Hotels, restaurants and other hospitality businesses can still obtain sponsor licences.
What changed in July 2025 is the range of jobs for which many new Skilled Worker applications can be made.
Several occupations traditionally associated with hospitality are now classified as medium skilled rather than higher skilled. This includes chefs, hotel and accommodation managers, restaurant and catering establishment managers, publicans and managers of licensed premises, and catering and bar managers.
For someone making a new Skilled Worker application, a medium-skilled role is generally only available where the occupation appears on the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List, or where a specific transitional provision applies.
As at September 2026, those familiar hospitality occupations do not appear on either current list.
That means a hospitality business can hold a perfectly valid sponsor licence while being unable to sponsor a new overseas applicant into many of the roles for which hospitality employers historically used sponsorship.
There is an important exception for certain existing Skilled Workers who entered the route before the July 2025 changes and have maintained continuous Skilled Worker permission.
Other roles within hospitality businesses can also remain eligible where they genuinely fall within higher-skilled occupations.
The correct starting point is therefore not:
“Can a restaurant or hotel get a sponsor licence?”
It can.
The more useful question is:
“Which jobs does this business realistically expect to sponsor under the rules that apply now?”
The sponsor licence and the sponsorable job are separate questions
This distinction matters particularly in hospitality.
The Home Office can grant a sponsor licence because it is satisfied that the organisation is genuine, trading lawfully and capable of meeting its sponsor duties.
That licence does not make every vacancy within the business eligible for Skilled Worker sponsorship.
A hotel might hold a sponsor licence and employ hundreds of people.
Some occupations within that hotel may potentially qualify for sponsorship.
Others will not.
A restaurant group may be an established A-rated sponsor.
That does not mean it can issue a Skilled Worker Certificate of Sponsorship to every chef, restaurant manager or member of its operational workforce.
Licence eligibility belongs to the organisation.
Skilled Worker eligibility belongs to the individual job and worker.
Hospitality employers need both parts to work.
The July 2025 skill changes materially altered hospitality sponsorship
Before 22 July 2025, Skilled Worker sponsorship extended to a broader range of occupations below graduate level.
That changed when the general Skilled Worker skill threshold was raised to RQF level 6, broadly graduate level.
Jobs below that level can now normally only support a new Skilled Worker application where another provision specifically preserves eligibility.
The Home Office occupation list classifies roles as Higher Skilled, Medium Skilled or Ineligible.
Several core hospitality occupations are now categorised as Medium Skilled.
These include:
- 1221 Hotel and accommodation managers and proprietors
- 1222 Restaurant and catering establishment managers and proprietors
- 1223 Publicans and managers of licensed premises
- 5434 Chefs
- 5436 Catering and bar managers
By contrast:
- 5435 Cooks are currently classed as ineligible
This distinction has substantial practical consequences.
A job title that historically appeared capable of Skilled Worker sponsorship may no longer be available to a new applicant today.
“Hospitality businesses need to be particularly careful with historic knowledge. Someone may remember sponsoring chefs or restaurant managers successfully a few years ago. That does not tell us whether a new applicant can be sponsored into the same occupation now. We have to apply the rules in force today.”
Abdul Jabbar, Principal Immigration Adviser
Can restaurants still sponsor chefs?
For most new Skilled Worker applicants, the answer is now generally no under occupation code 5434.
Chefs are currently classed as Medium Skilled.
A new applicant in a medium-skilled occupation normally needs the job to appear on the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List, unless another specific provision applies.
As at September 2026, chefs do not appear on either current list.
This is a significant change from earlier Skilled Worker practice.
It means a restaurant should not obtain a sponsor licence on the assumption that it can begin recruiting chefs directly from overseas in the way that was possible previously.
There are transitional provisions for certain existing Skilled Workers, which we come to below.
But for new overseas recruitment, the position is materially narrower.
A chef is not a cook for immigration purposes
The distinction between chef and cook has always required care.
It is even more important now.
The Home Office occupation list currently describes chefs under code 5434 as Medium Skilled.
