If your business or charity needs a sponsor licence, the application should explain how your organisation operates, why sponsorship is needed and how you will carry out the responsibilities that come with the licence.
Knightsbridge helps businesses and charities assess their position, organise the evidence and prepare their sponsor licence application. We guide your organisation through submission and provide support with the application through to the Home Office decision.
Our professional fees range from £2,500 to £4,500, with a fixed fee agreed after an individual assessment. Payment is required in full upfront. Home Office fees are additional.
Who this service is for
This service is for businesses and charities seeking professional support with a sponsor licence application. You may have identified someone you want to recruit, need to retain a worker whose immigration circumstances are changing, or be planning future recruitment.
We begin with the organisation and the work you intend to sponsor. Where you have already identified a worker, their circumstances can affect the proposed sponsorship arrangements and timing. The worker’s own visa application is a separate matter.
For charities, we consider the organisation’s activities, structure and proposed sponsored work, alongside the evidence of charitable status. The appropriate sponsorship route depends on the work involved. Charitable status alone does not determine which route should be used.
What our service includes
Assessing your organisation and proposed sponsorship
We establish what your business or charity does, why it needs a licence and which sponsorship route should be considered. We examine the relevant organisational information, proposed roles and the people who will take responsibility for sponsorship.
The assessment also considers your arrangements for keeping records, monitoring workers and reporting relevant changes. These responsibilities need to be understood before the application is prepared. If an issue needs resolving before you can sensibly proceed, we explain it.
Preparing your evidence plan and reviewing documents
We provide a document checklist based on your organisation and the application requirements. We review the material you supply, identify missing information and raise inconsistencies that need clarification.
The aim is to establish what each document demonstrates and whether the evidence supports the application. A trading business and a charity may need different records and explanations. We organise the evidence around those circumstances.
You remain responsible for providing accurate information, obtaining documents from the people who hold them and telling us about changes while the application is being prepared.
Preparing the application and supporting explanation
We prepare the application information and the business justification or covering representations needed to explain your organisation’s circumstances and sponsorship plans.
Where the licence application asks for an initial estimate of your Certificate of Sponsorship requirements, we help you explain the number requested and the reasons behind it. Later standalone CoS requests and assignments are separately scoped services.
We review the application and supporting material together so that the information is consistent and any unresolved points are addressed before submission.
Guiding your organisation through submission
We organise the prepared application and evidence and guide the appropriate person in your organisation through the submission steps.
The Home Office requires the applicant organisation to submit the online sponsor licence application itself. A representative can help prepare it but must not submit it on the organisation’s behalf. Your Authorising Officer must also sign the submission sheet.
We explain those responsibilities and the supporting-document requirements so that your team knows what it needs to do and when.
Supporting the application through to a decision
We help deal with routine Home Office questions and requests for clarification relating to the agreed application. We agree the appropriate contact and representative arrangements at the outset, including any appointment as Key Contact required for us to correspond with the Home Office.
If a request introduces materially new issues or requires substantial work beyond the agreed scope, we explain the additional work and agree a separate fixed fee before proceeding.
When the decision arrives, we explain what it means and the immediate next steps relevant to the licence application.
Our fees and payment terms
Our fees start at £2,500 for well-established businesses and extend to £5,500 where the application requires extensive work. Every business and charity is assessed individually before we provide a fixed quotation.
The assessment considers the organisation’s circumstances, the state of its evidence and the amount of preparation and explanation required. The quotation sets out the work included so that you can decide whether to instruct us with a clear understanding of the cost.
The agreed professional fee is payable in full upfront. We are not currently VAT registered.
Home Office application fees and any optional Home Office priority service are charged separately. The applicable government fee depends on the licence type and the organisation’s size or charitable status.
How long preparation takes
Where your organisation is ready to proceed and we have received payment and all the required information and documents, we can normally prepare the application and guide you through submission within one to two weeks.
If records are missing, explanations are needed or an organisational issue must first be resolved, we explain how that affects the timetable. The timeframe depends on your team being available to answer questions, approve the prepared information and complete its submission responsibilities.
This is our preparation and submission-support timeframe. The Home Office makes its decision separately and may request further information or carry out a compliance visit.
Resubmission after a procedural issue
If an application prepared under this service is declined because of a procedural issue, we will prepare the replacement application and guide your organisation through resubmission without charging another professional fee for that resubmission.
Any Home Office fee payable for the new application remains your responsibility. The refund position depends on how the original application was dealt with. An application rejected as invalid is treated differently from one that has been considered and refused.
We examine the decision before explaining whether a refund is due and when a fresh application can be made. The commitment covers procedural resubmission; further work following a substantive refusal about eligibility or the sufficiency of the supporting evidence is assessed separately.
What is charged separately
This service covers the sponsor licence application and the work agreed for it. The following are separate services:
- Standalone CoS allocation requests and assignments to individual workers.
- Worker visa applications.
- Formal immigration and HR audits.
- Structured SMS training.
- Ongoing sponsor compliance and HR support.
If you need help after the licence is granted, we can explain the relevant CoS services and Ongoing Compliance & HR support. Their scope and fees are agreed separately.
Why Knightsbridge
An application needs to connect the organisation’s explanation with the evidence available. A proposed role should make sense within its activities. The people nominated to manage sponsorship should understand the responsibilities they are accepting.
Our work brings those questions into the preparation process. We assess the circumstances, explain the evidence needed, raise gaps and prepare the application around the organisation’s actual position.
You receive a defined service, a fixed fee and a preparation timetable linked to what is ready. Your team understands its part in the process, and the support continues through the agreed application to the decision.
Discuss your sponsor licence application
Tell us what your business or charity does, why you need a sponsor licence and when you hope to recruit. If you have identified a worker or have a previous licence application or Home Office decision, include those details.
We will assess the work required, explain any points needing closer attention and confirm the proposed scope and fixed fee before you decide whether to proceed.
