Sponsor licence & Skilled Worker
A sponsor licence is permission from the Home Office to employ workers from outside the UK, and it is granted on trust: that your organisation is honest, capable and reliable, and will carry the duties that come with it. We obtain licences for employers of every size, from first time startups to PLCs, keep them compliant, and defend them when something goes wrong.
A Skilled Worker sponsor licence currently lasts ten years, provided you keep meeting your duties. It can be downgraded, suspended or revoked if the Home Office finds you non-compliant.
Standard processing for a licence application, as at August 2026. A priority service can reduce this to around 10 working days where available, for an additional fee.
Small or charitable sponsors pay the lower fee; medium and large sponsors the higher. The Certificate of Sponsorship and Immigration Skills Charge are separate. Confirm current fees before you apply.
Record keeping, reporting within 10 working days, right to work checks and genuine, correctly paid roles. Several breaches are now mandatory grounds for revocation.
What we do
Eligibility assessment, document gathering, Key Personnel set-up, HR systems review and submission, with support through any pre-licence checks. We prepare the application so it survives scrutiny, not just submission.
SponsorServe: our dedicated fixed fee licence service walks employers through the whole process at sponsorserve.com.
Certificate of Sponsorship assignment, occupation code selection, salary threshold and going rate checks, and the worker's visa application end to end, including dependants. Where a role does not fit, we say so before you spend money, and we advise on alternatives such as Global Business Mobility or the Scale-up route.
Reporting duties, record keeping under Appendix D, SMS management, mock audits and HR training so a UKVI compliance visit is routine rather than a crisis. The rules tightened in 2026: several failures that once drew a warning are now mandatory revocation grounds, including late reporting of permitted changes and mismatches between duties and the occupation code.
Free AI tool: generate a starter compliance action plan at sponsorlicence.online, built by our sister venture Legalaid. Guidance only, not legal advice.
Representations against suspension and proposed revocation, pre-action protocol letters and judicial review where necessary. Time matters: your workers' permission is usually curtailed to 60 days on revocation, and a cooling off period bars reapplication. Contact us before you respond to the Home Office.
Plain English guidance: what suspension and revocation mean for your business and your workers, at sponsorlicencesupport.com.
Getting licensed is the easy part. Staying compliant is the job.
Chris Dias, co-founder
Sector notes
Since 22 July 2025, care workers and senior care workers cannot be recruited from outside the UK. Transitional arrangements protect workers already sponsored here, and nurses, doctors and other health roles remain eligible. Speak to us before spending anything on care sector recruitment.
Thresholds and going rates move regularly, and from 8 April 2026 the required salary must be paid in full in each pay period; annual averaging is no longer permitted. We check the numbers before the Certificate of Sponsorship is assigned, not after.
A young company can hold a licence. What the Home Office tests is whether the organisation is genuine, the role is real and the systems exist. We regularly help startups take that first step properly.
Multiple entities, UK expansion of an overseas business, Senior or Specialist Worker transfers and Scale-up sponsorship each raise their own licensing questions. We advise on the right structure before you apply, because restructuring a licence later is harder.
How it works
A senior solicitor assesses your eligibility, your roles and your risk areas, and tells you honestly whether and how to proceed.
A written scope and fixed fee, so you can budget with certainty. Straightforward licence applications can also run through SponsorServe, our dedicated fixed fee service.
We gather evidence to Home Office standards, set up your Key Personnel, review your HR systems and submit, then support you through to the decision.
First Certificate of Sponsorship, worker visas, ongoing compliance, and our outsourced Complete Immigration Department if you want the whole function handled.
Sponsor licences sit within a wider practice covering right to work, Global Business Mobility, Scale-up visas and the Complete Immigration Department. See the full picture on our business immigration page.
Book a consultation with a named solicitor, or start your application through SponsorServe. Either way, the same regulated team does the work.
Book a consultation