The sponsor licence has been granted. The employee has obtained their visa. They have started work.
For the recruitment team, that may feel like the matter is finished.
For the sponsor, it is where the longer responsibility begins.
Holding a sponsor licence means more than having permission to issue Certificates of Sponsorship. The business has accepted continuing duties to the Home Office. It must keep specified records, monitor sponsored workers, report certain changes, maintain appropriate right to work processes and remain compliant with immigration law and wider UK law.
Those responsibilities do not begin when the first sponsored worker starts.
They begin on the day the sponsor licence is granted.
They continue while the licence remains active, and responsibility for an individual sponsored worker continues for as long as the organisation remains their sponsor.
The practical challenge is that sponsor compliance rarely announces itself as an immigration problem.
A manager agrees a promotion.
Payroll reduces somebody’s hours.
An employee starts working permanently from home.
The company moves office.
A sponsored worker resigns.
The business is sold.
Each may begin as an ordinary HR or commercial event. Some of them can also trigger a sponsor licence obligation.
Good sponsor compliance is therefore less about constantly thinking about immigration and more about making sure that the right immigration question is asked when something changes.
Sponsor duties begin as soon as the licence is granted
The Home Office sponsor guidance is clear on this point.
An organisation’s responsibilities as a licensed sponsor start on the day its licence is granted.
Those responsibilities broadly include:
- reporting specified changes
- keeping required records
- complying with immigration law and the sponsor guidance
- complying with wider UK law
- cooperating with the Home Office
- maintaining appropriate systems to prevent abuse of the sponsorship system
This matters even if the company has not yet sponsored anyone.
A business cannot obtain a licence, put it in a drawer and assume there is nothing to manage until the first overseas recruit arrives.
Key Personnel still need to remain suitable.
Contact and organisation details still need to be accurate.
The Sponsorship Management System still needs to be managed securely.
The business also needs to remain aware of changes to the sponsor guidance.
The Home Office can amend the rules and sponsor guidance over time, so compliance is not something that can be designed once and left untouched for five years.
The licence itself no longer needs routine four-year renewal
For most Worker and Temporary Worker sponsors, the old requirement to renew the sponsor licence every four years was removed in April 2024.
Most licences now remain valid indefinitely unless they are surrendered, made dormant or revoked.
That sounds administratively easier, and it is.
But indefinite validity should not be confused with indefinite approval regardless of what happens afterwards.
The Home Office continues to monitor licensed sponsors.
A business may hold the same licence for many years, but it must continue meeting the relevant requirements throughout that period.
There is no four-year renewal application forcing the organisation to review itself.
That makes internal review more important, not less.
Most compliance problems begin with an ordinary business decision
Imagine a sponsored employee is doing well.
Their manager wants to promote them.
The new position carries different responsibilities and a higher salary.
Nothing about that sounds problematic.
But before the change is confirmed, somebody should consider whether the new duties remain within the same occupation code and whether the change can simply be reported or requires a new Certificate of Sponsorship and immigration application.
Now take another example.
A sponsored employee asks to move permanently from the Manchester office to the London office.
Again, an ordinary HR decision.
But a change in the worker’s normal work location may need to be reported through the Sponsorship Management System.
Or perhaps the business agrees that they can become a permanent home worker.
That may also need to be reported.
The objective is not to prevent normal business decisions.
It is to insert the sponsorship question before the decision becomes irreversible.
“Sponsor compliance works best when immigration is considered before a change is implemented. A manager should be able to promote someone, move them to another office or change their duties, but with a sponsored worker there may be an additional step. Finding that out afterwards is where avoidable problems begin.”
Abdul Jabbar, Principal Immigration Adviser
What changes concerning a sponsored worker must be reported?
The Home Office requires sponsors to report specified changes affecting sponsored workers.
Unless a different period is stated, these changes generally need to be reported within 10 working days of the relevant event.
The list includes more than resignations or dismissals.
It can include:
- a sponsored worker failing to start within the permitted period
- unauthorised absence exceeding the specified threshold
- certain periods of absence on unpaid or reduced pay
- reductions in salary
- significant changes to job role, title or core duties where permitted within the existing sponsorship
- certain promotions
- changes in normal work location
- the organisation ceasing to sponsor the worker
- other route-specific changes
The exact immigration consequence depends on the change.
Some matters only require a report.
Some can only take place if particular conditions are met.
Others require the worker to make a new immigration application before the new arrangement begins.
That distinction is important.
Reporting a change through the SMS does not automatically make an otherwise impermissible change lawful.
