The Home Office requires employers to apply for sponsor licenses if they want to hire foreign nationals who aren’t already settled workers or who don’t have the proper immigration paperwork to work in the UK.
The type of sponsor licence application you must submit will be determined by the immigration path that the foreign worker wishes to pursue. Each licence category has unique criteria. Sponsorship is now required for the employment of the majority of citizens of the European Union, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland who enter the UK after December 31, 2020.
Need immediate help with UK sponsor licence application? Call us at 02033939272. We’re available to assist you in person, over the phone, or online.
In order to hire a qualified foreign national, businesses in the UK must first apply for a sponsor licence.
Worker Licenses and Temporary Worker Licences are the two main types of sponsor licenses. The type of position that the organisation is hiring for will decide which sponsor licence the employer must apply for.
Before and during an employee’s employment, organisations must meet several sponsor duties and comply with regulations pertaining to the hiring of foreign nationals. You need to choose an official representative for your business first. The individuals you choose to represent must occupy a senior or executive position inside the organisation, rather than being shareholders.
Your ability to demonstrate that your company is legal and in need of foreign workers is an essential component of the application process. You can get help from Rees Clayton immigration solicitors at 02033939272 to guarantee that your application will be accepted.
To qualify for a sponsor licence, the employer needs to:
The process for applying for a sponsor licence is complicated, and the employer has to give a lot of details about their business.
Employers can apply for a sponsor licence to bring in either permanent or casual workers. The type of licence required by the employer is determined by the nature of the task that the employee will perform.
A Certificate of Sponsorship must be issued to each foreign worker by the employer if their application for a sponsor licence is approved.
As an employer of an overseas worker, the business is required to perform a number of additional tasks and responsibilities.
You must prove to the Home Office that in order to apply for a UK sponsor licence application:
There are a lot of documents you’ll need to present related to your business in order to prove that you’re a legitimate UK-based entity. The specific documentation you must give will differ based on the type of organisation and the route(s) you seek to sponsor migrants on.
The Home Office will examine your business’s history, the backgrounds of the Key Personnel listed on your application, and the backgrounds of anyone involved in the day-to-day operations of your business to determine if you are trustworthy, dependable, and have not participated in any behaviour or actions that are antithetical to the public good.
To determine whether you can fulfil your sponsor responsibilities and demonstrate your compliance within the timeframe and manner specified in sponsor guidance, the Home Office will examine your current recruitment and human resources practices.
As an employer, you’ll have to meet a lot of extra conditions that are specific to the immigration route that the foreign national is hoping to be sponsored on when you apply for a sponsorship licence.
For instance, in order to sponsor an individual through the Skilled Worker visa route, you are required to prove to the Home Office that:
In contrast, the Home Office requires proof of the following in order to grant a UK Expansion Worker sponsor licence, which can be used to sponsor an employee under the Global Business Mobility-UK Expansion Worker visa route:
The UK also has several different pathways for workers and temporary workers, such as the Global Business Mobility-Senior or Specialist Worker, Scale-up, International Sportsperson, Minister of Religion, and Creative Worker programs. A licence to sponsor an overseas citizen on any of these (or other) immigration pathways will have route-specific restrictions that differ from one route to another.
Your application for a sponsorship licence will be rejected if it does not meet the conditions.
For assistance with your sponsorship licence application, contact our business immigration team at 02033939272 or complete the enquiry form below.
Here are the two main types fo sponsor licence:
Some skilled occupations, for which worker sponsor licences are required, include:
The Temporary Worker Sponsor Licence is intended for skilled workers who will be employed temporarily. Subcategories of the Temporary Worker Visa include:
You need to submit specific documents in order to bolster your case. At least four pieces of evidence are usually required. The exact papers you need depend on the type of business you’re running and the position you’re applying for.
If you are applying for a Sponsor Licence for a Skilled Worker Visa or a Temporary Worker (Creative Worker) Visa, for instance, you’ll have to provide a document that shows support from the sport’s governing organisation.
Within five business days after submitting your application online, you must provide all supporting documents. The original versions of the documents are required. However, the Home Office may accept certified documents. Keep be mind that the Home Office may ask for further documents from you.
