How to apply for a sponsor licence

1. Make sure your business qualifies. You must have monitoring systems for sponsored workers, and no unspent criminal convictions for immigration offences, fraud, money laundering or similar crimes (GOV.UK, eligibility).
2. Confirm the job fits sponsorship. Every job must have a SOC code and meet a minimum salary. Before spending anything, check a job title and pay.
3. Decide which licence type you need. A Worker licence covers long-term routes, one of which is the Skilled Worker route. Short-term routes fall under a Temporary Worker licence. Holding both is allowed.
4. Set out who your key personnel are. One person may hold all three roles you appoint: the authorising officer, the key contact and the level 1 user (what each role does).
5. Register, then apply online. Once you're registered, filling in the Home Office form takes about 20 to 30 minutes, and a credit or debit card covers the fee (GOV.UK, the licence application service).
6. The submission sheet and documents need to be sent. Send them to the email address shown on the sheet.
7. Now wait for your decision. Your business may be visited by the Home Office first.

What you pay depends on the licence type and how large your organisation is. The fee must come from you; if the worker is asked to cover it, you could lose the licence (GOV.UK).

You normally qualify as a small sponsor when at least 2 of these are true: £15 million or less in turnover, £7.5 million or less in assets, or 50 employees or fewer. Certificate and skills charges also get added by the sponsor licence cost calculator.

A minimum of 4 documents is what most organisations send. Some are mandatory based on your type of organisation or route; the rest you choose from the Home Office list (Appendix A). If a mandatory document is missing, the application gets rejected.

• Evidence that you are registered with HMRC, for example PAYE, Corporation Tax or VAT
• Documents showing your accounts or finances, such as business bank statements covering 12 months
• If you use the Skilled Worker route, extra details about your organisation and the roles you plan to fill

Files must be PDF, JPEG or PNG, and each title needs 25 characters or fewer. Any document not written in English or Welsh must come with a certified translation (GOV.UK).

Suitability checks are run on everyone you name. Everyone you name must spend most of their time in the UK, and one or more level 1 users must be a sponsor employee, partner or director (GOV.UK, sponsorship management roles).

• A contractor or consultant brought in for a single project cannot be named.
• The licence can be blocked by an unspent conviction for a listed offence.
• Your key contact can be a UK-based legal representative.

Most applications are resolved in fewer than 8 weeks. If your routes allow it, paying an extra £750 gets you a decision within 10 working days (how the priority service works). A no usually means waiting 6 months before you can apply again (what to do after a refusal).

When the licence is granted, certificates of sponsorship can be assigned to the workers you hire from abroad. Once you hold it, your sponsor duties begin.

Yes. Many people search using "sponsorship licence", while the Home Office uses the term sponsor licence. You may still see it called a Tier 2 licence in older guides. A Worker licence is what you apply for today, and it covers the Skilled Worker route.