Salary changes deserve particular care
Salary is one of the areas where HR and sponsorship most obviously overlap.
Suppose a company announces a temporary pay reduction across a department.
Or an employee reduces their working hours.
Or a discretionary allowance is removed.
For a non-sponsored employee, these may be dealt with primarily as contractual and employment law questions.
For a sponsored worker, the business must also consider the immigration position.
A sponsored worker’s salary is connected to the conditions under which they qualified for their immigration permission.
Current sponsor guidance requires reductions from the salary or pay stated on the Certificate of Sponsorship to be reported, subject to the relevant detailed rules.
The business must also ensure that the employee continues to satisfy the applicable salary requirements.
A report to the Home Office does not rescue a salary that has fallen below a level permitted under the route.
Before reducing the salary or hours of a sponsored employee, the sponsor should therefore establish:
What salary will the worker receive after the change?
What will their normal working hours be?
Which Skilled Worker salary option applies to them?
Does the new salary still satisfy the applicable threshold and going rate?
Does the change require a report?
Is a new immigration application required?
Only then should the business decide how to proceed.
Salary increases generally do not need to be reported simply because pay has increased, although there are specific exceptions.
The more significant risk usually lies with reductions.
Promotions are possible, but check what has actually changed
Sponsored employees are not required to remain frozen in the position they held on their first day.
They can develop professionally.
They can receive pay rises.
They can be promoted.
But the sponsor needs to understand whether the new position remains within the worker’s existing sponsorship.
A change in job title or responsibilities can sometimes be reported where the new role remains within the same occupation code and the applicable sponsor guidance conditions are met.
A more substantial change can require a new Certificate of Sponsorship and a fresh immigration application before the worker begins the new job.
The distinction is based on the substance of the role.
Calling somebody a Senior Manager instead of a Manager does not answer the immigration question.
What changed in their duties?
What changed in their level of responsibility?
Does the occupation code remain appropriate?
That analysis should happen before the promotion takes effect.
You need to know where sponsored workers are actually working
Remote and hybrid work have made work-location compliance more important.
The Home Office does not require sponsors to report every occasion on which an employee works from home or visits another office.
Day-to-day fluctuations are not the issue.
Changes to the normal working pattern can be.
If a sponsored worker permanently moves to another branch or begins working regularly at a client site not previously recorded, the sponsor may need to report that change.
A move to permanent or substantially full-time home working also needs to be reported.
Hybrid working is treated differently.
A sponsor does not generally need to report the simple fact that a worker moves to a hybrid pattern, provided their main office location remains as recorded. The sponsor should, however, maintain suitable records of the working pattern and continue reporting changes to the main work location or new regular client sites where required.
This is an area where the facts matter.
There is a real difference between:
“Sarah works from home on Fridays”
and:
“Sarah no longer attends the company’s premises and is now contractually based at home.”
The second arrangement potentially raises a different sponsorship question.
Absence is not just an attendance issue
Sponsors are expected to monitor sponsored workers’ attendance.
That does not mean tracking every minute of their working day.
It means the organisation should be capable of identifying when a sponsored worker has stopped attending work or is absent in circumstances relevant to the sponsor guidance.
A sponsored worker who is absent without permission for more than 10 consecutive working days must be reported.
The report is normally required no later than 10 working days after the tenth day of unauthorised absence.
The sponsor must provide relevant information about the absence, including whether the worker has returned, attempts to contact them where applicable and whether sponsorship will continue.
There are separate rules around unpaid or reduced-pay absences.
As a general position, a sponsored worker should not be absent without pay or on reduced pay for more than four weeks in total in a calendar year unless an exception within the sponsor guidance applies.
Exceptions can cover specified circumstances such as certain forms of statutory leave and other permitted absences.
Again, the practical issue is communication.
If an employee stops attending work, their line manager will usually know before the Level 1 User does.
The internal process therefore needs to move that information to the person responsible for sponsorship.
Keep the records the Home Office expects to see
Sponsor licence compliance has a documentary side.
Appendix D to the sponsor guidance sets out records that sponsors are required to retain.
These include evidence of the sponsored worker’s right to work and other records relevant to their employment and sponsorship.
Depending on the circumstances, this can include:
- evidence of the right to work check
- the worker’s current and historical contact details
- records of absences
- employment contracts or written terms where they exist
- evidence of salary and payments
- evidence relating to recruitment
- documents demonstrating qualifications or professional registration where relevant
- evidence of the worker’s date of entry in appropriate cases
- DBS documentation where required for the role
- other route-specific evidence
The records can generally be stored electronically or on paper.