Rees Clayton has dealt with a huge number of applications for support licenses from all kinds of people. We can determine which papers you must include in your sponsor licensing application using our sponsorship licence guidance. If you would like additional information, please contact us at 02033939272.
When applying for a licence, you’ll have to designate somebody inside your company to oversee the sponsorship procedure. A sponsorship management system (SMS) will be used to handle all operations related to sponsor licenses.
Here are the exact positions that require filling:
The key contact: Their primary responsibility will be to communicate with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI).
Authorising Officer: They must be an older citizen. They will be accountable for the acts of staff and representatives.
Level 1 User: The licence will be managed by this individual on a daily basis.
If needed, these tasks can be handled by a single individual. The company must have at least one level 1 user. However other organisations can provide level 1 and level 2 users.
Every person involved in the sponsorship process will have to go through specific checks, which will include an examination of any unspent criminal convictions and whether the person has been reported to UKVI.
As an employer, you must fulfil certain requirements in order to apply for a Sponsor Licence and engage foreign workers.
Verify business eligibility: Employees must not have a criminal record, a history of immigration violations, or a failure to fulfil sponsorship obligations in order to be considered for employment.
Determine the type of license you need: this is determined by the type of worker you wish to sponsor (this involves skilled workers, religious workers, and temporary workers in creative, sport, youth mobility, and governmental exchange).
Nominate Employees to Manage Sponsorship: they cannot be shareholders and must be senior members of the organisation. In order to access the Sponsorship Management System (SMS), you must select a minimum of two members.
Apply online and pay the Home Office fee: This ranges from £536 to £1,476 for a Skilled Worker visa alone, £536 for a Temporary Worker visa alone, and £536 to £1,476 for both the Skilled Worker and Temporary Worker visas combined, depending on the size of your firm.
If your application is approved, your company will be granted an A-rated licence and added to the list of sponsors.
As a sponsor, if you don’t do what you need to, your licence could be lowered to a B rate. In such a case, the UKVI will lay out a course of action for you to take in order to restore your license’s A-rating. The plan of action costs £1,476.
Once you can show that you have made changes and moved back up to the A-rating, you will be able to give out new sponsorship certificates.
Employers have a lot of obligations before, during, and after hiring an employee from another country.
Obtaining a UK sponsor licence requires businesses to exhibit honesty, dependability, and reliability. They must also have appropriate HR systems and be prepared for compliance visits. Additionally, they must not have any criminal convictions for immigration or tax evasion, a history of non-compliance with prior sponsorships, or a sponsor licence that has been recently revoked.
Your responsibilities as an employer include:
Reach out to our London, Manchester, or Birmingham offices or utilise our office finder to locate the branch nearest you.
To ensure you progress through the application procedure for a sponsorship licence appropriately, scheduling is crucial. There are several steps to that process.
Recruitment planning might also benefit from knowing the processing times.
It can take up to eight weeks for the application to be processed, in general. Decisions on licensing applications will typically take no less than four to six weeks, though the period can be shortened with thorough and accurate applications.
If licence applicants want to speed up the decision-making process and have their licence within 10 business days, they can pay an extra £500 for the pre-licensing priority service. When a company is worried about losing a candidate due to lengthy processing times, this service can be helpful.
However, only a limited number of spaces are available per day.
Here are several factors that can impact processing times:
Two weeks’ notice should be given to the employer if the Home Office decides to conduct an on-site audit. The time it takes to write the inspection report and move the application forward can add another six to eight weeks. Smaller businesses and those the Home Office deems as “high risk” are more likely to be subject to pre-licensing inspections.
There is a lot of room for error due to the stringent criteria for producing supporting documentation. Applicants must submit the appropriate paperwork in accordance with the sort of organisation they are representing, and certified copies must be marked according to the guidelines.
In addition to submitting the application online, you must send the supporting documents to the Home Office via regular mail within five business days. If not, the application will be denied.
The designated Authorising Officer needs to be present to sign the submission sheet that goes with the supporting documents that are to be sent to the Home Office within five business days of the online application form being submitted (though this requirement has been temporarily relaxed due to emergency pandemic measures).