Cooks under code 5435 are Ineligible.
A business should therefore not simply change the title from Cook to Chef because sponsorship is needed.
The occupation code is determined by what the person will actually do.
There can be genuine differences in skill, responsibility, menu development, kitchen leadership and technical culinary work.
The Home Office is entitled to examine the substance of the role.
If the actual work is that of a cook, describing the position as Chef on a Certificate of Sponsorship does not change its immigration classification.
The same principle applies throughout hospitality.
Can restaurants sponsor restaurant managers?
Again, new sponsorship has become substantially more limited.
Restaurant and catering establishment managers and proprietors fall under occupation code 1222 and are currently classed as Medium Skilled.
The occupation includes job types such as:
- café and restaurant managers
- catering operations managers
- takeaway managers and proprietors
- other restaurant and catering establishment managers
The code does not currently appear on the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List.
For a new applicant who does not qualify through a transitional route, that means a restaurant manager role will not ordinarily provide a route into Skilled Worker sponsorship simply because it is managerial.
The word “manager” does not itself make a job higher skilled for immigration purposes.
That is a particularly important point for hospitality employers.
Hotel managers face the same issue
Hotel and accommodation managers and proprietors under occupation code 1221 are also currently Medium Skilled.
That includes the core hotel-management occupation itself.
Again, the code does not currently appear on the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List.
A hotel should therefore distinguish between an occupation that is managerial in the ordinary commercial sense and one that currently satisfies the Skilled Worker framework for a new applicant.
The immigration classification is based on the SOC occupation structure.
It does not simply reward senior-sounding titles.
What about bar and catering managers?
Catering and bar managers under occupation code 5436 are also Medium Skilled.
Publicans and managers of licensed premises under occupation code 1223 are Medium Skilled as well.
For new applicants, the same general problem therefore arises.
These are recognisable management roles within hospitality.
They are not currently on the lists that would ordinarily allow a new Medium Skilled Skilled Worker application.
A hospitality business should not assume that moving an employee from a chef occupation into a catering-manager title restores sponsorship eligibility.
The role needs to be genuine, and the occupation itself needs to be eligible for the worker concerned.
Existing Skilled Workers can be in a different position
The July 2025 reforms included transitional protection.
A worker who was granted Skilled Worker permission under the rules in force before 22 July 2025 and has continuously held Skilled Worker permission since then may continue to access certain Medium Skilled occupations under the transitional arrangements.
This creates an important distinction between:
someone entering Skilled Worker sponsorship for the first time, and
someone already established in the Skilled Worker route before the skill threshold changed.
A restaurant may therefore be unable to sponsor a new chef from overseas while still being able, subject to the detailed requirements, to extend or potentially sponsor an existing transitional Skilled Worker in the same occupation.
That is why employers should look at the worker’s immigration history rather than simply the occupation code.
Existing Skilled Workers should not be treated as automatically protected
Transitional status still needs to be checked.
The worker must satisfy the relevant continuity conditions.
Their employment must remain eligible under the applicable transitional framework.
Salary requirements still apply.
A new Certificate of Sponsorship still needs to be prepared correctly where required.
The fact that someone has worked in the UK hospitality sector previously does not necessarily mean they fall within the transitional protection.
The relevant question is their Skilled Worker immigration history.
For a hospitality employer recruiting someone who says they are “already sponsored as a chef”, that history should be established before a job offer is structured around sponsorship.
The Temporary Shortage List does not currently solve the hospitality problem
The Temporary Shortage List was introduced alongside the higher Skilled Worker skill threshold.
It allows specified Medium Skilled occupations to remain available to new applicants for a limited period.
This can make the name sound promising for hospitality employers dealing with longstanding recruitment shortages.
The current list, however, needs to be checked rather than assumed.
As at September 2026, the list contains occupations across sectors including technical, engineering, construction, design, business support and other areas.
The principal hospitality occupations discussed above are not currently included.
A labour shortage in a particular industry does not itself put a role onto the Temporary Shortage List.
The list is a specific immigration instrument.