There is no Home Office requirement to buy a particular sponsor compliance system.
What matters is that the documents are retained and can be produced when requested.
How long do sponsor records need to be kept?
Unless a specific rule says otherwise, Appendix D generally requires records concerning a sponsored worker to be retained throughout the period of sponsorship and until whichever comes first:
- one year after sponsorship of that worker ends, or
- the date a Home Office compliance officer examines and approves the documents, if this occurs sooner after sponsorship has ended
Separate legal requirements may mean particular records have to be retained for longer.
Right to work records, employment records, tax records and data protection obligations can each have their own requirements.
The sponsor licence application documents also need to be retained for as long as the organisation holds the sponsor licence.
The sensible approach is therefore not to run a periodic deletion exercise based solely on one sentence in the sponsor guidance.
Record retention should be considered alongside the business’s wider legal obligations.
Right to work checks remain essential
A sponsor already knows that it sponsored the employee.
That does not remove the need for a right to work check.
Current sponsor guidance specifically requires sponsors to carry out and retain evidence of right to work checks for workers they sponsor.
Where the sponsor is also the employer, the right to work check is relevant both to sponsor compliance and to establishing the statutory excuse against a civil penalty for illegal working.
For most sponsored workers holding digital immigration status, this will ordinarily involve the Home Office online right to work service.
The check must be completed before the worker starts employment.
Where the person has time-limited permission, further checks may be required at the appropriate stage.
The business should also make sure that the check confirms the person is permitted to undertake the work actually being offered.
A right to work check is not merely an identity check.
Keep sponsored workers’ contact details current
This is one of the simpler sponsor duties and therefore one of the easier ones to overlook.
Appendix D requires sponsors to maintain a history of the worker’s contact details, including their UK residential address, personal email address and telephone number.
These details must be kept up to date.
A business therefore needs a way for changes to reach HR or whoever maintains sponsorship records.
If a worker tells their line manager that they have moved house, but the central personnel record remains unchanged for twelve months, the organisation may have a record-keeping gap.
Employees should know where to report personal detail changes, and the business should actually update the record when they do.
The business itself also has reporting duties
Sponsor compliance is not limited to changes concerning workers.
The Home Office also requires sponsors to report significant changes concerning the organisation.
These will normally need to be reported within 20 working days, unless a different rule applies.
Examples include changes to:
- the organisation’s name or address
- head office details
- branches or sites
- Key Personnel
- required regulatory registrations or accreditations
- the size or charitable status of a Worker sponsor
- the nature of the business
- certain ownership and corporate structures
- insolvency status
- mergers, takeovers and similar corporate changes
Some of these events are relatively straightforward.
Others can fundamentally affect the sponsor licence.
A change of ownership is not simply an SMS update
This is an area where businesses should seek advice early.
A sponsor licence is not transferable.
If there is a change in direct ownership, the existing licence may be revoked or made dormant, depending on the circumstances.
The new owner may need to make its own sponsor licence application.
Where sponsored workers are transferring as part of a merger, takeover or similar transaction, strict reporting and application deadlines can apply, often within 20 working days.
This makes immigration due diligence important in corporate transactions involving licensed sponsors.
The question should not first arise after completion when somebody in HR asks who owns the sponsor licence now.
If a business holding a sponsor licence is being bought, sold, merged or restructured, sponsorship should be considered alongside employment, tax and corporate matters before the transaction takes effect.
“A sponsor licence does not pass automatically with the business because the commercial transaction says employees will transfer. If ownership is changing, sponsorship needs to be part of the transaction planning. Twenty working days can be a very short period when the issue is only discovered after completion.”
Abdul Jabbar, Principal Immigration Adviser
Wider employment compliance matters too
Sponsor duties extend beyond immigration paperwork.
The Home Office expects licensed sponsors to comply with wider UK law.
That includes, where applicable:
- National Minimum Wage requirements
- Working Time rules
- pension obligations
- lawful operation of the business
- regulatory licensing
- DBS requirements
- safeguarding responsibilities
- other employment law obligations
This is important because sponsor compliance does not exist in isolation.
A business that sponsors a worker correctly from an immigration perspective but systematically underpays staff or operates without a legally required regulatory licence can still have a sponsor licence problem.
The Home Office can also make checks with other government departments and agencies.
Sponsor licensing should therefore sit within wider corporate compliance, not in a separate immigration bubble.
