Sponsor licence guide for UK employers

A sponsor licence is the Home Office’s permission for an organisation to employ people who need a work visa. With a licence an employer can assign a Certificate of Sponsorship, the electronic record a worker uses to apply for a Skilled Worker or other work visa. An approved licence starts with an A-rating, and the organisation is listed on the public register of licensed sponsors. Sponsoring someone does not guarantee that they will get a visa.

The sponsor licence check searches that register by organisation name, and sponsor licence data shows what changed on it each month.

Source: GOV.UK, UK visa sponsorship for employers, checked 3 Oct 2026.

GOV.UK says an employer usually needs a licence to employ someone from outside the UK, including citizens of the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland who arrived after 31 December 2020. That includes unpaid work. A licence is not needed for some groups, for example:

• Irish citizens
• people with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
• people with indefinite leave to remain in the UK

Source: GOV.UK, UK visa sponsorship for employers: overview, checked 3 Oct 2026.

The Home Office charges for the licence once, then for each certificate, plus the Immigration Skills Charge for most Skilled Worker certificates. The sponsor pays these: GOV.UK says a licence may be revoked if the worker is asked to pay them. Legal fees, if any, are separate and set by the firm.

An organisation is usually a small sponsor if at least 2 of these apply: annual turnover of £15 million or less; total assets worth £7.5 million or less; 50 employees or fewer. Registered charities (and excepted, exempt and ecclesiastical charitable bodies) pay the small-sponsor fees. The cost calculator adds these up for a number of workers and a sponsorship period.

Source: GOV.UK, Apply for your licence; Certificates of sponsorship; Immigration skills charge, checked 3 Oct 2026.

Standard

Most applications in less than 8 weeks

Priority (eligible routes)

£750 extra, considered within 10 working days

Priority places are limited each working day and allocated first come, first served. Some routes, including Scale-up, Seasonal Worker and the Global Business Mobility expansion, secondment and service supplier routes, are not offered priority. UK Visas and Immigration may visit the business before deciding. Once licensed, defined certificates for Skilled Workers applying from outside the UK are usually approved within one working day.

Source: GOV.UK, Apply for your licence; Pre-licence priority service guidance, checked 3 Oct 2026.

Annex L1 of the sponsor guidance lists the circumstances in which the Home Office will refuse an application. Among them:

• sending a false document with the application (L1 a)
• an unspent conviction for a relevant offence (L1 b)
• an unpaid civil penalty for employing illegal workers, or applying within 12 months of paying one (L1 d and e)
• a licence revoked in the previous 12 months, or 24 months after more than one (L1 h)
• not sending requested documents or information within the time limit (L1 k)
• no processes and systems in place to meet sponsor duties (L1 n)
• intending to supply sponsored workers to a third party as labour (L1 o)
• no operating or trading presence in the UK (L1 p)
• the application being sent by a representative rather than the organisation (L1 r)
• a refused application in the last 6 months, with some exceptions (L1 t)

Annexes L2 and L3 list further grounds on which an application will normally, or may, be refused.

Source: GOV.UK, Sponsor guidance Part 1: apply for a licence, Annex L1, checked 3 Oct 2026.

A licensed sponsor reports changes about sponsored workers within 10 working days and about the organisation within 20 working days, keeps the records in Appendix D, carries out right to work checks and assigns certificates only for roles that meet the route’s rules. A sponsor that falls short can be downgraded to a B-rating (with a £1,579 action plan), suspended or lose its licence. The compliance checklist lists each duty with its paragraph reference.

Source: GOV.UK, Sponsor guidance Part 3: sponsor duties and compliance, checked 3 Oct 2026.

Not for most routes under the current guidance. A sponsor licence is valid indefinitely unless the Home Office revokes it or the sponsor surrenders it. Scale-up and UK Expansion Worker licences last at most 4 years. A licence still depends on the sponsor continuing to meet the eligibility requirements and its duties.

Source: GOV.UK, Sponsor guidance Part 1, paragraph L3.8, checked 3 Oct 2026.

Licensed sponsors on the register, occupation codes with going rates and fees for each sector.

• NHS and healthcare
• Social care and care homes
• IT and software
• Engineering
• Construction and surveying
• Hospitality and chefs
• Education
• Councils and public sector