Nor are these occupations currently on the Immigration Salary List
The Immigration Salary List provides another route for certain occupations that would otherwise encounter skill or salary restrictions.
Again, inclusion is specific.
Chefs, restaurant managers, hotel managers, publicans and catering and bar managers do not currently appear on the Immigration Salary List.
This is why hospitality employers should be cautious with search results or older articles stating that chefs or similar hospitality occupations can be sponsored because they are in shortage.
Historic shortage treatment is not the current immigration position.
So what can a hospitality business still sponsor?
This is where a more considered approach becomes useful.
A hotel or restaurant is an organisation, not an occupation.
It may employ people across many professional functions.
Depending on the size of the business, there may be genuine roles in:
- finance
- human resources
- information technology
- marketing
- procurement
- certain senior corporate functions
- other professional or specialist occupations
Some of those occupations remain classified as Higher Skilled and can potentially support Skilled Worker sponsorship where all requirements are met.
The fact that the employer operates in hospitality does not reduce a genuine Finance Manager to a hospitality occupation.
Likewise, the fact that a role is situated inside a hotel does not make it a hotel-manager occupation if the person actually performs a different professional function.
The occupation follows the job.
This is not an invitation to redesign jobs around immigration
That distinction must be applied carefully.
Suppose a restaurant needs a restaurant manager.
It cannot simply call the job Operations Director because a senior corporate occupation is more immigration-friendly.
If the person will actually manage the day-to-day restaurant, rotas, service, staff and ordinary premises operations, the occupation code should reflect that work.
The same applies to a chef being called a Culinary Development Director where the individual will in reality spend most of their working week performing ordinary chef duties.
A genuine senior corporate position may well exist in a large hospitality group.
It should look like one in practice.
The organisation structure, responsibility, decision-making authority and day-to-day duties should support the occupation selected.
“When a familiar hospitality occupation stops qualifying, the answer is not to find a more convenient title. I would want to know what the business actually needs. If it genuinely needs a senior commercial, finance or technology professional, assess that role on its own merits. If it needs a restaurant manager, we should call it what it is.”
Abdul Jabbar, Principal Immigration Adviser
Group and head-office roles can be different from site-level hospitality roles
Larger hospitality businesses can have a genuine distinction between central and site-level employment.
Consider a hotel group operating 20 properties.
A general manager running one hotel may sit within a hospitality-management occupation.
A Group Finance Director responsible for financial strategy across the entire organisation may sit within a higher-skilled financial-management occupation.
A Head of Technology responsible for reservation platforms, cybersecurity and digital systems may sit within an IT occupation.
A Group HR Director may sit within the relevant HR management occupation.
The organisation can sponsor where the actual role and worker satisfy the Skilled Worker Rules.
The employer’s sector does not determine every occupation inside it.
This is particularly relevant to larger hospitality groups whose workforce includes substantial corporate functions.
Smaller hospitality businesses should be especially disciplined about senior roles
A five-site restaurant group may genuinely need head-office functions.
A single small restaurant may not have the same organisational need.
There is no rule saying a small hospitality business cannot recruit a highly skilled senior employee.
The Home Office can, however, consider whether the role is appropriate to the organisation’s business model, plan and scale.
If a restaurant employing eight people proposes a highly paid Strategy Director, UKVI may reasonably ask what that person will actually do.
There may be a compelling answer.
Perhaps the company has secured investment and is opening ten sites.
Perhaps a genuine expansion programme is underway.
The sponsor should be able to explain that.
A senior title without senior substance is weaker.
The sponsor licence application itself remains available to hospitality businesses
Nothing in the 2025 skill reforms prevents a genuine restaurant, hotel or hospitality business from applying for a sponsor licence.
The ordinary sponsor-licence requirements apply.
The Home Office considers whether the organisation:
- genuinely operates or trades lawfully
- is suitable to hold a licence
- can meet its sponsor duties
- has appropriate Key Personnel
- genuinely intends and is able to offer eligible sponsored work
For a hospitality business, that final point deserves particular attention.
