Sponsor licence application

To become a registered sponsor, you must complete a lengthy online application form, provide supporting documents and a covering letter, all of which must satisfy UKVI’s exacting criteria.

UKVI will assess your suitability to be a sponsor, and will consider:

• whether you are a genuine, lawful business in the UK
• the business’ background as well as key personnel
• whether you are capable of complying with UKVI’s sponsor duties, including examining HR and recruitment practices, and
• whether you are capable of providing suitable work and remuneration to migrant workers.

Our team has a 100% success rate with sponsor licence applications and can provide a range of services to assist you with the process. Please contact us to discuss this further.

You will need to submit your application online and all supporting documents and a covering letter are to be provided within five working days of submitting the online application form. Failure to provide these will invalidate the application. These documents provide evidence to UKVI that you are a genuine business and commonly relate to you being registered with the tax authorities, any required regulatory body and having suitable insurance in place.

A sponsor licence is granted for four years and must be renewed thereafter. There are initial fees to pay as part of the application process which vary depending on the size of the business. If you have an annual turnover of £10.2 million or less and employ fewer than 50 employees, the fee is currently £536. If you do not satisfy these criteria, the fee is currently £1,476.

There are additional fees to be paid including the Immigration Skills Charge and when assigning a CoS.

If you are applying for sponsorship for the first time, we recommend that you take advice on the application process. If the application is refused your fees will not be refunded. There is also a cooling off period of six months for reapplying if your application is rejected so getting it wrong can be costly and it will delay your plans for recruitment. Get in touch to see how we can help you get it right first time

Most applications (8 out of 10) are dealt with in less than 8 weeks. This can take longer if UKVI need to carry out a compliance visit before dealing with your application, for example to check your HR systems and processes, visit your business premises and so on, or have additional queries in light of their interpretation of your original on line submission and supporting documents.

In some circumstances yes.  There is a priority processing service for sponsor licence applications which you can apply to use.  There is an additional fee to pay of £500 and the outcome should be received within 10 working days.  There is no guarantee however that your application will be eligible for the priority service