The Home Office can check the business after the licence is granted
Sponsor approval is not the end of Home Office scrutiny.
UKVI can conduct compliance checks at any time.
These can include:
- requesting documents or additional information
- verifying information already supplied
- checking information with other government departments
- reviewing HMRC information
- visiting business premises
- conducting digital compliance interviews
- interviewing sponsored workers
- speaking to staff involved in recruitment or sponsorship
- reviewing records and HR systems
- checking right to work compliance across the workforce
A compliance visit may be announced.
It may also be unannounced.
The Home Office guidance requires sponsors to cooperate and allow appropriate access to premises under their control.
Where sponsored workers work at a third-party location, the sponsor is responsible for ensuring the third party understands that Home Office compliance activity may take place there and cooperates where required.
HMRC data can tell its own story
One of the reasons payroll accuracy matters is that the Home Office does not necessarily have to rely solely on what the sponsor tells it.
Current guidance confirms that UKVI makes regular checks with HMRC concerning whether sponsored workers are being paid appropriately and in accordance with the Immigration Rules and sponsor guidance.
Consider what that means in practice.
The Certificate of Sponsorship records one salary.
Payroll reports another.
The employment contract shows a third.
None of those differences necessarily proves non-compliance.
There may be bonuses, unpaid leave, statutory leave, salary adjustments or other legitimate explanations.
But the business should be able to explain them.
A well-managed sponsor should not be surprised by its own payroll data.
What happens during a compliance visit?
A Home Office compliance officer may want to understand whether the sponsorship arrangements described on paper reflect reality.
They may review the original sponsor licence application.
They may look at information provided in support of individual workers’ immigration applications.
They may inspect personnel records.
They may speak to the Authorising Officer or Level 1 User.
They may interview sponsored workers.
They may speak to other people involved in recruitment.
They can examine whether sponsored workers are carrying out the jobs stated on their Certificates of Sponsorship.
That is why preparing for a compliance visit should not mean quickly tidying files after the visit is announced.
The strongest preparation is simply operating compliantly before the visit exists.
If the records are maintained.
If duties match the CoS.
If payroll matches the employment arrangements.
If Key Personnel understand their roles.
If changes have been reported.
Then the business is not trying to reconstruct its sponsorship history at short notice.
A simple monthly sponsor compliance review can prevent a great deal of trouble
Sponsor compliance does not necessarily require a large internal committee.
For many businesses, a short recurring review is enough to surface the issues that matter.
Once a month, the person responsible for sponsorship could review:
Sponsored workers
Has anyone joined, resigned or been dismissed?
Has anyone changed job?
Has anyone been promoted?
Have salaries or hours changed?
Has anyone moved work location?
Are there any prolonged absences?
Is anyone approaching the expiry of their immigration permission?
SMS activity
Are there any outstanding reports?
Are any Certificates of Sponsorship unused or approaching expiry?
Are the correct Level 1 Users still active?
Have Home Office messages been reviewed?
Organisation
Has the business changed address?
Has there been a new branch?
Have directors or Key Personnel changed?
Has the company entered a transaction or restructure?
Has a regulatory registration changed?
Records
Are sponsored worker contact details current?
Are right to work records complete?
Are salary and employment records available?
Is recruitment evidence retained?
This is not a Home Office-prescribed monthly checklist.
It is a practical management approach.
The objective is to find small issues while they are still small.
Common sponsor compliance failures are often surprisingly ordinary
Not every compliance problem involves fraud or deliberate abuse.
Some are mundane.
A worker changes address and nobody updates the record.
A Level 1 User leaves the company but remains on the licence.
A salary reduction is processed without an immigration check.
A worker changes office and HR forgets to report it.
The sponsored job gradually changes until it no longer resembles the original role.
An employee resigns and the SMS report is overlooked.
Records are scattered between different inboxes.
A company is acquired and nobody considers what happens to the licence.
None of these scenarios requires bad intentions.
The Home Office guidance is explicit that grounds for compliance action do not necessarily depend on a breach being deliberate.
The sponsor is responsible for having systems capable of identifying relevant events.
What can happen if sponsor duties are breached?
The Home Office has a range of compliance powers.
The outcome depends on the seriousness and circumstances of the issue.
Possible action can include:
- reducing the organisation’s Certificate of Sponsorship allocation
- setting the allocation to zero
- downgrading the licence from an A-rating to a B-rating
- requiring the sponsor to follow an action plan
- suspending the licence
- revoking the licence
- taking action against sponsored workers’ immigration permission
- referring suspected criminal or civil offences to other authorities
Relatively minor problems may sometimes result in a downgrade and action plan.