If every role the organisation says it intends to sponsor is currently ineligible for the workers it plans to recruit, the commercial purpose of the application needs reconsideration.
The business should know what it expects the licence to be used for.
Food registration can be mandatory evidence
Hospitality businesses also frequently operate within regulatory frameworks.
If the organisation sells, cooks, stores, handles, prepares or distributes food, it will generally need to register as a food business with the relevant local authority.
The Food Standards Agency states that this applies to physical premises, home-based food businesses, mobile units and online or distance-selling food businesses.
Appendix A to the sponsor guidance treats legally required regulatory registration as part of the sponsor-licence evidence.
Where the information can be verified online, UKVI may check the relevant register.
A sponsor application should therefore reflect the hospitality business as it actually operates, including the regulatory permissions needed for that operation.
Alcohol licensing can matter too
Restaurants, hotels, pubs and bars selling alcohol may require a premises licence or other relevant authorisation.
In England and Wales, a premises licence is generally required to sell alcohol from a particular venue. Certain other licensable activities are also covered.
Again, the sponsor licence does not replace that regime.
If the hospitality business relies on alcohol sales as a material part of its activity, the Home Office can expect the organisation to hold whatever licence it legally requires.
A business describing itself as a licensed bar should not reach the sponsor application before checking that its licensing position is in order.
One premises licence does not necessarily cover every hospitality location
Multi-site operators need to understand their structure.
A restaurant group may operate several locations through one company.
Another may use separate subsidiaries.
A franchise group may contain independently owned businesses.
Food and alcohol registrations can also be location specific.
Sponsor licensing follows the legal organisation employing the worker.
That means a large national brand should not assume that every premises and entity sits automatically under one sponsor licence merely because branding is shared.
The corporate, regulatory and sponsorship structures should align.
Franchise restaurants have a separate question
Hospitality is one of the sectors where franchising is common.
An independently owned franchise restaurant will normally need its own sponsor licence if it wants to sponsor workers.
The franchisor’s sponsor licence does not automatically cover independently controlled franchisees.
Likewise, one franchisee cannot ordinarily use another franchisee’s licence simply because both operate the same brand.
We have dealt with franchise sponsorship separately, but it is especially relevant to restaurant businesses because brand identity can obscure legal independence.
The person eating in the restaurant may see one national chain.
UKVI may see hundreds of separate employers.
Sponsorship should match payroll and working hours
Hospitality working patterns can be variable.
Rotas change.
Hours fluctuate.
Tips and service charges may form part of overall remuneration.
Bonuses may arise.
For Skilled Worker purposes, the sponsor should be clear about which salary counts under the Immigration Rules and what hours the person is contracted to work.
Not every payment made to the worker necessarily counts towards the immigration salary calculation.
The Certificate of Sponsorship should therefore reflect the employment arrangement that genuinely exists.
A restaurant should not rely on optimistic assumptions about tips or variable extras to turn a marginal salary into a qualifying sponsorship.
Where a higher-skilled professional role is being sponsored, the salary should be assessed properly before assignment.
Long working hours do not remove salary requirements
Hospitality is also a sector where long working weeks can occur.
That makes salary assessment particularly important.
The Skilled Worker Rules contain requirements around salary and, where applicable, hourly calculations.
A high annual figure can look more attractive until working hours are considered.
The business should not assume that paying £42,000 for a very long working week necessarily satisfies every Skilled Worker salary requirement.
Likewise, contractual hours on the CoS should match the genuine employment arrangement.
What matters is not simply headline annual pay.
Sponsored workers remain subject to ordinary employment law
Sponsor licensing does not give hospitality employers greater freedom over working conditions.
National Minimum Wage requirements remain.
Working Time legislation remains.
Employment rights remain.
The sponsor guidance expressly requires licensed sponsors to comply with wider UK law.
This is relevant because the Home Office can look at the actual conditions under which sponsored employees work.
An immigration-compliant Certificate of Sponsorship does not excuse unlawful employment practices.
For a sector built around shifts, overtime and variable patterns, the organisation should ensure its sponsor arrangements sit comfortably within ordinary employment compliance.
