 or above
• Listed in the Skilled Worker eligible occupations list (or shortage occupations list), and matches one of the standard occupation codes (SOC)

If you are sponsoring a worker for any of the following, you must check whether they need an Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate before assigning them a certificate of sponsorship (CoS):

• Skilled Worker visa
• Global Business Mobility visas
• Scale-up Worker visa
• Government Authorised Exchange visa
• International Agreement visa

A sponsored foreign worker will need an ATAS certificate if any of the following is applicable:

• Their sponsoring organisation hold a Student sponsor licence
• They are being sponsored in a relevant occupation code
• They will be carrying out research at PhD level or above in a ‘relevant subject’ as listed in the worker sponsor guidance
• Depending on their nationality, they are not exempt from needing an ATAS certificate

The visa sponsorship cost to an employer depends on whether your business is classified as either a small, medium or large sponsor, based on the total size of your business or organisation – but not on the number of people whose applications you sponsor.

A small sponsor is a business which meets two of these three criteria:

• Has an annual turnover of £10.2million or lower
• Has assets of £5.1million or under, or
• Has 50 or fewer employees

The sponsor licence application cost to an employer is £574 per licence for a small company under the above criteria, and £1,579 for large sponsors.

An enhanced premium service, granting the employer greater support and access to a dedicated account manager, is also available, fees for which are between £8,000 and £25,000, charges again being made according to the business’s size.

If you are sponsoring someone applying for a Skilled Worker or Senior Specialist Worker visa, an extra fee, the Immigration skills charge, applies, if the person concerned is applying from outside the UK for a job lasting for six months or longer, or is applying from inside the UK. No minimum contract length applies in this latter case.

Upgrading a temporary worker licence to one allowing UK visa sponsorship for permanent workers costs an extra £1,005.

Certain jobs are exempt from the immigration skills charge.

You will need to apply for sponsorship licence online, and register on the sponsor management system.

Here are five basic steps to obtaining a sponsor licence:

1. Check whether your business has the right to offer sponsored visas
2. Find out whether the job(s) you are recruiting qualify for a sponsorship visa
3. Decide which type of sponsor licence will be right for your business, using the criteria we listed above
4. Appoint suitable compliance officers to oversee and manage your sponsorship programme
5. Apply online for your sponsor licence and pay the appropriate fee

You should send your completed sponsor licence applications, together with the appropriate fees and any supporting evidence or documents required using the form at this portal. Your application should take 20 to 30 minutes.

You will hear back from UK Visas and Immigration whether your sponsorship visa UK application has been approved, but a UKVI official might visit your business to help make their decision. Their licence decision will include whether you are classed as a small, medium or large sponsor.

Certificates of UK visa sponsorship for employers are issued electronically, so once your allocation of the number of certificates has been determined, you will receive these via your Gov.uk sponsor portal.

You will need proof that your business operates legitimately in the UK, and to prove that you fall into either the small or charitable sponsors, or medium/large sponsors category, according to the criteria outlined earlier.

A small sponsor is one which meets  at least two of the three criteria listed earlier under ‘UK Sponsorship Licence Application Fee’.

Renewing Before April 6th 2024:

Companies with sponsor licenses expiring before April 6th 2024 must submit one last renewal application and cover the associated fee, as the previous regulations mandating renewals are still applicable.

Nevertheless, after this renewal, businesses will be exempt from any further renewal obligations.

The Home Office recommends that these businesses consult the Workers and Temporary Workers Guidance Part 3 or the Student Sponsor Guidance Document 1 for additional details on the license renewal process.

Licence Expiring On Or After 6th Of April 2024:

Companies with sponsor licenses expiring on or after April 6th should refrain from any immediate actions.

Sponsor licences expiring after this date will not need to be manually renewed.

Official Government guidance says that the application process usually takes about eight weeks, so you should factor this into any migrant worker recruitment process. However, a priority service is sometimes available, costing £500 for a fast-track decision within 10 working days. The number of these applications available is limited.

To apply for a sponsor licence, you must appoint senior and competent people within your organisation for managing the sponsorship process, using mainly the sponsor management system (SMS) tool.

You will have to appoint:

• An authorising officer responsible for the actions of staff and representatives who use the SMS
• A key contact who will be your main point of contact with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI)
• A level 1 user who will be responsible for the day-to-day management of your licence using the SMS
• A level 2 user (optional) once you have received your sponsor licence. They are users with more restricted access than a level 1 user

Note that the above appointees will be subject to suitability checks by UKVI. They must:

• Be based in the UK most of the time (your authorising officer may be an overseas worker if you are applying for a
• UK Expansion Worker sponsor licence and do not have suitable staff based in the UK for that role)
• Usually be paid employees or office holders (e.g. partners or directors)
• Not be a contractor or consultant contracted for a specific project
• Not be subject to a bankruptcy restriction order or undertaking, or a debt relief restriction order or undertaking
• Not have an unspent criminal conviction for an offence listed in the guidance for sponsors
• Not have been fined by UKVI in the past 12 months
• Not have been reported to UKVI
• Not have been a key person at a sponsor that had its licence revoked in the last 12 months
• Not have failed to pay VAT or other excise duties
• Not have a history of non-compliance with sponsor requirements
• Not have broken the law in general

If you are successful with your sponsor licence application, you will receive an A-rated licence from the Home Office. If, at a later date, the Home Office has reason to believe that you have failed to meet your sponsor duties, they may downgrade your licence to a B-rating.

