Sponsor Licences for Care Providers: Current Rules

Adult social care employers can still hold sponsor licences and sponsor eligible workers.

What changed in July 2025 is considerably more specific.

From 22 July 2025, the Skilled Worker route closed to new overseas applications for care workers and senior care workers under occupation codes 6135 and 6136.

A care provider can therefore no longer recruit a new care worker from overseas through those occupation codes in the way that became common earlier in the decade.

There is, however, a transitional in-country route running until 22 July 2028, subject to review. In specified circumstances, people already in the UK can still be sponsored as care workers or senior care workers. Existing Skilled Workers already sponsored in those occupations also continue to have routes for extension and changes of employment, subject to the applicable rules.

Other health and social care occupations have not disappeared from sponsorship simply because the care worker route changed.

A care provider might still need to sponsor nurses, managers, therapists, social workers or other eligible professionals, depending on the role and immigration requirements.

That makes the current position more nuanced than saying either:

“Care providers can no longer sponsor workers.”

or:

“Nothing has really changed.”

Both are wrong.

The sponsorship system remains relevant to adult social care, but the workforce strategy around it has changed materially.

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The biggest change: new overseas care worker recruitment has ended

The position since 22 July 2025 is clear.

New applicants cannot apply from overseas for Skilled Worker entry clearance under:

6135 Care workers and home carers

or

6136 Senior care workers.

This was a significant policy change.

For several years, adult social care providers had been able to use international recruitment to fill substantial numbers of frontline care vacancies.

That route is now closed to new overseas applicants in those occupations.

A provider considering recruitment today should therefore not begin by asking how quickly it can obtain a sponsor licence and issue overseas care worker Certificates of Sponsorship.

The more fundamental question is whether the proposed worker can lawfully use the route at all.

A sponsor licence does not reopen overseas recruitment

This distinction is particularly important for providers applying for their first licence.

A business may satisfy the general sponsor licence requirements.

It may be CQC registered.

It may have genuine vacancies.

It may have excellent compliance systems.

That does not give it the ability to sponsor a new care worker from abroad where the Immigration Rules no longer permit that application.

A sponsor licence authorises the organisation to participate in sponsorship.

It does not recreate immigration routes that have been closed.

For a care provider, the workforce question therefore needs to come before the licence question.

Who does the organisation expect to sponsor?

What occupations are involved?

Are those workers already in the UK?

What immigration status do they hold?

Does the proposed role remain eligible under the current rules?

Only then can the value of the sponsor licence be assessed properly.

“The policy change means care providers need to be more precise about why they want a sponsor licence. Five years ago, the answer might simply have been overseas care worker recruitment. That is no longer enough. We need to identify the actual workforce the organisation expects to sponsor and which routes remain available to them.”

Abdul Jabbar, Principal Immigration Adviser

There is still an in-country route for some care workers

The closure of overseas recruitment was accompanied by a transitional period for certain in-country applications.

Until 22 July 2028, a person in the UK may still be able to switch into Skilled Worker sponsorship as a care worker or senior care worker where the conditions are met.

For a new in-country applicant relying on the transitional provision, one important requirement is that they must have been legally working for the sponsoring employer in occupation code 6135 or 6136 for at least the three months immediately before the Certificate of Sponsorship is assigned.

This changes the recruitment model considerably.

The sponsor cannot simply identify someone in the UK in another occupation and immediately sponsor them as a care worker.

The worker needs the relevant period of lawful employment with that sponsor before the CoS is issued.

The immigration status allowing that work also needs to permit the employment in the first place.

The three-month rule should not be treated as a trial sponsorship period

The worker is not sponsored during those three months merely because the employer intends to sponsor them later.

They must already have lawful permission allowing them to carry out the care work.

For example, a person with immigration permission allowing unrestricted or sufficiently broad employment may be able to work for the care provider before Skilled Worker sponsorship becomes necessary.

The employer must still conduct the correct right to work checks.

The eventual Skilled Worker application should not be treated as automatic.

At the end of the qualifying employment period, the role, worker, salary and sponsor still need to meet the requirements then in force.

The three months create eligibility for the transitional in-country provision.

They do not guarantee the immigration decision.

Existing sponsored care workers are in a different position

The rules also protect people who are already Skilled Workers sponsored in care worker or senior care worker occupations.

