Sponsor Licence

A practical guide for organisations, legal entities and employers applying for a sponsor licence, including managing sponsor management system & licence refusals.

Applying for a sponsor licence allows an organisation and employer the ability to employ foreign nationals – whether in the UK or outside.

The process and management of a sponsor licence is broken down into 3 main parts,

  1. First, you would be required to apply for sponsor licence. This will require information and documents being provided to support the application.
  2. Sponsor a worker. This is done through the access of your Sponsor Management System (SMS) which is a Home Office platform given to you once the sponsor licence is approved. You will be able to apply for a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) and then assign those to a foreign national you intend to sponsor.
  3. Compliance. As a sponsor licence holder, you must comply with duties and reporting. Failing to do so, your licence can be suspended or revoked.

Apply for a sponsor licence

The sponsor licence application is applied using the Home Office online application system. There are a number of routes that a sponsor licence application can be applied for.

It requires information related to your organisation/business and then submissions of specified documents. The evidence required for your sponsor licence application will be determined by the type of business.

Home Office will require additional information and documents for those who are start-up businesses or if your trading accounts does not demonstrate the ability to sponsor a foreign national.

Costs to apply for a sponsor licence depends on the organisation and business. Up to date information on the licence costs can be found here. 

To avoid the sponsor licence to be rejected or refused, you must ensure the information and documents required for your organisation are provided at the date of application.

Reasons why a sponsor licence application can be rejected or refused

A licence application can be rejected or refused for a number of reasons, which may include the following:

  1. Where the Director or Authorising Officer have been convicted of an offence and does include civil matters.
  2. Previous sponsor licence had been revoked, or this was surrendered following a compliance issue. Periods can be between 12-24 months.
  3. The organisation or business is required by law to be registered and/or regulated by a competent authority in the UK.
  4. Do not have an operating or trading presence in the UK.
  5. A sponsor licence application which had been refused in the last 6 months. The cooling period to re-apply can differ based on the circumstances.
  6. Reasonable grounds that the organisation has been established to facilitate the entry or residency of a person.

Sponsorship Management System (SMS)

When the sponsor licence is approved, Home Office will grant access to the SMS platform. Here you will be able to manage your licence and correspond with the Home Office.

The platform has 2 level access and once the licence is issued, a Level 1 access is issued. The Authoring Officer will receive through the post the Level 1 access.

Sponsoring a foreign national

There are 2 different processes of applying for a CoS – referred as Defined CoS and Undefined CoS. Both are applied on the SMS platform.

To check if an employment can be sponsored, the Home Office updates regularly its standard occupation codes. 

Employment’s that are part of the UK employment shortage list are found on the Home Office website. 

Home Office throughout the year would regularly update the employment standard occupation code, so as an employer, you must ensure the correct occupational codes are chosen when applying and assigning a CoS.

Compliance duties 

As a sponsor licence holder, Home Office expects you as an organisation to have system and process in place to manage the licence compliance.

The guiding principles of a sponsor licence compliance in summary are as follows:

  1. Ensure reporting duties are completed. For example, a change in a sponsored worker’s circumstances.
  2. Record keeping duties. To ensure as a responsible organisation to keep in evidence documents related to the sponsored workers.
  3. Comply with immigration and wide UK laws, which includes employment laws.

Compliance is done through the SMS and other systems that are in place. Home Office does do unannounced audits and checks. Failure to comply, will result in the sponsor licence being suspended or revoked.