If you are a UK employer or organisation holding a Home Office-approved sponsor licence, you can sponsor migrant workers including citizens of the EU, other EEA nations (Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein) and Switzerland who arrived in the UK on or after 1 January 2021) under routes such as Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, Scale-up Worker GBM (Global Business Mobility) routes, such as Senior or Specialist Worker and UK Expansion Worker, Minister of Religion or Certain Temporary Worker routes such as Creative Worker or Seasonal Worker. Sponsoring migrant workers means assigning them a CoS (Certificate of Sponsorship), which is a mandatory requirement for hiring any overseas worker who wishes to come to the UK to work for your company or organisation.   

Your sponsor licence usually remains valid as long as you continue to meet the eligibility requirements, but the Home Office may suspend or even revoke it in certain circumstances.  

Your licence may be suspended while UKVI makes further enquiries if it believes that you are in breach of your sponsor duties and/or pose a threat to the UK's immigration control, or are engaging in actions/behaviours that are not conducive to the public good.

On the other hand, UKVI may revoke your UK sponsor licence, meaning it will be permanently withdrawn. When a revocation is in effect, you can no longer sponsor migrant workers. You may have your licence revoked for several reasons, for example, if UKVI finds that your organisation is in serious or repeated breaches of sponsorship.

What is Sponsor Licence Suspension and Revocation?

Suspension of your sponsor licence will occur where the UKVI alleges that your company or organisation has failed to manage its sponsor licence correctly and has not complied with its sponsorship duties. 

On the other hand, sponsor licence revocation means the formal cancellation of your sponsor licence (this means you lose your licence) by UKVI due to serious non-compliance or breaches of immigration rules on your part. 

If any of the circumstances are found that are usually the reasons for revocation of a sponsor’s licence, UKVI will/will normally/may either immediately revoke your sponsor licence or suspend it pending further investigation or consideration.

The common reasons why the Home Office will/will normally/may revoke your sponsor licence include:

• You cease to have (or never had) a trading presence

• You are no longer meeting the requirements of the route (s) in which you are licensed

• You do not cooperate with a compliance check or delay compliance activity.

• You pose a threat to the UK’s immigration control

• Your organisation/AO (Authorising Officer)/Key Contact/Level 1 or Level 2 Users have been convicted of a relevant criminal offence or issued with a specified civil penalty

• You have knowingly sponsored migrant workers for non-genuine job vacancies. 

• You have employed workers in job roles other than those stated on the CoS (Certificate of Sponsorship). 

• You have given false/misleading information to the Home Office. 

• You seriously failed in your record-keeping or reporting duties. 

• You have recruited illegal workers. 

• You have repeatedly or deliberately breached your sponsor obligations.

• You failed to send any documents or information within the given time limit if UKVI requested.

Consequences of Your Sponsor Licence Suspension?

If your licence is suspended, you cannot sponsor new workers during the suspension. Any planned recruitment of overseas workers must be put on hold because you will not be able to assign any new CoS (Certificate of Sponsorship) to migrant workers during the suspension period. However, existing sponsored workers can generally continue working. You must continue to comply with all sponsorship duties and any other requirements throughout the sponsor licence suspension period.

If your sponsor licence is suspended, the suspension applies to every immigration route covered by your sponsor licence, not just the route where the Home Office found a problem. Your organisation’s entry is also removed from the public version of the register of sponsors during the suspension period.

What should you do after Your Sponsor Licence Suspension?

During a sponsor licence suspension, UKVI investigates whether you have breached sponsor duties and decides what action should be taken. UKVI gathers and assesses evidence before making a final decision, which may include:

• Reinstate your licence if it is satisfied you meet the requirements. 

• Downgrade your licence from A-rating to a B-rating and require you to follow an action plan (where permitted under the rules). 

• Revoke your licence if serious or repeated breaches are found

After the suspension, you should act swiftly and cooperate fully with UKVI with a well-evidenced response. 

You should read and understand the suspension letter carefully to identify the reasons for your sponsor licence suspension, note the deadline for responding to the letter, and understand what evidence UKVI has requested.

You should keep all employee records up to date, continue reporting relevant changes through the SMS (Sponsor Management System), where permitted, and maintain contact details, attendance records, and right-to-work records for sponsored workers.

During the sponsor licence suspension period, you should carry out an internal compliance mock audit to identify and correct any problems. For example, any missing right-to-work checks, incomplete personnel files, incorrect salary or job details, any failure to report changes to UKVI, and/or inadequate record-keeping.

