UK Sponsor Licence

• A UK Sponsor Licence is essentially needed for UK-based business owners who are looking to hire overseas professionals for their business.
• It is mandatory for a UK company to possess a valid Sponsor Licence, which enables them to issue a Certificate of Sponsorship to the employee they want to hire.
• From the immigration point of view, the employee MUST have a Certificate of Sponsorship to apply for most of the work visas to come and work in the UK.
• Get in touch with us, either call us on +44 203 773 2948 or drop an email at [email protected] to know about how can you acquire a Sponsor Licence for your UK-based business.

• An employer who is a UK-based business owner will need a Sponsor Licence to employ overseas skilled professionals for their UK company.
• This also includes citizens of the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland who arrived in the UK after 31st December 2020.
• A Sponsor Licence is mandatory for unpaid job roles as well. For example, managing/operating a charity campaign.

• The sponsor must assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to each foreign worker they employ.
  This is an electronic record, not a paper document.
• Each certificate has its own number which a worker can use to apply for a visa.
• When the sponsor assigns the certificate to a worker, they must use it to apply for their visa within 3 months.
• They must not apply for their visa more than 3 months before the start date of the job listed on the certificate.

A sponsor must:

• Check that the foreign workers have the necessary skills, qualifications, or professional accreditations to do their jobs, and keep copies of documents showing this.
• Only assign certificates of sponsorship to workers when the job is suitable for sponsorship.
• Tell UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) if the sponsored workers are not complying with the conditions of their visa.
• The employer’s licence may be downgraded, suspended, or withdrawn if they do not fulfill these responsibilities.

The employer can provide sponsorship to a worker if the job they’re going to do has a suitable rate of pay and skill level, or meets the other criteria needed for their visa.

The sponsor might have to pay an additional charge when they assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to someone applying for a UK Skilled Worker visa or a UK Senior or Specialist Worker visa. This is called the ‘immigration skills charge’.
The sponsor must pay the immigration skills charge if they’re applying for a visa from:

• Outside the UK to work in the UK for 6 months or more.
• Inside the UK for any length of time.

The sponsor will need to appoint people within their business to manage the sponsorship process when they apply for a Sponsor Licence.
The main tool they’ll use is the sponsorship management system (SMS).
The roles are:

• Authorising officer – a senior and competent person responsible for the actions of staff and representatives who use the SMS.
• Key contact – sponsor’s main point of contact with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI).
• Level 1 user – responsible for all day-to-day management of the Sponsor Licence using the SMS.

These roles can be filled by the same person or different people.
The sponsor can also appoint an optional level 2 user once they have a Sponsor Licence. This is an SMS user with more restricted access than a level 1 user, for example, they cannot withdraw a Certificate of Sponsorship.

The sponsor and his/her staff will go through checks to make sure they are suitable for these roles. The sponsor may not get a Sponsor Licence if anyone involved in sponsorship has:

• An unspent criminal conviction for an offence listed in the guidance for sponsors.
• Been fined by UKVI in the past 12 months.
• Been reported to UKVI.
• Broken the law.
• Been a ‘key person’ at a sponsor that had its licence revoked in the last 12 months.
• Failed to pay VAT or other excise duty.

The sponsor and the allocated staff must also:

• Be based in the UK most of the time.
• Not be a contractor or consultant contracted for a specific project.
• Not be subject to a bankruptcy restriction order or undertaking, or a debt relief restriction order or undertaking.
• Not have a history of non-compliance with sponsor requirements.

• At least one level 1 user must be the sponsor’s employee.
• The sponsor can have additional level 1 or level 2 users who are employed by third-party organisations that provide them with HR services.
• A temporary member of staff supplied by an agency can be a level 2 user.

• The sponsor can allocate any of the roles to a UK-based legal representative, apart from the authorising officer role.
• The sponsor’s representative must be qualified to give immigration advice or services.