SPONSOR LICENCE APPLICATIONS

If you are an employer seeking to employ an overseas national who is not a settled worker and who does not otherwise have immigration permission to work for you in the UK, you will need to apply to the Home Office for a sponsor licence. 

The sponsor licence application required varies based on the immigration route for the overseas worker. Each type of licence has specific criteria. Employers should be aware that since 31 December 2020, most EU, EEA, and Swiss nationals need sponsorship to work in the UK.

What Is a Sponsor Licence?

A sponsor licence enables UK businesses to hire workers from abroad for their business. Most overseas workers, including Skilled Workers and UK Expansion Workers, require a sponsor licence.

This also applies to most EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Swiss citizens arriving in the UK after 31 December 2020, but not to Irish citizens, individuals with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, those with indefinite leave to remain in the UK, or foreign nationals with work permission. To obtain a sponsor licence, a Home Office application and fee are necessary. Businesses of any size or industry can apply for a sponsor licence if they meet the eligibility and suitability criteria for the relevant category.

Requirements for a Sponsor Licence

In order to successfully apply for a sponsor licence, you will need to satisfy various general and route-specific requirements.

General Requirements for a Sponsor Licence

As part of your sponsor licence application, you will need to satisfy the Home Office that:

• You are a genuine organisation operating lawfully in the UK
• You are honest, dependable, and reliable and are not engaging and have not engaged in behaviour or actions that are not conducive to the public good
• You are capable of carrying out your sponsor duties and evidencing your compliance in a timeframe and manner set out in sponsor guidance

To demonstrate that your organisation is a legitimate and law-abiding entity in the UK, you will need to provide various company-related documents. The specific documents required will depend on your organisation type and the immigration route(s) you are seeking to sponsor migrants on.

The Home Office will assess your honesty, dependability, reliability, and actions to ensure that they are not detrimental to the public good. This includes reviewing your business history, the Key Personnel listed in your application, and anyone involved in the daily operation of your business.

The Home Office will also evaluate your current human resources and recruitment procedures to determine your ability to fulfil your sponsor duties and comply with the timeline and method outlined in the sponsor guidance.

Route-specific Requirements for a Sponsor Licence

As an employer applying for a licence to sponsor a foreign national, you must meet additional requirements that are specific to the immigration route for which the foreign national is seeking sponsorship.

For example, if you wish to apply for a Skilled Worker sponsor licence to sponsor a worker on the Skilled Worker visa route you will need to satisfy the Home Office that:

• You can offer employment which meets the skill level requirement of the Skilled Worker route
• You can offer employment which meets the salary level requirement of the Skilled Worker route
• The job(s) you are looking to sponsor is (are) genuine
• There is a direct employer-employee relationship between you (the sponsor) and the worker and you are not looking to sponsor a role which will involve hiring a worker to a third party to undertake an ongoing or routine role

Alternatively, if you wish to apply for a UK Expansion Worker sponsor licence to sponsor a worker on the Global Business Mobility – UK Expansion Worker visa route you will need to satisfy the Home Office that:

• You can offer employment which meets the skill level required for the UK Expansion Worker route
• You can offer employment which meets the salary level requirement for the UK Expansion Worker route
• The job(s) you are looking to sponsor is (are) genuine
• You are not looking to sponsor a role which will involve working for a third party
• There is a qualifying link between you (the sponsor) and the overseas business that will send workers to you
• You are not already actively trading in the UK, but you have a UK ‘footprint’
• The overseas business that is expanding to the UK is active and trading overseas and, unless an exception applies, has been active and trading for at least 3 years
• You genuinely intend, and are able, to expand to the UK and establish a UK trading presence within two years
• The planned expansion is in the same type of business that you conduct overseas
• The business you are establishing in the UK is either wholly owned by the overseas business or is part of the same legal entity (such as a branch)

The UK provides various other Worker and Temporary Worker immigration routes, such as Global Business Mobility - Senior or Specialist Worker, Scale-up, International Sportsperson, Minister of Religion, and Creative Worker.

The requirements for a licence to sponsor foreign nationals on these or other immigration routes differ depending on the specific route. If your application fails to meet the sponsor licence requirements, your sponsorship licence application will be denied.

If your application does not satisfy the sponsor licence requirements then your sponsorship licence application will be refused.

Documents Needed for a Sponsor Licence Application

To comply with the Home Office sponsor guidance, you must provide at least four mandatory documents outlined in Appendix A. The necessary documents will depend on the specifics of your application. You must provide details about your organisation, the intended job position, and the prospective candidate, as well as a rationale for why you are seeking a sponsor licence.

