If you are a UK employer and have applied for a sponsor licence, you would like your application to be successful. You should note that to increase the chances of success for a Sponsor Licence, you should demonstrate that your business is genuine, that you have a legitimate need to employ overseas workers, and that you are capable of complying with all sponsor duties. The Home Office will carefully examine both your eligibility and ability to meet ongoing compliance obligations.

To make a successful application, your business should be suitable, and it will be determined by how well you are prepared for a sponsor licence application.

The Home Office conducts a stringent assessment and checks before it decides whether to approve your licence application. It is a complex process and therefore requires you to be fully prepared to make a successful licence application. 

In this article, we discuss the measures you can take to increase the chances of success for a Sponsor Licence.

How can you increase the chances of success for a Sponsor Licence?

Before you make an application for a sponsor licence, you need to understand what you should do and what you should avoid to increase your application's chances of success. Importantly, you should also consider taking professional help who can help you navigate through this complex process with proper guidance.  

Let us see some common practices you should follow to increase the chances of success for a Sponsor Licence.

1. Ensure that your business is genuine and trading or operating lawfully in the UK

Before the Home Office (UK) decides whether to approve your application and grant you a sponsor licence, they need to establish that you:

• Are a genuine company/organisation trading or operating lawfully in the UK. You must provide certain documents or information to prove this. For example, if you are a charity, you must provide proof of your charitable status, or if you are a franchisee you must send the Home Office the relevant franchise agreement or licence that has been signed by both you (the franchisee) and the franchisor. You can find the details in Appendix A of the sponsor guidance. 

• Please note that if you are applying for a sponsor licence on the Expansion Worker route, you must not have an existing active trading presence in the UK. However, you must have a UK ‘footprint’. To show a UK ‘footprint’ for a licence on the Expansion Worker route, you can provide evidence you have either UK business premises (such as a lease or purchase agreement) or registered your UK business with Companies House (the UK's official register of companies) as either an overseas company branch or a new company that is a subsidiary of the overseas linked business.

• If you need to be registered with, or inspected or monitored by, a regulatory an oversight body, or licensed by a licensing authority, to operate or trade legally in the UK, you actually are registered or licensed as required. You can see section 2.1 and section 2.4 of Appendix A to the sponsor guidance to understand how to prove you meet this requirement.

• You may also be requested by the Home Office to provide invoices, business contracts, and business bank statements showing receipt of income in order to prove your genuineness as a business.

The Home Office can ask you evidence such as: 

• Evidence of any additional funding available to the business that demonstrates its capacity to maintain the salaries being offered for the advertised position. This should include details of any existing loans, including the total amount of credit requested, where applicable.

• The company’s most recent UK annual accounts. If the accounts have not yet been finalised, please provide a draft version prepared by your accountant.

• Business or corporate bank statements covering the previous six months, showing the business’s current financial transactions and details of any other accounts held that are relevant to the business.

• The bank statements should clearly show employee salary payments. Please also identify and highlight transactions that demonstrate income generated by the business.

• Payslips covering the last six months for all employees. Where the business employs more than 10 people, please provide payslips for a representative sample of 10 employees.

• Where applicable, evidence that the business has systems in place to accept card payments from customers, such as registration with SumUp, Worldpay,

2. Decide which route (s) you wish to be licensed on  

When you apply for a sponsor licence, you will be asked which immigration route (s) you want to sponsor workers on. You need to choose the route or routes you want sponsor licence for. You can apply to be licensed by the Home Office on as many sponsored work visa routes as you think appropriate for your business/organisation.

Sponsored work routes are classified as either ‘Worker routes’ (for example, Skilled Worker, International Sportsperson, GBM – Senior or Specialist Worker route) or ‘Temporary Worker routes’ (for example, Charity Worker, Creative Worker, and International Agreement routes).

3. Submit all required supporting documents

When you apply for a sponsor licence, you must normally send supporting evidence or information/documents with your application. The Home Office asks for this to be satisfied for the facts that your business/organisation exists and is genuine, you are legally trading or operating in the UK (or, if you are applying under Expansion Worker route, have established a ‘UK footprint’), you meet any specific requirements for the route (s) you are applying to be licensed on, and you can and intend to sponsor workers in eligible roles and comply with your sponsor duties.

