UK Work Permit for Ghanaians: 2026 Employer Guide to Visa Sponsorship
Ghanaians will need a visa to work in the UK. As a UK employer looking to hire Ghanaian nationals, you must be aware of what criteria you must meet to hire foreign talent and what documents you must provide to your foreign hire so that they can apply for a UK work visa.
To learn more about how to sponsor Ghanaian nationals for a UK work visa, contact Total Law at +44 (0) 333 305 9375 or message us online. We can provide the appropriate business immigration guidance you require.
Do Ghanaians Need a Visa to Work in the UK?
Yes, Ghanaian nationals will require an appropriate visa to work in the UK for any duration, even if they are coming to perform unpaid work (e.g., volunteering for charities).
For employers wishing to hire Ghanaian workers in the UK, the recruitment planning must start with a thorough understanding of who needs a visa to legally work in the country, and what requirements the employer as well as the prospective employee must meet to remain compliant with the UK immigration law.
Unless your potential Ghanaian hire is also a British or Irish citizen, has settled status in the UK, or is already in the country on a visa that allows them to work, they will require a work visa. Plus, as the sponsoring employer, you must hold a valid sponsor licence to be able to issue them with a certificate of sponsorship (CoS).
Page Contents
- Do Ghanaians Need a Visa to Work in the UK?
- The Different UK Work Visas for Ghanaians
- UK Work Visa Sponsorship for Employers Hiring Ghanaians
- UK Sponsor Licence Application for Employers
- Understanding the Immigration Skills Charge in UK
- Responsibilities of a Sponsorship Licence holder
- UK Work Visa Requirements for Your Ghanaian Employees
- Family Reunification for Ghanaian Workers
- How Can Total Law Help?
- Frequently Asked Questions
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UK Work Visas for Ghanaians: Skilled Worker, Temporary, Global Talent, and Other Visas
Different work visas are available to Ghanaians who desire to work in the UK, such as:
Skilled Worker Visa
The Skilled Worker visa is available to Ghanaians who want to work and live in the UK for at least five years. The applicant should be trained in a skilled trade such as carpentry or have a university degree.
You must be a certified UK employer to offer jobs to an intending employee applying for a skilled worker visa. As a UK employer or business owner, you must have a certificate of sponsorship (COS) to hire a Ghanaian on a skilled worker visa.
The COS is an electronic record. The job you intend to employ a worker must be listed as an eligible occupation on the Home Office’s list. The job description for a skilled worker should be stated on the COS. You will need to be able to pay your workers a minimum salary, as declared by the Home Office.
One advantage of a skilled worker visa is that your employees can apply for ‘indefinite leave to remain’ in the UK after five years of getting this visa, thereby gaining long-term access to them if they choose to remain with your company.
Global Business Mobility Visas
Global business mobility visas are available to Ghanaians whose employer has a business branch in the UK and to Ghanaian employers willing to expand their business into the UK. Employers must ensure that the worker they wish to send to the UK is employed in the Ghana office.
There are five visas in this category. They are:
- Senior or Specialist Worker visa – This visa is available to Ghanaians who are temporarily relocating to a UK branch of a Ghanaian company as a specialist or senior manager
- Graduate Trainee visa – This visa is available to Ghanaians who can work in the UK in a position related to a graduate programme leading to a managerial or specialist role
- Service Supplier visa -This visa is available to Ghanaians with a contract to provide services covered by one of the UK’s international trade agreements
- Secondment Worker visa– This visa is available to Ghanaians temporarily transferred to the UK for business purposes in a different organisation
- UK Expansion Worker visa -This visa is available to Ghanaians who want to open a company branch in the UK
Scale-up Worker Visa
If your UK business is growing fast, you can employ Ghanaians for at least six months as long as the job is eligible and approved by the UK government.
You are required to have a sponsorship certificate. Also, to be an eligible employer, you must be a scale-up worker approved by a UK endorsing body.
Here are the requirements to qualify for endorsement by a UK endorsing body:
- Your business growth rate must have increased by an average of 20 per cent within three years
- You must employ at least ten people who are paid through PAYE
- Your company must be financially stable and conducting business within the United Kingdom
- You must have less than four years of His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) footprint
- You must pay people fairly for jobs comparable to the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF 6)
UK Ancestry Visa
As a UK employer, you do not need to provide a certificate of sponsorship for your employee on this type of visa. As a member of the Commonwealth, Ghanaians are eligible for this visa as long as any of their parent or grandparents were born in the UK.
Ghanaians are not required to have a job offer to be granted a UK ancestry visa. They can become self-employed in the UK. For Ghanaians who want to be an employer in the UK, a business plan is required to apply for a UK ancestry visa.