Accommodation arrangements can require care
Some hotels and hospitality businesses provide staff accommodation.
That can be commercially practical.
Where accommodation, deductions or other benefits interact with sponsored salary, the employer should understand how the Skilled Worker rules treat them.
An employee’s overall package is not automatically the same thing as qualifying immigration salary.
Deductions can also have minimum wage implications separately.
The organisation should therefore avoid viewing free or subsidised accommodation as a simple substitute for cash salary when assessing sponsorship.
The immigration and employment calculations may differ.
International hospitality groups have other mobility options
A multinational hotel or restaurant group should not assume Skilled Worker is the only relevant route.
Where an employee already works for an overseas group company and is being transferred temporarily to the UK, a Global Business Mobility route may need consideration.
Senior or Specialist Worker, for example, serves a different purpose from Skilled Worker.
It is designed for temporary intra-group assignments rather than ordinary UK recruitment.
The correct route depends on the commercial arrangement.
A restaurant group recruiting externally into a permanent UK professional role may be looking at Skilled Worker.
The same group moving an overseas senior executive temporarily into the UK operation may have a different immigration analysis.
A sponsor licence should be part of workforce planning, not a substitute for it
This is probably the most important point for hospitality businesses after the 2025 reforms.
The sector may continue to experience labour shortages.
Immigration policy does not necessarily provide a sponsored route for each shortage.
A restaurant can urgently need chefs while new chef sponsorship remains unavailable under the ordinary Skilled Worker framework.
A hotel may struggle to recruit managers while those occupations remain Medium Skilled.
The existence of commercial demand does not create immigration eligibility.
That can be frustrating.
It also means a sponsor licence strategy needs to be realistic.
Which jobs can actually be sponsored?
Which existing workers may qualify under transitional provisions?
Which higher-skilled professional functions might genuinely need international recruitment?
Where does the business need a different domestic recruitment strategy?
Those are workforce questions rather than form-filling questions.
Existing sponsored hospitality workers should be reviewed individually
Where a hotel or restaurant already employs Skilled Workers in occupations now classed as Medium Skilled, their position deserves careful management.
For each worker, the sponsor should understand:
when their first relevant Skilled Worker CoS was assigned,
whether continuous Skilled Worker permission has been maintained,
their current occupation code,
salary,
visa expiry date,
and whether any future change of employer or occupation is planned.
The transitional rules can preserve sponsorship in circumstances where the same role would not be available to someone entering Skilled Worker today.
That makes immigration history commercially significant.
Two chefs performing similar jobs may have different sponsorship options because one entered the route before 22 July 2025 and the other did not.
Promotions need particular care for transitional workers
Suppose an existing transitional sponsored chef is promoted.
The business might see that as career progression.
Immigration law asks whether the new role remains within a permitted occupation and whether a fresh change of employment application is required.
If the promotion moves the worker into another Medium Skilled hospitality occupation, transitional provisions need careful consideration.
If the business attempts to move the worker into a higher-skilled occupation, the new job needs to be genuine and satisfy current requirements.
The existence of transitional protection should not be treated as general permission to move freely between any hospitality jobs.
The specific immigration position matters.
Compliance visits can test what the worker actually does
Hospitality businesses should be particularly careful about role inflation because UKVI can speak to sponsored workers and managers during compliance activity.
Imagine a worker sponsored as a senior professional manager.
The job description describes strategic responsibility.
The employee tells the compliance officer that they spend most of their week covering ordinary front-of-house shifts and rota gaps.
That inconsistency deserves explanation.
Hospitality businesses often need managers to be operational.
There is nothing inherently wrong with a senior employee occasionally working alongside the team.
The issue is whether the actual job remains the occupation for which sponsorship was granted.
The role should survive examination in practice, not merely on paper.
A practical hospitality sponsorship assessment
Before obtaining a licence or assigning a CoS, I would want the business to answer several questions.
Which occupation does the business actually need?
Not which occupation is easiest to sponsor.
