Your employer tells you that your role is being made redundant. Your visa still shows a future expiry date, but somebody mentions that you now have 60 days to find another sponsor.
Before relying on either date, you need to establish what has actually happened.
Losing your sponsored job can lead to your Skilled Worker permission being shortened, but the employment decision and the Home Office decision are separate events. You should not automatically count 60 days from your last working day or assume that the original visa expiry date will remain unchanged.
The immediate task is to confirm your employment end date, check your immigration correspondence and identify a realistic next step. That may involve another sponsor, an eligible alternative route or arrangements to leave the UK before your permission ends.
Does redundancy automatically cancel your visa?
An employer’s redundancy letter is not itself a Home Office cancellation decision.
The Immigration Rules allow permission to be cancelled where sponsored employment has ended, will end earlier than recorded on the Certificate of Sponsorship, or the worker has ceased working for the sponsor. Withdrawal of sponsorship is also a ground for possible cancellation.
The employer must report relevant changes through the Sponsorship Management System. Sponsor guidance specifically identifies resignation, dismissal and redundancy among the circumstances requiring the employer to report that sponsorship has ended.
This means two processes may be happening at different times. Your employer is managing the end of employment and its reporting duties. The Home Office is considering the effect on your immigration permission.
Ask the employer to confirm the employment position in writing. If it has made a sponsorship report, ask for confirmation of the information reported, particularly the employment end date.
A clear account of the facts is more useful than a general assurance that your visa will be “fine for a while”.
Which dates should you establish first?
Several dates can be relevant, and they should not be treated as interchangeable.
| Date | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Redundancy notification | Establishes when you were told about the proposed or confirmed change |
| Employment termination date | Identifies when the employment relationship ends |
| Last day actually worked | May differ from the termination date because of notice or garden leave |
| Existing immigration expiry date | Shows the original limit of your permission, subject to any subsequent decision |
| Effective date in a Home Office cancellation notice | May replace the original expiry date with an earlier deadline |
Also distinguish a role being placed at risk from a final decision terminating employment. The paperwork should explain which stage has been reached.
If dates conflict across the redundancy letter, payroll records and sponsorship correspondence, resolve the discrepancy promptly. The immigration assessment should be based on the actual arrangements.
For someone supporting a family or paying for accommodation, this timeline also helps with practical planning. It shows when employment income may stop and how much time is available to secure a lawful alternative.
Is there always a 60-day grace period?
No. Sixty days is an important part of Home Office cancellation policy, but it is not a universal period beginning automatically on the last day of work.
The guidance generally provides for 60 days remaining in appropriate cases, particularly where the reasons are outside the person’s control. It also allows different outcomes. Cancellation cannot extend permission beyond its existing expiry date.
The guidance distinguishes employment that has ceased from employment reported as ending early. In the latter situation, the new employment end date and any applicable wrap-up period can affect the calculation.
The decision notice and its service therefore need checking. Home Office guidance uses different service calculations depending on how a notice is delivered. An emailed notice should not be treated as taking effect only when you happen to open it.
The practical rule is to establish your own deadline from your documents and circumstances. A colleague’s experience may involve different dates, a different decision or more permission remaining.
Do not postpone your job search while waiting for a cancellation notice. Preparation can begin as soon as the employment problem becomes clear.
What if you have not received a Home Office letter?
Not receiving a letter does not establish that no action has been taken.
Check the email address used for your immigration application, any correspondence sent through a representative and the postal address held by UKVI. Keep copies of the original grant and any later decisions together.
The government advises keeping your UKVI account details current, including your email, telephone number and address, so that you can be contacted about your immigration position.
If you have lost access to an old email account or moved home, address that promptly. Where there is uncertainty about whether a decision has been issued or properly served, obtain advice on the actual records.
An old screenshot showing a future expiry date should not be used to dismiss more recent correspondence.
Our recommendation is to investigate the uncertainty while progressing your next steps. Waiting for perfect clarity before looking for employment can waste time that would otherwise be useful.
Notice pay and garden leave can change the timeline
The date money reaches your account does not necessarily show when employment ended.