UK employers with a B-rated licence will not be able to issue new CoS until they have made improvements and upgraded back to an A-rating. However, they will continue to be able to issue CoS to foreign national workers they have already employed, who want to extend their permission to stay in the UK.

To reinstate your A-rating, you must apply to UKVI for an action plan for making required improvements. If you can complete all the steps listed in the UKVI action plan successfully, your licence will be upgraded back to an A-rating. You will lose your licence altogether if you fail to make the recommended improvements.

Your level 1 or 2 users can request and issue a CoS through the SMS. This process will vary depending on whether a defined or undefined certificate is required.

Creating and Assigning a Defined CoS

• Login to the SMS as a level 1 or 2 user
• Select “Granted applications – create and assign defined CoS” from the “Apply for defined CoS” screen
• Select the relevant radio button from the “Granted applications – create and assign defined CoS” screen, and select “Next”
• Review the application summary from the “Granted applications – create and assign defined CoS” screen, and select “Create”
• Enter the foreign worker’s details on the “Create a CoS” screen, and select “Save”
• Select “Assign” from the “Confirmation of saved CoS” screen
• Review the details on the “Confirm CoS details before assigning” screen, read the declaration, and tick the box to agree to the terms
• Select “OK” to proceed with the payment on the “Online payment” screen. You will be redirected to a third-party payment service
• The CoS reference number will be displayed on the “Single CoS assigned” screen once the payment is processed

Creating and Assigning an Undefined CoS

• Login to the SMS as a level 1 or 2 user
• Use the “Select the route” drop-down menu from the “Create and assign CoS” screen to select the route of the CoS you wish to create
• Select “Next”
• Select the radio button next to “Create new single certificate” on the “Create and assign CoS” screen, then select “Next” (you will need to select the radio button next to “Create new batch of certificate(s)” at this stage if you are creating and assigning a batch of undefined certificates instead of a single one)
• Complete the foreign hire’s personal details, details of the job for which they will be hired and other relevant details on the “Create a CoS” screen, then select “Save”
• Select “Assign” from the “Confirmation of saved CoS” screen
• Review the entered CoS details on the “Confirm CoS details before assigning” screen, to confirm they are correct
• Read the declaration and tick the box to agree to the terms. Select “Assign CoS” when done
  You will be redirected to a third-party payment service
• The CoS reference number will be displayed on the “Single CoS assigned” screen once the payment is processed

After creating and assigning a CoS, defined or undefined, you will need to provide the CoS ID to your foreign hires, so that they in turn can proceed with their work visa application.

UK employers sponsoring foreign workers for the Skilled Worker or Senior or Specialist Worker routes are required to pay an additional immigration skills charge. Certain occupation codes are, however, exempt from the immigration skills charge, such as the chemical scientists (2111), physical scientists (2114), social and humanities scientists (2115), research and development managers (2161), higher education teaching professionals (2311), etc.

You will also be exempt from paying this additional fee in the following scenarios:

• Your sponsored worker was assigned a CoS before 6 April 2017
• You are sponsoring a foreign national who is switching to either a Skilled Worker or Senior or Specialist Worker visa from a visa that allows them to study in the UK, and then extend their stay on the new visa
• You are sponsoring a foreign worker through the Global Business Mobility Senior or Specialist Worker route, and they fulfil all of the below conditions:
  • They were assigned a CoS on or after 1 January 2023
  • They are EU nationals or hold a Latvian non-citizen’s passport
  • They normally work in the EU for your EU business but have been temporarily transferred to work in the UK, and the end date of this temporary transfer is no more than 36 months after the start date

A UK sponsor licence comes with certain responsibilities, which you would need to meet to keep your sponsor licence valid. The sponsor licence guidance as specified by the Home Office mentions four main responsibilities, which are further explained in the following subsections.

Record-Keeping Requirement

A sponsor licence holder will have to maintain relevant records relating to their sponsored employees, such as their right to work in the UK documentation, their NI numbers (if applicable), and their updated contact details.

You must retain copies of their documents such as passports, immigration status documents, period of leave to remain in the country, their biometric residence permit, employment contracts etc.

Monitoring and Reporting Requirement

You must set up systems and processes within your organisation to track and monitor your sponsored employees.

You will have to report to the Home Office if your sponsored employee fails to commence working for you on their expected start date, has 10 days of consecutive unauthorised absence, has their contract terminated earlier than expected, or has moved into another immigration category, within 10 days of such occurrence.

Moreover, if you have concerns or evidence that your sponsored employee has breached the conditions of their stay in the UK, you must notify the Home Office immediately.

Absence Monitoring Requirement

Sponsor licence holders must authorise and record all absences of their sponsored employees. This includes sick leaves, annual leave, study leave and overseas travel.

Notifying the Home Office of Changes in Circumstances

Changes in certain circumstances must be immediately reported to the Home Office to maintain valid sponsor licences. These include:

• Change in key personnel listed on the sponsor licence application
• Change of business premises
• Any changes to the company’s UK network, e.g. opening or closing branches
• Any change to the company’s overseas branches, subsidiary companies and linked entities