More serious or systematic failures can lead to suspension or revocation.
If a licence is suspended, the organisation cannot assign new Certificates of Sponsorship while the suspension remains in force.
If it is revoked, the consequences are much more serious.
The business loses the ability to sponsor workers, and the immigration permission of existing sponsored workers may be affected.
There is no right of appeal against a sponsor licence revocation decision under the sponsor regime.
That is one reason compliance problems should be addressed before they reach that stage.
A compliance problem should not be hidden because it is uncomfortable
Businesses occasionally discover something after the event.
A report was missed.
A worker was paid incorrectly.
An employment change took place without immigration advice.
A document cannot be found.
The instinct can be to leave the issue alone in the hope that nobody asks about it.
That can make the position worse.
The correct response depends on what happened.
Sometimes the matter can be reported late with an explanation.
Sometimes records can legitimately be reconstructed from existing evidence.
Sometimes the employment arrangement needs to change.
Sometimes more substantial remedial action is required.
What should not happen is the creation of false records or misleading information to make the file appear compliant.
An honest historic error and an attempt to conceal that error are not the same problem.
Frequently asked questions
When do sponsor licence duties begin?
The organisation’s sponsor duties begin on the day the Home Office grants the sponsor licence.
Responsibility for an individual sponsored worker generally begins when the Certificate of Sponsorship is assigned to them.
How quickly must changes to sponsored workers be reported?
Specified changes concerning sponsored workers generally need to be reported within 10 working days, unless the sponsor guidance provides a different period.
How quickly must changes to the business be reported?
Significant organisational changes generally need to be reported within 20 working days, subject to the specific rules applying to the type of change.
Do we need to report every time a sponsored worker works from home?
No.
Day-to-day changes in location and ordinary hybrid working do not generally require individual reports.
A change to the worker’s normal office location, a new regular client site or a move to permanent or substantially full-time home working can require reporting.
Does a promotion need to be reported?
It can.
Whether a promotion can be dealt with as a report or requires a new immigration application depends on the nature of the new role and whether it remains within the relevant occupation code and applicable sponsorship rules.
The change should be considered before it takes effect.
Do salary increases have to be reported?
Ordinary salary increases do not generally need to be reported under the main sponsor reporting rule, subject to route-specific exceptions.
Salary reductions require much greater care and can need to be reported.
What happens if a sponsored employee resigns?
The sponsor must report that it has stopped sponsoring the worker.
The Home Office may then take action concerning the worker’s immigration permission.
Can the Home Office make an unannounced compliance visit?
Yes.
Sponsor compliance checks can be announced or unannounced and may take place on-site or through digital means.
How long does a sponsor licence last?
Most Worker and Temporary Worker sponsor licences no longer require four-year renewal and generally remain valid indefinitely unless surrendered, made dormant or revoked.
Some routes, including UK Expansion Worker and Scale-up, operate differently.
What records do sponsors need to keep?
Appendix D to the sponsor guidance sets out detailed record-keeping duties.
These include right to work evidence, contact details, absence records and other evidence connected with the worker’s employment, recruitment and sponsorship.
Good sponsor compliance should become part of ordinary business management
The businesses that manage sponsorship well do not necessarily spend every week talking about immigration.
They build a few important checks into the way they already operate.
Recruitment knows when sponsorship needs to be considered.
HR knows which employees are sponsored.
Payroll knows that certain pay changes should be checked before implementation.
Managers know when attendance or role changes need to be escalated.
The Level 1 User knows what has to be reported.
The Authorising Officer retains oversight.
Corporate decision-makers know that a sale, restructure or change of ownership may affect the licence.
And the records can be produced when they are needed.
That is the objective.
Not a compliance system that looks sophisticated.
A system that works.
The sponsor licence may have been obtained to recruit one person.
Once it has been granted, however, the organisation has taken on a continuing responsibility.
Managing that responsibility carefully protects more than the licence itself.
It protects the business’s ability to recruit internationally and the immigration position of the people whose employment depends upon that sponsorship.
Reviewing your sponsor licence compliance?
If your business already holds a sponsor licence and you would like to review its reporting, record keeping, sponsored workers or internal compliance arrangements, you can request a Free Case Assessment.
Tell us about the organisation, the workers you currently sponsor and any particular change or compliance issue you would like us to consider.
We can then assess whether Knightsbridge Immigration can assist.
Free Case Assessment