Most applicants must provide a minimum of 4 documents (or 4 combinations of documents) with their application, including any documents specified as mandatory for your type of organisation (for example, if you are a charity, you must provide proof of your charitable status, or if you are a franchisee you must send the Home Office the relevant franchise agreement or licence that has been signed by both you (the franchisee) and the franchisor), any documents specified as mandatory for the route (s) you are applying to be licensed on (for example, if you want to be licence on Graduate Trainee (Global Business Mobility) route you must send information about your graduate training programme – for example, a course/programme brochure or evidence of recruitment for the programme and proof you have a qualifying link to an overseas business), and any additional documents if these are needed to reach the at least 4 documents.

For full details of document lists, you can check the link to Appendix A to the sponsor guidance. While sending any documents or information specified as mandatory in this guidance and other information or documents the Home Office needs will increase the chances of success for a sponsor licence, if you do not send or fail to send, the Home Office will reject your application. 

4. Appoint suitable Key Personnel

When you apply for a sponsor licence online, you will be asked to give certain roles and responsibilities to members of staff. Some or all of these members of staff must be able to access the Home Office SMS (Sponsor Management System) (SMS is a secure online portal used by UK employers and organisations with a Sponsor Licence which enables sponsors to manage their licence and fulfil their ongoing sponsorship duties), after your sponsor licence is granted. Appointing suitable key personnel essentially means you are nominating people within your business to manage the sponsorship process on your behalf.

Initially, you will be required to choose a permanent employee, partner or director who can fill one or more of the following key personnel roles:

• Authorising officer - accountable for ensuring the organisation meets all of its sponsor duties under the Home Office rules.

• Key contact - acts as its main point of contact with UKVI for matters relating to its Sponsor Licence, this can also be your representative;

• Level 1 user or level 2 user – are authorised individuals who use the SMS on behalf of an organisation with a Sponsor Licence. Must be settled in the UK or British citizen.

You must appoint an AO (Authorising Officer), a Key Contact, and at least one Level 1 user. Level 2 users are optional, and you may add them after your licence is approved.

Appointing the key personnel is essential to increase the chances of success for a sponsor licence.

5. Have effective HR systems in place 

Sponsorship is a privilege rather than a right. You hold a licence at the discretion of the Home Office, which can suspend or revoke your licence if it finds reasonable grounds to do so, for example, you have failed to meet your sponsor duties. The UKVI places significant importance on HR compliance systems (a robust HR compliance system is a set of policies, procedures, and record-keeping processes that help you comply with UK employment and immigration laws) during your licence applications to ensure that you meet your sponsor duties, which include preventing illegal working, maintaining accurate and auditable records, and reporting required information promptly.

You MUST have the right to work check for an employee before they started the position with your organisation.

Therefore, before applying for a sponsor licence, you need to understand your duties and have an effective HR system in place. For a Sponsor Licence, you are expected to have effective HR systems in place so you can monitor sponsored workers and meet all of your sponsorship duties.

The Home Office can ask you for: 

• Employee personal details, including Name, Date of Birth, and Emergency Contact details

• Supporting information showing the right to work checks you have completed on your current employees and the evidence you have retained for these checks.

• Contracts of employment for your current employees and a draft contract for any future roles you wish to assign certificates of sponsorship to

• Business or corporate bank statements for the last three months showing the current transactions you are making. These must include any salaries paid to employees

• Employee Annual leave and other Absences or attendance

• The Immigration Status of your employee(s) and how you monitor the length of their visa(s) 

• Supporting information showing the workplace pension scheme your business offers to eligible employees

• Passports or other Proof of ID for current employees

• Business contracts and invoices showing how you will generate income in the UK. 

6. Demonstrate a genuine need to sponsor workers

You must be able to demonstrate you have a genuine need to sponsor workers. If the Home Office finds that you have created a job simply to bring an overseas worker to the UK, your sponsor licence application will be rejected and suspended or revoked if you have already been granted one.