A worker with existing Skilled Worker permission in the relevant care occupation may be able to extend their permission or change sponsor without having to satisfy the same new-to-route three-month condition.

That matters for employers recruiting people already working for another licensed care provider.

Their immigration history becomes central.

The provider should establish:

what immigration permission the person currently holds,

which occupation code they are sponsored under,

whether there has been continuous Skilled Worker permission,

when that permission expires,

and whether the proposed new employment satisfies the current requirements.

The fact that someone says they are “already sponsored” is a useful starting point.

It is not a complete immigration assessment.

Care providers in England face an additional CQC requirement

Where a provider intends to sponsor a care worker or senior care worker in England under occupation code 6135 or 6136, the sponsor must meet specific regulatory conditions.

The organisation must:

currently undertake at least one regulated activity, and

hold active registration with the Care Quality Commission.

The requirement applies to the organisation that is sponsoring the worker and the work being undertaken in England.

When applying for the sponsor licence, the provider must supply information including the proposed working locations, the regulated activities it undertakes and its CQC registration number.

UKVI can verify that registration online.

This is not simply another supporting document.

It reflects a broader policy decision that sponsorship of frontline care workers in England should sit within the regulated care sector.

CQC registration and the sponsor licence do different things

A care provider can sometimes assume that CQC registration effectively proves its sponsor licence application.

It does not.

CQC registration establishes the provider’s position within the relevant care regulatory framework.

UKVI conducts a separate assessment under the sponsor licensing system.

The Home Office can still consider:

whether the organisation is genuinely operating,

whether the proposed roles are eligible,

whether the business is capable of meeting sponsor duties,

whether its Key Personnel are suitable,

whether the proposed jobs and salaries are credible,

and whether its immigration and right to work systems are functioning properly.

A care provider therefore has at least two distinct compliance relationships.

It needs to meet the standards of its sector regulator.

It also needs to meet the Home Office’s sponsorship requirements.

Neither replaces the other.

Care providers outside England have their own regulators

The CQC requirement is specifically relevant to England.

Adult social care regulation differs across the UK.

Appendix A identifies the relevant regulators as:

• the Care Quality Commission in England
• the Care Inspectorate in Scotland
• Care Inspectorate Wales
• the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority in Northern Ireland

Where the organisation carries out regulated activity, the appropriate regulatory status needs to be established.

The precise sponsorship position can also differ depending on the worker’s location.

A UK-wide care group should therefore avoid treating one registration as though it automatically covers every operation.

The legal entity, regulated activity and work location all matter.

Not every role in a care business is a care worker role

This distinction has become more important since the overseas care worker route closed.

A care provider may employ people across many functions.

There may be:

registered nurses,

social workers,

occupational therapists,

finance professionals,

HR staff,

technology specialists,

operations managers,

quality and compliance professionals,

and senior leadership.

Their employer happens to operate in adult social care.

That does not make every employee a care worker under occupation code 6135 or a senior care worker under 6136.

The correct occupation code follows the actual duties.

This can work in both directions.

A care provider should not place a professional role into a care worker code simply because it understands the rules for that occupation.

Equally, it should not inflate frontline care duties into a more senior or professional occupation code merely because new overseas care worker sponsorship is no longer available.

The role should be classified honestly.

The closure of overseas care worker recruitment does not close every Health and Care Worker route

This is an important point.

The Health and Care Worker visa continues to exist.

What ended was new overseas recruitment under the care worker and senior care worker occupation codes.

Many eligible health and care professionals can still potentially qualify under the broader Health and Care Worker framework.

The precise role needs to appear within the relevant eligible occupation framework and satisfy the applicable salary and other requirements.

This means a care provider recruiting an eligible registered nurse from overseas is not necessarily in the same position as a provider trying to recruit a new care assistant from overseas.

The sector is the same.

The immigration occupation is not.

Current government guidance expressly confirms that most eligible health and social care professionals continue to use the Health and Care Worker route, while new overseas care worker and senior care worker applications have been closed since 22 July 2025.

Occupation codes should follow the real job

The policy changes create an obvious compliance risk.

Where one occupation is no longer open to new overseas recruitment but another remains available, employers can come under pressure to classify roles creatively.

