Sponsor licence application

If you want to hire someone from outside the UK, you'll usually need a sponsor licence. This also covers EU, EEA and Swiss citizens who came to the UK after 31 December 2020. The EEA is the EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

There are exceptions. You can employ Irish citizens without a licence, along with anyone who has settled or pre-settled status or indefinite leave to remain. All three mean the person already has the right to live and work in the UK. Licences normally last as long as you keep meeting the rules. The exceptions are the Scale-up and UK Expansion Worker licences, which run for 4 years. These are special licences for fast-growing firms and for overseas companies opening their first UK branch.

Some issues will block a licence. If anyone who runs your business has an unspent conviction for an immigration offence, or for something like fraud or money laundering, the licence won't be granted. A conviction is unspent until a set time has passed after the sentence; until then it still counts.

The role has to qualify as well. The Skilled Worker visa is the main visa for people coming to do a skilled job for a licensed UK employer. A new Skilled Worker normally has to earn at least £41,700 a year, or the going rate for the job where that's higher. The going rate is the official yearly pay the Home Office sets for each type of job. Here's how that works out in practice:

For jobs on the temporary shortage list, the certificate has to be issued before 31 December 2026 for the role to count. Both are short official lists for a limited time: the shortage list lets some jobs below degree level be sponsored, and the salary list allows a lower salary. The same date ends the lower immigration salary list rates too; other degree-level roles are not affected. Our free role checker matches your job title and salary against the official tables, with no sign-up needed.

GOV.UK breaks it down into 5 steps:

1. Confirm your business is eligible.
2. Confirm the job can be sponsored.
3. Pick the licence type you need.
4. Decide who in your business will manage sponsorship.
5. Apply online and pay.

For step 4, you nominate people for 3 roles: authorising officer, key contact, and level 1 user. The authorising officer is the senior person answerable for the licence, the key contact is the person the Home Office deals with, and level 1 users run the licence day to day in the online sponsor system. One person is allowed to hold every role, but one of your level 1 users has to be a settled worker who works for your business as an employee, a partner or a director. A settled worker is someone who can live in the UK with no time limit, such as a British or Irish citizen or someone with settled status.

A legal representative based in the UK can be your key contact, and can later become a level 1 user too. So a solicitor can take on some of these roles, but someone from your own team still needs to be a level 1 user.

Once you've applied online, you email over the submission sheet along with the papers that back up your application. The submission sheet is the checklist the online application gives you at the end, showing what to send. Most organisations include 4 documents at minimum. Examples include:

• proof that you're registered with HMRC for PAYE, Corporation Tax or VAT
• your latest annual accounts or an audited report (if the accounts are free to view, a Companies House address will do)
• recent business bank statements, or a letter confirming your account from your bank
• cover for employer's liability of at least £5 million
• the lease for your premises, or proof you own them

HMRC is the UK tax office, and PAYE is the system that takes income tax from your staff's pay; Corporation Tax and VAT are the business taxes it collects. Companies House is the official register of UK companies, an audited report is a set of accounts checked by an outside accountant, and employer's liability insurance covers you if a member of staff is hurt or falls ill because of their work.

If your business has been trading in the UK for under 18 months, a UK business bank statement is required. Skilled Worker applicants also usually send details of the organisation and the roles they intend to fill.

Under 8 weeks is the usual decision time. UKVI, the Home Office team that handles these applications, may visit your premises before deciding.

In a hurry? Paying £750 extra gets you a decision within 10 working days. Places are limited each day and go first come, first served.

Once you're approved, your licence gets an A-rating and your business shows up on the register of sponsors. An A-rating is the full rating every new licence starts with, and the register of sponsors is the public GOV.UK list of every licensed employer.

You pay the licence fee only once. Small businesses and charities pay £611, while medium and large ones pay £1,682. Your organisation counts as small if at least 2 of these describe you: annual turnover no more than £15 million, assets no more than £7.5 million, and a headcount of 50 or under. Turnover is the money the business takes in over a year, and assets are what it owns, such as property, equipment and cash.

Every worker also needs a certificate of sponsorship. That's the reference they use for their visa, and it costs £525. On top of that you owe the immigration skills charge, a Home Office charge for each sponsored worker. Small sponsors pay £480 a year, and medium or large sponsors pay £1,320 a year.

For a small business sponsoring one worker for one year, your Home Office fees total £1,616. Our free cost calculator totals the fees for your business size, number of workers and length of sponsorship, with no sign-up.

Extra workers mean extra certificates and skills charges, but no repeat licence fee. The licence fee has to come from your business, because making the worker pay it can get your licence revoked.

Visa fee and healthcare surcharge sit with the worker. The healthcare surcharge pays for the worker's use of the NHS. From outside the UK, the totals come to £1,854 (1 year), £3,924 (3 years) and £6,793 (5 years).

Send the short form before you apply, since a refusal usually means waiting 6 months to try again. Tell us what you need, your business size, the roles you want to fill, your timing and any previous refusal. An immigration solicitor who handles sponsor licences will read it and reply to your work email.