Is that occupation currently available to this worker?
Check Higher Skilled, Medium Skilled and any current list or transitional provision.
Is the worker new to Skilled Worker or already protected by a transitional provision?
That can fundamentally change eligibility.
Does the job description reflect the real work?
Hospitality titles can be deceptively broad.
Can the salary and working hours satisfy the current rules?
Use the real employment arrangement.
Does the organisation hold the regulatory registrations and licences it needs?
Food and alcohol activities can create mandatory requirements.
What is the sponsor licence actually going to be used for?
If the answer depends entirely on occupations no longer open to new sponsorship, reconsider the application before filing.
That is a more useful sponsorship strategy than beginning with the sponsor licence form.
Frequently asked questions
Can a restaurant get a sponsor licence?
Yes.
A genuine restaurant business can obtain a sponsor licence where it meets the general Home Office requirements.
The licence does not mean every restaurant job is eligible for Skilled Worker sponsorship.
Can restaurants still sponsor chefs from overseas?
For most new Skilled Worker applicants, chefs are now classed as Medium Skilled and are not currently on the Temporary Shortage List or Immigration Salary List.
A new overseas applicant therefore cannot ordinarily be sponsored as a chef under the current Skilled Worker framework.
Transitional provisions can apply to certain existing Skilled Workers.
Can a hotel sponsor a hotel manager?
Hotel and accommodation managers are currently classed as Medium Skilled.
The occupation is not currently on the Temporary Shortage List or Immigration Salary List, so new Skilled Worker sponsorship is generally unavailable unless a relevant transitional provision applies.
Can a restaurant sponsor a restaurant manager?
Restaurant and catering establishment managers are also currently classified as Medium Skilled.
New sponsorship is therefore restricted in the same way, subject to applicable transitional provisions.
Can a hospitality business sponsor other professional roles?
Potentially.
A hotel or restaurant group may employ genuine higher-skilled professionals in areas such as finance, HR, technology or other corporate functions.
Eligibility depends on the actual role, occupation code, salary and worker rather than the employer’s sector alone.
Are cooks eligible for Skilled Worker sponsorship?
Occupation code 5435, Cooks, is currently classified as Ineligible for Skilled Worker sponsorship.
Can an existing sponsored chef extend their Skilled Worker visa?
Potentially.
A worker who received their first relevant CoS before 22 July 2025 and has continuously held Skilled Worker permission can continue to access specified Medium Skilled occupations under transitional provisions, subject to the other requirements.
Does a restaurant need food business registration for a sponsor licence?
Where food-business registration is legally required, the organisation needs to address that regulatory status as part of its sponsor-licence evidence.
Food businesses generally need registration with the local authority.
Does a pub need a premises licence?
In England and Wales, a premises licence is generally required where alcohol is sold from the premises, along with certain other licensable activities. That regulatory position should be in order independently of the sponsor licence.
Hospitality sponsorship is narrower, not irrelevant
The July 2025 reforms did not remove hospitality businesses from the sponsorship system.
They changed which jobs can use it.
That distinction matters.
A restaurant can still be a sponsor.
A hotel can still be a sponsor.
A hospitality group can still recruit eligible international professionals.
Existing Skilled Workers in occupations that became Medium Skilled can still have transitional options.
What has changed is the assumption that familiar operational hospitality roles can simply be filled through new Skilled Worker sponsorship.
For many of those jobs, they cannot.
That requires a different kind of planning.
A business should identify the workforce need first.
Then identify the real occupation.
Then check whether that occupation is available to the particular worker under the rules in force now.
Only after that does the sponsor licence become useful.
For hospitality employers, the strongest immigration strategy is not finding a title that fits the system.
It is knowing precisely where sponsorship still fits the business.
Considering sponsorship within a hospitality business?
If your organisation operates a restaurant, hotel or other hospitality business and needs to understand which roles can still be sponsored, you can request a Free Case Assessment.
Tell us about the business, the role, the proposed worker and any existing Skilled Worker immigration history.
We can then consider whether Knightsbridge Immigration can assist.