The worker will have three months from the date of licence issuance and CoS assignment to apply for a visa at the Home Office. The processing time of this application by the Home Office must also be taken into consideration when deciding when the employment will begin. Time required for overseas visa applications can range from three weeks following the interview to five business days if the priority service is used.
The processing time for an in-country visa application from the UK can reach eight weeks. Super priority and priority services both promise accelerated processing the following business day or in five business days, respectively; however, these options may be unavailable due to pandemic service constraints.
The company must pay the correct sponsor licensing application fee in addition to submitting the form online. Additionally, the cost of applying for a sponsor licence will vary based on the group’s size and type.
If the organisation is a charity in the UK or falls under the “small companies regime” as outlined in the Companies Act 2006, sections 381–384. In a typical fiscal year, a business can be considered a small business if it satisfies two of the following requirements:
This will apply to any group that doesn’t fit the small business requirements or is free from them.
There are a plethora of other fees and expenses associated with the sponsor licence application:
Refusing a sponsor licence application can be a very frustrating matter. The following are some of the most typical grounds for denying an application:
A company cannot recover the cost of their application and is unable to reapply until the cooling-off period has passed. Therefore, it is in their best interest to minimise the chances of their sponsor licence application being rejected.
The reasons for the application’s rejection will determine the duration. Reapplication is not possible for the majority of companies until six months have passed from the rejection letter’s date.
If your sponsor licence application is denied, you have no right to challenge the decision. Even if you succeed in requesting an administrative review, it won’t ensure that the judgement will be reversed.
If you want to avoid rejection and make sure you save time and money, hiring an immigration lawyer to help you file a strong application is your best bet. Your company also has the right to revoke its application for a sponsor licence.
Companies will not be required to renew their sponsor licenses after April 20, 2024. Alternatively, sponsor licenses are now automatically renewed on an ongoing basis, subject to the organization’s continued compliance with their obligations and the results of periodic audits or checks conducted by the Home Office.
Organisations are no longer required to pay a fee to renew their sponsor licence.
The corporate immigration lawyers at our firm help UK employers get the correct sponsor licence, keep it in the highest possible rating and fulfil their sponsor responsibilities.
Our immigration solicitors can handle all aspects of sponsor licence applications, including advising you on the proper company documentation to submit, helping you craft a convincing business case to convince UKVI that a sponsor licence is necessary to fill a legitimate position, and guiding you through a compliant recruitment process.
When it comes to understanding and satisfying the needs of our business clients, we take great satisfaction in being both approachable and proactive. As part of our professional and personable service, our highly motivated team is committed to offering trustworthy immigration advice directly to employers in the UK.
Your organisation’s size determines the cost of your UK sponsor license. As long as you have less than 50 employees, an annual turnover of £10.2 million or less, and total assets of £5.1 million or less, the charge for small firms and charities is £536. The cost for large and medium-sized companies is £1,476.
Each holder of a Sponsor Licence is assigned a distinct reference number or code.
Your employer’s Sponsor Licence number can be found on your Certificate of Sponsorship if you are employed as a Skilled Worker or Temporary Worker.
As long as you keep meeting the conditions, your licence will remain valid. There will be no sponsor expiration as of April 2024. Your sponsor licence is at risk of revocation, nevertheless, if you do not adhere to the rules.
The Home Office will assign you a licence rating and add you to the UK Sponsorship Licence registry after your application is approved.
After that, you will be allowed to offer Certificates of Sponsorship to any non-EEA or Swiss nationals who are qualified for sponsorship.
In most cases, your licence will remain active for the duration that you are eligible, unless you are sponsoring workers for Scale-up or UK Expansion. Failure to comply with your responsibilities as a sponsor may result in the Home Office suspending or revoking your Sponsor Licence, or even imposing a Civil Penalty.
You are required to notify the UKVI within 20 business days of any substantial changes to your organisation. If you do not notify the UKVI of any changes to your organisation, it could impact your sponsor licence.
Some notable alterations may include:
You are also required to notify the UKVI if your company relocates or if any of your assigned responsibilities change. You have the option to make these adjustments through the SMS system.