You can demonstrate a genuine need to sponsor workers by providing a detailed job description outlining the duties, responsibilities, required qualifications, skills, and experience. 

You should explain how the vacancy supports your business, such as filling a specialist skills gap, expanding operations, or delivering client projects.

You need to confirm that the job you are offering is an eligible occupation under the relevant immigration route and meets the required skill and salary thresholds.

You can also provide recruitment evidence (if available). Although a Resident Labour Market Test is no longer required for Skilled Worker sponsors, records of your recruitment efforts, such as job advertisements or interview notes, can help demonstrate that the vacancy is genuine.

7. Prepare for a Home Office compliance visit

The UKVI may carry out an announced or unannounced compliance visit before granting a licence to ensure your business's adherence to immigration control. If you fail to maintain proper procedures, it could lead to the refusal of your licence application and visa issues for applicants. To secure an A-rated sponsor licence, you should be good at areas such as monitoring immigration status, record-keeping, and recruitment practices. An A-rated sponsor licence is the highest and standard rating that the Home Office gives your organisation that has been approved to sponsor overseas workers or temporary workers. It shows that the Home Office is satisfied you are complying with your sponsor duties and can be trusted to sponsor migrant workers.

The most effective step you can take to prepare yourself for a Home Office compliance visit is to carry out a mock inspection. A mock audit gives you enough time to take any remedial action that you may be required to take in advance of the Home Office compliance visit.

8. Maintain a good compliance history

When assessing your sponsor licence application, the Home Office may consider whether you, your organisation or its key personnel have complied with previous immigration requirements, conducted right-to-work checks correctly, paid workers or employees in line with UK employment laws, kept accurate employment and payroll records, filed tax returns and paid taxes to HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs) on time, any previous sponsor licence suspension or revocation, been involved in immigration fraud or dishonest practices, and relevant unspent criminal convictions affecting your suitability.

A record of strong compliance history can:

• Increase the chances of success for a sponsor licence being granted. 

• Build confidence in the Home Office that you understand your legal responsibilities. 

• Reduce any concerns during a pre-licence Home Office compliance visit. 

• Help you get an A-rated sponsor licence after approval.

9. Complete the application accurately

You are required to apply online for your sponsor licence. After having finished the online application, you will need to send in the submission sheet at the end of the application and the supporting documents (if you are asked to).

Any affidavits or statutory declarations (if required) you send must be witnessed by a qualified, independent person - for example, a Notary Public, a solicitor, Justice of the Peace, or a Commissioner for Oaths.

You must pay the required fee when you apply, which depends on the type of licence you are applying for (for example, Worker licence, Temporary Worker licence, or a Worker and Temporary Worker licence) and what type of organisation you are (small or charitable sponsors or medium or large sponsors).

You can check the application fee here.

10. Seek professional advice

This is one important thing that you must consider to increase the chances of a successful sponsor licence. A professional’s advice can help you understand the Home Office requirements, avoid common mistakes, and improve the quality of your application. 

While it is not a legal requirement to use an immigration adviser or solicitor, professional guidance can be particularly valuable for you, especially if you are applying for a sponsor licence for the first time, you have previously had a sponsor licence refused, suspended, or revoked, or are dealing with complex circumstances.

How can Visa and Migration Ltd. Help?

Whether you are a first-time sponsor licence applicant, dealing with an existing licence suspension or revocation, need an external agency to carry out a mock audit of your business, or you have any other need as a UK employer in order to apply for a sponsor licence or to maintain it, we can help you with sponsor licence and immigration needs.

We can help you:

• Advise you what evidence should be prepared and in what manner

• Choose the correct sponsor licence route

• Ensure your sponsor licence application is complete and accurate

• Identify the correct supporting documents

• Prepare for a Home Office compliance visit

• Advise you on sponsor duties and how to meet them

• Assist with complex cases

For expert advice and queries on how to apply for a sponsor licence, maintain one, comply with your sponsor duties, handle any suspension or revocation, or any other thing associated with a sponsor licence, you can call us at +44 (0)20 3411 1261 or write to info@visaandmigration.com