Sponsor Licence Check: Search the UK Register Free

What a licence result means

Every employer shown holds a Skilled Worker sponsor licence, verified against the Home Office register. A licence does not guarantee sponsorship for any specific vacancy.

Can an employer check its own sponsor licence?

This tool is used by employers as often as by candidates.

HR and people teams

Confirm your organisation appears on the register under the right legal name and rating, and spot it early if an entry changes.

Founders and directors

Check your licence is current before you make an offer that depends on sponsoring the hire.

Partners and suppliers

Verify another business genuinely holds a licence before relying on their ability to sponsor staff on a contract.

Search by organisation name as it appears at Companies House. If your entry looks wrong, the register itself is the authority — corrections go through the Home Office, not through us.

Applying for a licence, or keeping one?

The employers section sets out Home Office fees, decision times and sponsor duties, checked against GOV.UK, with a cost calculator and a compliance checklist.

Sponsor licence guide for employers

What does a sponsor licence check show?

What a result shows, why an employer can be missing, and what a licence does and does not tell you.

Type the employer’s name, or part of it, and the result shows what the register holds for every match: the route or routes the licence covers (Skilled Worker, the Temporary Worker routes, or both), the rating where the Home Office publishes one, the town or city given on the register, the date the organisation first appeared in our copies of the register and, if it has left, the date it was removed. Searches for “sponsor license check” land here too: the register uses the UK spelling, and so do we, but the data is the same.

A missing result does not always mean no licence. The register lists legal names, so a company known by a trading name may appear under a different one; a care home, school or hospital may be licensed through a parent company, trust or group; and a licence granted since our last weekly check of the published register may not be in our copy yet. Try the name on the Companies House record, or the group’s name, before concluding anything. A licence is a precondition, not a guarantee: it shows the Home Office permits the employer to sponsor, and nothing about whether a particular vacancy is open to it. The full sponsor list is the same register browsed by sector and region.

How does this sponsor licence check work?

We refresh our copy weekly from the published Home Office register
Each sponsor is cross-referenced against Companies House where possible
We score sponsors with a Hiring Likelihood Score (0–100) from public data
This is not legal advice and we are not affiliated with the UK government

Official data

Built from the published GOV.UK sponsor register, not crowdsourced lists.

Hiring signals

See licence rating, filings, and job activity in one result card.

Independent

We are not a law firm and not affiliated with the Home Office.

Common questions

Does a sponsor licence mean they'll sponsor me?

No, and this is the single most common misunderstanding about the register. A licence means the Home Office permits that employer to sponsor Skilled Worker visas. It does not mean they are currently sponsoring, that a particular vacancy is open to sponsorship, or that they would sponsor you. Many licensed employers sponsor only a handful of people a year, and some hold a licence they rarely use. Confirm with the employer before building an application around a role.

Can I check my own company's licence status here?

Yes. Employers use this tool as much as candidates do — HR teams confirming their own entry appears correctly, founders checking a licence is still current before making an offer, and businesses checking a partner, supplier, or acquisition target before relying on their sponsorship capability. Search by organisation name as it appears at Companies House.

Is this the same as the official Home Office register?

We mirror the official UK Home Office register of licensed sponsors, refreshed weekly from the published register. Always confirm critical decisions on GOV.UK or with a qualified immigration adviser.

How often is the data updated?

Our copy is updated when the Home Office publishes a new register: we check for a new file every week. Companies House filings and job counts are refreshed on a rolling schedule.

What does the Hiring Likelihood Score mean?

It is a 0–100 indicator built from public data: sponsor rating, time on the register, Companies House filings, and active job listings. It is not a guarantee that an employer will sponsor you.

What if my employer isn't on the list?

They may not hold a Skilled Worker sponsor licence, may appear under a different legal name, or may have been removed from the register. Try alternate spellings or speak to the employer's HR team.

What is the difference between a sponsor licence and a Certificate of Sponsorship?

A sponsor licence is the Home Office's permission for an organisation to sponsor workers at all; it is granted once, does not need renewing (Home Office sponsor guidance says a licence is valid indefinitely unless it is revoked or surrendered), and is what this tool checks. A Certificate of Sponsorship is issued under that licence for one named worker and one job, after an offer, and is the reference the worker enters in a visa application. The licence is public on the register; the certificate is not. Our guide at /certificate-of-sponsorship explains it in full.

Do you give immigration advice?

No. SkilledJobs provides general information and tools only. For advice on your situation, consult an adviser regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA, formerly OISC) or a qualified solicitor.

Companies that can sponsor a UK visa — the licensed register by sector and region.
UK visa sponsorship jobs at licensed sponsors — current listings, updated daily.
Skilled Worker visa jobs and eligibility rules — which occupations qualify today.

Other free tools

No account needed. All tools use official UK government data.

Check eligibility

See if your occupation and salary meet Skilled Worker visa requirements.

Calculate salary

Compare your offered salary against current Home Office thresholds.

Sponsor Licence Check: Does This UK Employer Hold a Licence?