Collect documentary evidence to show you are complying with the sponsor guidance. For example, all employment contracts, payroll records, right-to-work check records, workers’ attendance and training records, and copies of reports submitted through the SMS.

Respond to UKVI in detail, addressing every allegation individually, explaining what happened, providing supporting evidence, describing the corrective action already taken, and explaining how similar issues will be prevented in the future.

Take corrective measures immediately. For example, update your HR policies and procedures, provide compliance training to HR staff and managers, introduce regular internal audits, improve document management systems, and assign responsibility for sponsor compliance to trained personnel.

You must cooperate with any compliance visit.

If the allegations from UKVI are serious and/or your business depends heavily on sponsored workers, you should consider taking advice from an immigration solicitor experienced in sponsor licence compliance.

What if your sponsor licence is reinstated after suspension?

If UKVI decides not to revoke your sponsor licence after investigation, it will lift the suspension and reinstate your entry on the register of sponsors on GOV.UK with either an A-rating or a B-rating.

If you are reinstated with an A-rating, you can assign Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) to eligible workers, sponsor new overseas workers under the routes you are licensed for, continue sponsoring your existing workers, and will appear on the public Register of Licensed Sponsors.

You will be reinstated with a B-rating if the Home Office has found that you do not fully meet your duties, but believes the problems can be corrected.

You are still licensed, but are subject to restrictions and must improve your compliance.

The Home Office will normally require you to follow a time-limited action plan. They will charge a fee for the action plan and monitor whether you make the required improvements. 

As a B-rated sponsor, you cannot sponsor new workers until you regain an A-rating. You can usually continue sponsoring your existing sponsored workers. You must complete the action plan successfully before you can assign new CoS.

Consequences of Your Sponsor Licence Revocation?

If the Home Office revokes your sponsor licence, it will write to you about this. You will, as a result, lose the legal right to sponsor migrant workers.

Revocation of your sponsor licence is the most serious enforcement action the Home Office can take against you. Once your licence is revoked, you immediately lose your permission to sponsor overseas workers. You can no longer sponsor workers under any immigration route for which you were licensed. 

Your licence is also removed from the Register of Licensed Sponsors.

You cannot assign any new CoS plus any CoS that you have assigned but have not yet been used in a visa application will be cancelled.

You cannot recruit workers who require sponsorship until you obtain a new sponsor licence.

Revocation can also significantly disrupt your business, including loss of already sponsored employees, increased recruitment costs, delays in delivering services, and possible contractual difficulties if your business relies heavily on sponsored workers.

What should you do after Your Sponsor Licence Revocation?

You generally get no right of appeal against your sponsor licence revocation.

However, depending on the circumstances, you may wish to obtain legal advice about whether the Home Office made a legal or procedural error, whether any administrative error has occurred, and whether judicial review may be available. 

Judicial review is a court process that does not reconsider the merits of the sponsorship application itself but examines whether the Home Office acted lawfully while revoking your licence.

If you want to sponsor workers again in the future, you must correct every issue identified by UKVI, strengthen your compliance systems, keep evidence of the improvements, and wait until any applicable cooling-off period has expired before submitting a new application.

A sponsor licence revocation is followed by a period during which a fresh sponsor licence application will normally not be accepted. Under the current sponsor guidance, the minimum period is generally 12 months from revocation and increases to at least 24 months where the licence has been revoked on more than one occasion.

The precise period and any additional suitability issues should be checked against the sponsor guidance in force when a new application is being considered, particularly where there have been repeated revocations, relevant penalties or convictions.

How can Visa and Migration Ltd. help?

We provide our support to UK employers whose sponsor licence is suspended or revoked to navigate the challenges that arise with their sponsor licence being suspended or revoked. 

We guide employers through the following:

• Understanding and explaining to you why UKVI suspended/revoked your sponsor licence, 

• Helping you stay compliant with your sponsorship obligations and duties, and 

• Offering you a clear step-by-step guide to resolve the situation. 

We also support you in planning for the future. If your licence is reinstated with B-rating, we help you to bring it back to A-rating. We also give you clear strategies for reapplying for a sponsor licence after a revocation and ensure that your business avoids further penalties. 

We focus on providing actionable solutions and safeguarding the interests of both UK employers.

For expert advice and queries on what to do if your sponsor licence is suspended or revoked, you can call us at +44 (0)20 3411 1261 or write to info@visaandmigration.com