Appointing Key Personnel

Before you apply for a sponsor licence, you will need to appoint an Authorising Officer to manage your sponsorship licence, a Key Contact to act as the main contact between your business and the Home Office and nominate at least one Level 1 User to carry out day-to-day sponsorship activities using the Sponsorship Management System (SMS).

• Authorising Officer – Usually someone senior within the company or organisation, who is involved with recruitment and/or HR. This person will be ultimately responsible for the licence, and ensuring that Sponsor Licence duties are met
• Key Contact – The primary point of contact for the Home Office. A legal representative can undertake this role for you; and
• Level 1 User – This person will be responsible for all day-to-day management of the Sponsor Licence through an online portal, known as the Sponsorship Management System (SMS). This person must be an employee at the time of application, however, once the Sponsor Licence has been assigned, others, including legal representatives, can be set up as Level 1 Users, or Level 2 Users who are able to undertake certain limited tasks on the SMS

When applying for your sponsor licence, it is necessary to have the designated Key Personnel in place. The roles may be fulfilled by either one individual or a combination of multiple people.

Unless applying for a UK Expansion Worker sponsor licence, for which different rules apply, each of your Key Personnel must be based in the UK for the period they will fill the role you have appointed them to, not have any unspent criminal convictions, civil penalties or other adverse histories (including adverse immigration history) and be a paid member of your staff or engaged by you as an ‘office holder’ (unless an exception applies).

Global Business Mobility Sponsor Licence Application

The Global Business Mobility routes are open to businesses of all sizes, providing they have a trading presence outside the UK and a qualifying link to a UK business.

In order to hold a Global Business Mobility sponsor licence, the UK business that will be receiving the worker must (in addition to the above requirements):

• Have an existing presence in the UK
• Have qualifying links to an overseas business from which it will receive workers
• Have suitable key personnel who will be responsible for managing the licence; and
• Have systems in place to meet the sponsor licence duties

Qualifying links to UK businesses are specific to the type of work assignment which is being undertaken in the UK.

In the case of a Global Business Mobility – Service Supplier Worker sponsor the UK business must have eligible contact with an overseas service provider for the supply of a service which is covered by a relevant UK trade commitment.

Apply for a Sponsor Licence

To apply for your Sponsor Licence, you must fill out an online application form, pay a fee, and submit all relevant supporting documents within 5 working days of applying.

You must provide details about the Key Personnel you are appointing and the evidence you are providing to meet the eligibility and suitability criteria. Although a legal representative can assist with completing the application and offering advice on supporting documents, the sponsor must submit the application themselves.

How Much Does a Sponsor Licence Cost?

The cost of submitting a sponsor licence application varies based on the size of your organization. A small company or charity incurs a fee of £536.00, while a medium or large-sized company is charged £1,476.00.

How Long Does It Take To Get a Sponsor Licence?

Sponsor licence applications typically take up to 8 weeks to be decided by the Home Office. There is a priority service which costs £500.00, and will return a decision within 10 working days.

Duration of a Sponsor Licence

If your sponsor license application is approved, it will be valid for 4 years. To continue sponsoring workers, you will need to apply to renew your licence before it expires. However, you cannot renew a UK Expansion Worker licence. Instead, you can apply to add other routes to your licence after establishing a UK trading presence. If your application is refused, there is no right of appeal and a six-month cooling-off period applies.

Sponsor Licence Rating

If your sponsor license application is approved, you will usually be rated ‘A’ on the published register of licensed sponsors. UK Expansion Worker sponsor licence applicants may be given a ‘Provisional’ rating instead if their Authorising Officer (and Level 1 User) is an employee of the overseas business.

After obtaining a sponsor licence, you can issue Certificates of Sponsorship to prospective employees and manage your licence through the Sponsor Management System (SMS), which must also be used to report certain events such as the absence of a migrant worker. Failing to fulfil sponsorship duties, including conducting necessary right-to-work checks, could result in the revocation of your licence.

Sponsor Licence Guidance

If you are an employer considering applying to be authorised by the Home Office to sponsor a non-settled worker on either the Skilled Worker or UK Expansion Worker route then please visit the following pages for further and more detailed guidance as to the main general and route-specific requirements you will need to satisfy in order to successfully apply for a sponsor licence:

• Skilled Worker Sponsor Licence Guidance
• UK Expansion Worker Sponsor Licence Guidance