That is precisely what should be avoided.

The Home Office can examine whether the occupation code genuinely corresponds with the work.

A senior-sounding title is not enough.

Calling somebody a “Care Manager” does not necessarily place them in a management occupation if their actual working day consists predominantly of ordinary frontline care duties.

Calling somebody a “Nurse” does not make the role a nursing occupation if the employee is not performing work that properly falls within that code.

The job description, organisation structure, professional requirements and actual duties should point in the same direction.

A workaround in the paperwork is not a workforce strategy.

“Where an immigration route narrows, the temptation can be to look for another occupation code that appears close enough. I would resist that immediately. The question remains what job the person will genuinely do. If the answer is care work, the sponsorship has to be assessed under the rules for care work.”

Abdul Jabbar, Principal Immigration Adviser

Registered professionals should be treated as registered professionals

For some care providers, the more sustainable sponsorship opportunity now lies in genuinely professional roles.

Registered nursing is an obvious example.

If the organisation genuinely requires a registered nurse and the individual will perform nursing duties, that role should be assessed on its own terms.

Professional registration can be central.

The sponsor should retain evidence of any registration, qualification or professional authorisation required for the worker to perform the job.

The same principle applies across regulated occupations.

The Home Office sponsor licence does not replace professional registration.

A visa does not authorise someone to practise in a regulated profession if they have not satisfied the professional regulator’s requirements.

Care businesses should review old workforce assumptions

A provider that built its growth model around repeated overseas recruitment of care workers may now need a different workforce plan.

The sponsor licence may still have considerable value.

But its purpose may have changed.

The provider could be:

retaining existing sponsored care workers,

recruiting qualifying care workers already in the UK under the transitional rules,

sponsoring existing care workers moving from another sponsor,

or recruiting overseas workers into other qualifying professional roles.

Those are more targeted uses of sponsorship.

A licence obtained solely because the business assumes large-scale overseas care-worker recruitment remains available may not achieve what management expects.

This should be understood before the application fee, professional costs and management time are committed.

Sponsor licences should not become part of the sales pitch to workers

The care sector has attracted substantial Home Office attention because of poor sponsorship practices, recruitment exploitation and cases where workers arrived to find insufficient work available.

A responsible provider should therefore be particularly careful about what it promises.

A sponsor licence does not give an employer an unlimited ability to issue work visas.

A Certificate of Sponsorship should only be assigned where genuine eligible employment exists.

The hours, salary and duties should reflect what the organisation genuinely intends to provide.

Recruitment intermediaries should not be allowed to make immigration promises on behalf of the provider that the business itself cannot honour.

A provider should know how its own recruitment is being represented to candidates.

That is governance, not marketing.

Sponsorship cannot compensate for insufficient work

A care provider may hold an A-rated licence and still have a problem if it sponsors more people than it can genuinely employ.

This is particularly relevant to domiciliary care models where available working hours can depend on contracts, commissioned care packages and local demand.

Before sponsorship, the provider should understand where the work will come from.

If a CoS says a worker will receive a particular salary and working pattern, the organisation should be able to deliver that employment.

Persistent discrepancies between sponsored pay and actual payroll can attract Home Office attention.

The Home Office can compare sponsorship records with HMRC information.

An employer should therefore be wary of building sponsorship numbers around anticipated work that is too uncertain to support the promised employment.

Domiciliary care needs particular operational discipline

Domiciliary care providers can have more complex work-location and supervision arrangements than residential care homes.

Workers may travel between service users.

Hours may vary.

There may be several geographic areas.

Line management can be dispersed.

For sponsor compliance, the provider should still know where the sponsored worker is ordinarily working, how their hours are recorded, how absence is identified and whether salary corresponds with sponsorship.

This is not a reason domiciliary care cannot be sponsored.

It is a reason the compliance system needs to reflect how domiciliary care actually works.

Creating an office-based compliance policy for a workforce that spends almost all its working time visiting service users is unlikely to be particularly useful.

Multiple branches and CQC locations need to be understood

A care group may operate several homes or domiciliary care branches.

The sponsor licence structure needs to reflect the actual organisation.

The Home Office also expects appropriate details of working locations when care workers or senior care workers are sponsored.

