Licence Under Skilled Worker Visa, Student Visa & Temporary Worker Visa - Sponsorship Certificate

Any employer who wishes to employ an overseas national is required to ‘sponsor’ them under Skilled Worker Visa and Temporary workers of the Points Based System and must therefore obtain a sponsor licence from the Home Office.

Any education provider that wishes to enrol an overseas student is required to ‘sponsor’ them under the Student Visa Category and must also obtain a sponsor licence from the Home Office.

There are various requirements for various types of establishment that needs to be fulfilled before a sponsor licence will be granted by the Home Office.

A. Who can apply for the licence?

Any establishment in the UK can make an application, if they are considering sponsoring overseas nationals to work in the UK (Skilled Worker Visa) or if they wish to become a sponsor for Temporary Workers Visa or if they wish to enrol students in their educational establishments (Student Visa Category).

In order to become a licensed sponsor the establishment concerned must be a genuine organisation or sole trader operating legally in the UK.  In respect of employers, there is no requirement of a minimum turnover or number of staff. 

There must be no evidence that the organisation is a threat to immigration control – the Home Office will look at the history and background of the organisation and its key personnel.  The organisation must nominate a ‘level 1 user’, a ‘level 2 user’, a ‘key contact’ and an ‘authorising officer’ to operate the sponsorship management system.  The organisation must be able to comply with its sponsor duties by showing the necessary human resources systems are in place.  All the required supporting documents must be submitted with the application and the organisation must meet the additional requirements for the tier and category they are applying under.

B. Official Home Office fees

A prospective sponsor applying for a licence needs to pay a fee to the Home Office for considering its application.  If registering as a Skilled Worker Visa sponsor only for the first time, the fees are £1476 for large establishments and £536 for small sponsors or sponsors with charitable status.  (A small sponsor is one that that qualifies as a small company in accordance with the Companies Act 2006 and has up to 50 hired employees.)

If a sponsor already has a licence and is applying to add more tiers to its licence the fees are considerably less (and nil in a lot of cases).

C. Procedure after submitting the application

From 6 April 2024, any sponsorship licences that are due to expire after this date automatically extended for 10 years and this confirmed in the ‘view your licence’ page of the online sponsor management system. 

Prospective sponsors make an application for a licence by registering online on the Home Office website and filling out the online application.  The applicant sponsor must then print off the submission sheet and send it to the Home Office with the fee and the required original supporting documents.  This can only be done by a person authorised to make this application as legal representatives cannot make this application on behalf of prospective sponsors.

The Home Office will consider the application under the specified criteria, making any necessary checks, and consider whether they need to visit the business premises of the applicant or require further documentary evidence before making their decision.

Once the Home Office approves the application, a sponsor licence will be issued to the establishment giving them an A or B rating.  If the application is refused there is no right of appeal, but the prospective sponsor can reapply at any time.

From the 6th of April 2024, any licences that are due to expire after this date are going to be automatically extended for 10 years and this will be confirmed in the ‘view your licence’ page of the online sponsor management system. 

At the same time, any licences that are due to expire before this date must be renewed in the normal way. The Home Office has also confirmed that there will be no fee refunds for sponsors who are obliged to make a renewal application.

For most sponsors this will be welcome news, particularly as a renewal application can often be a trigger for a compliance visit.

Nevertheless, sponsors should still make sure they are compliant with their reporting, recording keeping and general sponsor duties at all times as compliance visits can still take place outside the renewal process, at any time and without prior warning.

Types of sponsor licenses:

• A Rating: This rating will be given to those establishments who fulfil all the licence requirements of the HR systems and compliance and pose little or no risk to the aims of managed migration.  Sponsors having an A rating will be able to exercise all aspects of sponsorship and employers will also be able to certify its prospective employees for maintenance purposes. This means that its employees (overseas) will not be required to show maintenance funds themselves in their application if they have been sponsored by an A rated employer who certifies maintenance
• B Rating: This rating is given to an establishment which poses a risk to the aims of the managed migration as it has some failings in its HR systems or compliance, or both.  A B-rated sponsor cannot assign any Certificates of Sponsorship to a new migrant until they have signed up to the sponsorship action plan.  For a fee of £1,000, the Home Office will provide a sponsorship action plan for a B-rated sponsor which gives guidance on how it can improve its HR systems and/or compliance in order to be given an A rating.  If the B-rated sponsor meets the conditions of the action plan it will be upgraded to an A rating.  If a sponsor ultimately fails to comply with the action plan its licence will be revoked.  (An A rated establishment can be downgraded to a B rating if the Home Office considers there has been some non-compliance).

Once a license is issued with an A rating, a sponsor will then be able to issue Certificates of Sponsorship/Confirmations of Acceptance for Studies to its prospective employees or students respectively who will then need to use the certificate to obtain leave to remain or entry clearance in line with the certificate.

D. Persons Involved in the Sponsorship Process

A prospective sponsor must allocate responsibilities to ‘key personnel’ in its staff in the following four roles: authorising office; level 1 user; level 2 user and key contact.  These roles can be filled by the same person or by different staff members.

• Authorising officer - this must be a paid member of staff or an ‘office holder’ of the organisation.  The person should be a senior and competent person in the establishment as they will be responsible for the activities of all users of the sponsorship management system.  They have ultimate responsibility throughout the process of applying for a licence and also in issuing sponsorships to the prospective employees of the establishment.  This person is responsible for all acts, omissions, compliance and non-compliance performed by the following three personnel:-
• Key Contact - this can be the authorising officer, any other person working for the company or even a legal representative (an OISC registered advisor or a solicitor).  As the name suggests, this is the person who will act as the main point of contact between the sponsor and the Home Office
• Level 1 User - this can be the authorising officer, any other person working for the company or even a legal representative.  This person conducts the day-to-day sponsorship activities using the sponsorship management system, assigns Certificates of Sponsorship/Confirmations of Acceptance for Studies and keeps the Home Office informed of any changes and ‘migrant activity’ (e.g. if a migrant does not run up for work or studies)
• Level 2 User - This can be the authorising officer, any other person working for the company or even a legal representative. This person`s activities are limited to assigning certificates/CASs and to reporting migrant activity to the UK Border Agency

E. Certificate of Sponsorship / Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS)

These are virtual documents with a unique reference number rather than a paper certificate or a document, issued by registered sponsors.  They will be issued by the sponsor once the relevant requirements are complied with.  The migrant needs to provide the reference number in their application for leave to enter or remain.

A Certificate of Sponsorship is assigned by Skilled Worker Visa  sponsors, i.e. employers.  It is valid for three months and if the prospective employee does not use the certificate, it will automatically become invalid and the sponsor will need to re-issue the certificate.

A Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) is assigned by the Student Visa Category sponsors, i.e. education providers.  It is valid for six months and if the prospective student does not use the CAS, it will automatically become invalid and the sponsor will need to re-issue the CAS.

F. Administrative review procedure (in-country applications only)

You can apply to request a review of your application if you think it was refused because:

• the caseworker processing your application made a mistake
• your supporting documents were not considered

However, you cannot apply just because you disagree with the decision.

Once completed, your company’s authorising officer must email a request form to the Home Office within 14 days of the original decision to refuse your sponsor licence application.

The Home Office will aim to inform you of the result of the review and make a final decision within 28 days.

What services we can offer?

Whatever the case, we are here to assist, advise and represent our clients in relation to obtaining the licence, maintaining the licence, upgrading the licence and also in relation to the immigration matters of its existing or prospective workers.

For further information and free assessment please contact us.

Prices for Sponsorship Certificate