Temporary Work Visas
Ghanaians can work in the UK for a predetermined time with the UK Temporary Worker Visa. However, temporary work visas require a sponsor certificate from an eligible UK employer, and each has its eligibility requirements.
Here are the types of temporary work visas:
- Charity Worker visa – Available to Ghanaians who want to work voluntarily in the UK without pay
- Government Authorised Exchange visa – This visa is available to Ghanaians who desire to research, participate in a program, or gain work experience
- International Agreement Worker visa – This visa is available to Ghanaians who agree to perform tasks within five years under a treaty or international law
- A Creative Worker visa – Available to Ghanaian actors, dancers, musicians, or creative workers
- A Religious Worker – This visa is available to Ghanaians who want to do religious work (non-pastoral role) in the UK
- Seasonal Worker visa – This visa is available to Ghanaians who want to work in poultry or horticulture in the UK
High Potential Individual (HPI) Visa
As a UK employer, you are not required to provide your potential Ghanaian employee with a certificate of sponsorship because they can be granted this visa before getting a job offer.
To be granted this visa, your employee must have graduated from an eligible global university within the last five years.
Ghanaians on this work visa can only work for the duration of their visa unless they decide to switch to another visa. They can also become self-employed when they get to the UK.
Health and Care Worker Visa
Ghanaian medical professionals can visit or stay in the UK on a Health and Care Worker visa if the NHS employs them, one of its suppliers, or in adult social care.
As a UK employer, you must provide your Ghanaian employee with a copy of a valid certificate of sponsorship to be granted a health and care worker visa.
Suppose your Ghanaian employee chooses to continue working with your company. In that case, you will have long-term access to them because they can apply for permanent residency after the five-year validity of this visa.
Global Talent Visa
Global talent visa is available to Ghanaians who desire to be potential leaders or are already leaders in the UK. This visa is available to Ghanaians 18 years and older in a specific field.
This field includes:
- Academics or Research
- The arts and Culture
- Digital Technology
UK employers do not need a certificate of sponsorship or a job offer for Ghanaians to be granted this visa. However, eligible Ghanaians must prove they are endorsed as leaders or potential leaders or have won an eligible award.
A Ghanaian on this visa can choose to be self-employed throughout its five-year validity. As a UK employer, you can employ Ghanaians on this visa if your business falls under the required field.
International Sportsperson Visa
The international sports visa permits Ghanaian sportspersons and coaches to work in the UK under sponsorship to advance their sport to the highest level.
As an employer, you are to give your employee the certificate of sponsorship reference number to be used within three months. If you will financially support your Ghanaian employee, it must be indicated on the COS.
Minister of Religion Visa (T2)
The minister of religion visa (T2) is available to Ghanaians 18 years or older who want to become religious missionaries or ministers of religion in the UK. You must be a licensed sponsor in the UK to sponsor a Ghanaian on this visa.
Innovator Founder Visa
The innovator founder visa is available to Ghanaians who want to start a unique business in the UK and is approved by a UK endorsing body. The UK endorsing body will check if the business is scalable, new and unique.
The innovator founder visa is valid for three years and does not require a certificate of sponsorship or a job offer from a UK company. However, an endorsing body must assess your business after one year to ensure it is growing.
The endorsing body can withdraw your endorsement if your company does not meet the requirements. In that case, your visa becomes invalid. If granted this visa, you become an employer in the UK and can apply to live permanently after 3-5 years.
UK Work Visa Sponsorship for Employers Hiring Ghanaians
As an employer, you will have to obtain a valid sponsorship licence if you are bringing Ghanaian talent to the UK through any of the sponsored work routes discussed above.
The type of sponsor licence you must apply for depends on whether you are hiring Ghanaian nationals for skilled or long-term employment, or as temporary workers for specific types of temporary employment. You may apply for a licence covering both types of workers as well.
Job Suitability to Sponsor a Worker
Before applying for a sponsor licence, check the suitability of your job offer to your prospective foreign worker. You must make sure that the job you are offering to your Ghanaian 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.
The job must also meet the specific requirements of the particular visa route (e.g., meeting the required skill level, etc.)
ATAS Certificate
For certain work visa routes like a Skilled Worker visa or a Scale-up Worker visa, your prospective foreign hire may need an Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate before you can assign them a CoS. A sponsored Ghanaian worker will need an ATAS certificate if any of the following is applicable:
- Their sponsoring organisation holds 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
UK Visa Sponsorship Management Roles
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.