A provider should therefore know:

which legal entity operates each location,

which locations fall under the relevant regulatory registration,

where sponsored workers will actually work,

whether employees move regularly between sites,

and whether changes need to be reported.

Corporate branding can obscure legal structure.

Five homes carrying the same trading name do not necessarily belong to the same licensed sponsor entity.

The Home Office is interested in the organisation that employs and sponsors the worker.

Acquiring a care business can create sponsor licence issues

Care-sector consolidation makes this particularly relevant.

A provider buying another home or domiciliary care business may acquire sponsored workers.

The sponsor licence does not simply transfer with the acquisition.

The outcome depends on how the transaction is structured.

In an asset purchase where employees transfer under TUPE, the incoming provider may need to accept sponsorship responsibility or obtain the appropriate licence within the applicable timeframe.

In a share sale, a change in direct ownership can itself require a fresh sponsor licence even where the employing company remains unchanged.

For regulated providers, the CQC or other regulatory position may be changing at the same time.

Immigration should therefore form part of the transaction planning rather than being left to HR after completion.

Care sector sponsor compliance is broader than keeping personnel files

The Home Office can conduct compliance visits before or after granting a sponsor licence.

For a care provider, a meaningful review can extend across several areas:

Does the provider genuinely deliver the regulated care activity described?

Are sponsored workers employed in the roles recorded on their Certificates of Sponsorship?

Do rotas, payroll and contracts support the working arrangements?

Are right to work checks complete?

Can the provider explain absences?

Are work locations accurate?

Does the business have enough work to support the sponsored workforce?

Are regulatory registrations active?

Do managers understand how relevant changes reach the person controlling the sponsor licence?

A compliance officer may also speak to sponsored workers.

The file and the employee’s account of the job should not describe different employment.

Sponsorship systems should fit a shift-based workforce

Care providers often operate around shifts rather than standard office hours.

That should be reflected in sponsor compliance.

Absence may first be identified by a rota coordinator.

Pay changes may originate with payroll.

Changes in location may be arranged by an operations manager.

A service manager may know that somebody has effectively moved into different duties long before HR notices.

The Level 1 User therefore cannot manage sponsorship from the SMS alone.

The provider needs a route through which relevant workforce information reaches the sponsorship function.

That does not need to be complicated.

It needs to be reliable.

Existing care worker sponsorship should be audited carefully

Where a provider already sponsors care workers or senior care workers, a periodic review is particularly sensible.

For each worker, it should be possible to establish:

their current immigration permission,

occupation code,

salary,

contracted hours,

actual payroll,

usual work locations,

visa expiry date,

and whether any employment changes have taken place.

The provider should also understand whether the worker falls within the transitional population when a future immigration application is needed.

This is now more important because two employees doing similar care work may have materially different immigration options depending on their sponsorship history.

A blanket assumption that “we can extend all our care workers” or “care worker visas have ended” is too crude.

Dependants also need careful explanation

Care worker sponsorship has also been subject to restrictions on dependant family members.

The exact position depends on when the worker obtained the relevant Skilled Worker permission and the applicable transitional provisions.

Workers who entered the care route before the dependant restrictions were introduced can be in a different position from newer applicants.

An employer should avoid giving candidates simplistic assurances about whether partners or children can accompany them.

The employer sponsors the job.

The worker’s family immigration position is a separate matter requiring its own analysis.

This is particularly important in recruitment discussions, where inaccurate information about dependants can materially affect somebody’s decision to accept employment.

Sponsor licence fees remain only part of the cost

A care provider qualifying as a small sponsor may benefit from the lower Worker sponsor licence fee.

The cost of sponsorship nevertheless goes beyond the licence itself.

There can be:

Certificate of Sponsorship fees,

Immigration Skills Charges where applicable,

visa-related administration,

internal HR time,

compliance systems,

and professional costs.

More importantly, the provider has to deliver the sponsored employment itself.

For a labour-intensive business, payroll is vastly more significant than the Home Office application fee.

A sponsorship strategy should therefore begin with sustainable workforce demand.

Not simply the cost of obtaining the licence.

Should a care provider apply for a sponsor licence now?

Potentially, yes.

The answer depends on what the provider expects to do with it.