Sponsor Licence Additional Requirements
Apart from the above-mentioned conditions, to prove your eligibility as a sponsor you will also have to satisfy the Home Office that you are:
- A genuine organisation operating lawfully and actively trading in the UK
- An honest, dependable, and reliable business entity, which is not, and has never been, engaging in criminal activities
- Capable to carry out your sponsorship duties as specified by the Home Office
- Offering a genuine job to your Ghanaian hire
- Not seeking to sponsor a role that involves recruiting a foreign national for a third party, to undertake an ongoing or routine position
UK Sponsor Licence Application for Employers
How to Apply for a Sponsor Licence
To start with your sponsor licence application process, first register your details online by completing the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) Online sponsor application registration. After that, you can go to the UKVI ‘Sponsor application log in’ page and start filling up the online application form.
Please ensure you have the soft copies of relevant supporting documents ready with you before you begin the online application process, as you will have to email them along with the scanned copies of the submission sheet (as received upon the completion of your online application) to the Home Office within five working days of your application. The relevant Home Office email ID is provided on the submission sheet.
The supporting documents must be in .pdf, .jpeg or .png format, with descriptive titles of 25 or fewer characters. The soft copies must be in a good enough resolution so that they are legible.
Any affidavits or statutory declarations you are required to submit must be witnessed by a qualified, independent person, for example, a solicitor, Notary Public, Justice of the Peace, Commissioner for Oaths, etc.
The online application process may take between 20 and 30 minutes to complete if you have all necessary information ready with you while filling up the form.
Understanding the Sponsorship Licence Ratings
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.
Assigning a Certificate of Sponsorship
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.
After creating and assigning a CoS, defined or undefined, you will need to provide the CoS ID to your Ghanaian hires, so that they in turn can proceed with their work visa application.
Understanding the Immigration Skills Charge in UK
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
Responsibilities of a Sponsorship Licence holder
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:
- 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.
- Monitoring and Reporting Requirement: You must set up systems and processes within your organisation to track and monitor your sponsored employees
- 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, such as change in key personnel listed on the sponsor licence application, change of business premises, etc.
UK Work Permit Requirements for Your Ghanaian Employees
Your employee must meet the requirements to apply for a UK work visa. Each UK work visa has its eligibility requirements. The basic requirements for your employee to come to the UK on a work visa are:
- Proof that they can understand, write and speak English
- Their Biometric residence permit
- A reference number. This number is written on the COS
- Information on the job’s annual salary, title, and occupation code
- A confirmed job offer from you
- A unique Ettis reference number
- A certificate from any country they have previously lived in
- A valid Ghanaian passport. This passport should have blank pages on it
- They must prove that they have £1,270 to financially sponsor themselves. This proof is unnecessary if you will take care of their finances. In that case, it must be categorically stated on the certificate of sponsorship
- A criminal record certificate, if requested
- A tuberculosis test result. This test can be taken in Ghana
- An ATAS certificate, if necessary
- Healthcare surcharge fee
- Their travel history within the last five years
- An endorsement letter from the sports governing body for an international sportsperson visa
Family Reunification for Ghanaian Workers in the UK
All work visas, except the seasonal worker visa, allow foreign workers to travel with their partners and dependent children. Each family member travelling with your employee must apply online and pay the visa and healthcare surcharge fees where applicable.
To be granted a visa, the applicant must show proof of a genuine relationship with each family member, such as marriage certificates, adoption papers, or birth certificates. When the family members arrive in the UK, they can choose to study or work.
How Total Law Can Help with UK Sponsor Licence and Work Visa Applications
Applying for a UK work visa can be complex and confusing for both the sponsor and the applicants. The Home Office has rigorous rules and strict policies in place when it comes to foreign workers’ right to work in the UK. UK work visa applications from Ghana as well as their employer’s sponsorship licence applications are subject to rigorous checks by UKVI to rule out any immigration abuse.
So, it is advisable to consult a competent and knowledgeable business immigration lawyer to increase your chances of success in receiving a positive decision, whether in regard with your sponsor licence or with work visas for your overseas workers.
Total Law immigration lawyers are experts in immigration matters. We have experience guiding employers on sponsorship obligations and Ghanaians who want to apply for a work visa.
Begin your application by calling us right away. You may reach us by phone at +44 (0) 333 305 9375 or by using the online chat feature to speak with our immigration advisers.
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Frequently Asked Questions
A sponsor licence costs £611 for small or charity sponsors and £1,682 for medium-sized or large sponsors. Applying for both sponsor licences is generator shortcode=”uk-worker_licence_small_sponsor_fee”] or £1,682, depending on your business’s size and charitable status.
It lasts for four years after you have been rated and if you have available positions for sponsorship. Your license can be invalid or lost if you do not conform to sponsorship requirements.
After the application and visa interview, your employee’s visa will be processed in three weeks. However, if there are more visa applications to attend to, it could take a bit longer.