A licence can still be commercially important where the organisation expects to:

retain existing sponsored workers,

sponsor qualifying in-country care workers under the transitional provisions,

recruit existing sponsored care workers from other employers,

or sponsor eligible workers in other health, care, professional or business occupations.

It may be less valuable where the entire business case assumes that the provider can begin recruiting new care workers directly from overseas.

That route is closed.

The application should therefore follow a realistic workforce plan.

A practical care provider assessment

Before applying or expanding sponsorship, I would want the organisation to understand five things.

Which roles does the provider actually need?

Care workers, nurses and managers are not interchangeable occupations.

Which of those roles remain open to the type of sponsorship proposed?

Overseas and in-country recruitment now differ materially for care worker occupations.

Is the regulatory position correct?

For care workers and senior care workers in England, active CQC registration and regulated activity are central.

Can the business genuinely support the sponsored employment?

Hours, salary, locations and available care work should be credible.

Can the organisation manage the licence?

Shift patterns and dispersed working make good internal communication particularly important.

If those points are clear, the sponsor licence becomes part of a workforce strategy.

Without them, it risks becoming an immigration solution looking for a recruitment problem.

Frequently asked questions

Can care homes still get sponsor licences?

Yes.

Adult social care providers can still apply for and hold sponsor licences where they meet the relevant requirements.

The closure of new overseas care worker recruitment did not abolish sponsor licensing for the sector.

Can a UK care home sponsor new care workers from overseas?

Not under occupation codes 6135 and 6136 for new entry clearance applications.

From 22 July 2025, those routes closed to new overseas applications.

Can a care provider sponsor someone already in the UK?

Potentially.

The transitional rules currently permit qualifying in-country applications for care workers and senior care workers until 22 July 2028.

A new-to-route applicant must satisfy the relevant requirements, including having legally worked for the sponsoring provider in one of the qualifying care occupations for the required three-month period before the CoS is assigned.

Can existing sponsored care workers extend their visas?

Potentially, yes.

Existing Skilled Workers sponsored in qualifying care occupations are subject to transitional provisions.

Their individual sponsorship history should be checked before a new CoS is assigned.

Does a care provider in England need CQC registration?

If the provider intends to sponsor care workers or senior care workers under occupation codes 6135 or 6136 in England, it must be carrying on at least one regulated activity and hold active CQC registration.

Can a care provider sponsor nurses from overseas?

Potentially, yes.

The closure applies specifically to new overseas applications in care worker and senior care worker occupations.

Other qualifying health and care professionals can continue to use appropriate sponsored routes where the requirements are met.

Can a care provider sponsor someone as a manager instead of a care worker?

Only where the person will genuinely perform a role falling within the relevant management occupation.

The occupation code should reflect the actual duties rather than being selected to avoid restrictions applying to care worker sponsorship.

When does the in-country transitional period end?

The current Immigration Rules provide for qualifying in-country care worker and senior care worker applications until 22 July 2028, subject to the rules then in force and the government’s stated review of the transitional period.

Care sponsorship has not ended. It has changed.

The adult social care sponsorship landscape is materially different from the one providers were operating in before July 2025.

Large-scale new overseas recruitment of care workers and senior care workers has ended.

Existing sponsored workers remain relevant.

A transitional in-country route remains open in defined circumstances.

Other eligible health and professional occupations can still be sponsored.

And providers using care worker occupation codes in England remain subject to the specific CQC requirements built into the sponsor framework.

For a care provider, that means the sponsor licence should now be approached with greater precision.

Which employees does the business actually expect to sponsor?

Why?

Under which occupation?

From inside or outside the UK?

On what regulatory basis?

And can the organisation genuinely provide the employment recorded on the Certificate of Sponsorship?

Those questions should drive the licence.

Not the assumption that sponsorship will recreate the international recruitment model the sector used previously.

For well-run providers, sponsorship can remain an important part of workforce planning.

It simply needs to reflect the system that exists now.

Considering sponsorship for a care provider?

If your organisation operates in adult social care and is considering a sponsor licence, recruiting an existing sponsored worker or assessing whether an employee in the UK can move onto Skilled Worker sponsorship, you can request a Free Case Assessment.

Tell us about the provider, its regulatory position, the role involved and the worker’s current immigration circumstances.

We can then consider whether Knightsbridge Immigration can assist.

Free Case Assessment