Acas explains that payment in lieu of notice can bring the employment contract to an immediate end, with a payment replacing the notice period. During garden leave, by contrast, the employee remains employed even though they are not required to work.
Those distinctions matter when reviewing the employer’s sponsorship report.
Consider a hypothetical employee who receives a payment equivalent to two months’ salary when their employment ends. It would be unsafe to assume that they remain employed for another two months merely because the payment was calculated that way.
Ask for a clear explanation of the arrangement, including the contractual termination date and whether any notice is being worked, paid in lieu or spent on garden leave.
If you are negotiating an exit agreement, have the immigration implications considered before relying on a particular timetable. Employment terminology and immigration permission need to be assessed together.
Can you work somewhere else while looking for a sponsor?
A Skilled Worker visa does not become unrestricted work permission when the sponsored job ends.
Under the ordinary conditions, work is tied to the sponsored role, subject to specific permitted activities. Supplementary employment normally depends on continuing to work in the main sponsored job.
You should therefore not assume that you can support yourself through agency shifts, freelance work or a previous second job simply because some immigration permission remains.
For a change to a new sponsored employer, government guidance says that you should not start the new job until the new permission has been confirmed. An offer or assigned Certificate of Sponsorship is not the approval itself.
That can create a difficult period without earnings. It is better to recognise that possibility when planning your finances than to accept work on an assumption that later proves incorrect.
A prospective employer should understand the permitted start date before placing you on a rota or asking you to begin delivering work.
A replacement job must support a workable application
Finding an employer willing to sponsor you is an important step. The proposed arrangement still needs to satisfy the Skilled Worker requirements.
The new job must be eligible, and a new Certificate of Sponsorship is normally required for the change-of-employer application.
Ask for the duties, salary, weekly hours and proposed sponsorship dates together. Establish which organisation will sponsor you and whether it is ready to assign the necessary certificate.
The commercial timetable matters as much as willingness. An employer may want to recruit you but still need internal approval, a sponsor licence or an allocation of certificates.
Our article on an employer’s promise of sponsorship explains how to distinguish an encouraging conversation from a plan that can support an application.
You should also identify a decision point. If a necessary step has not happened by a particular date, what will you do next? That date should leave enough time to assess a genuine alternative before your permission ends.
Can an application protect your position while you wait?
Section 3C can extend existing permission where a valid application to extend or vary it is made before expiry and remains undecided when that permission expires.
An invalid application does not ordinarily create that protection. Existing conditions also continue under section 3C unless varied, so a pending application does not automatically create permission to begin a new sponsored job.
The relevant deadline is your actual immigration expiry date, taking account of any cancellation decision.
A job offer, an employer’s pending sponsor licence application or a request for a Certificate of Sponsorship is not your immigration application. Those steps may support a future application, but they should not be mistaken for protection already in place.
Consider a hypothetical worker whose permission ends shortly. The new employer has agreed sponsorship but is still resolving its certificate allocation. The immediate question is whether a valid application can be made on the actual timetable, together with what lawful alternatives exist if it cannot.
If permission has already expired, obtain an urgent assessment. Do not assume that a later job offer or application retrospectively restores the earlier position.
What if you cannot find another sponsor in time?
The next step is to assess whether another immigration route genuinely fits your circumstances.
Depending on the household, that might involve permission based on a qualifying partner or becoming the dependant of someone who can sponsor you under the relevant route. Those possibilities need their own eligibility, evidence and timing assessment.
A route should not be selected simply because an application form is available. Nor should you assume that switching is possible from inside the UK or that previous residence will count in the same way towards settlement.
If no suitable application can be made, planning departure before permission ends may be necessary. That decision should account for the household, employment obligations and any future overseas application.
It can be difficult to consider departure while interviews are still taking place. A practical plan can accommodate both possibilities: continue pursuing a viable role while deciding what must happen if the necessary sponsorship is not secured.
Our Skilled Worker visa guidance explains the wider route requirements.
Your partner and children need their own review
Job loss can affect more than the main worker.
The Immigration Rules allow a dependant’s permission to be cancelled where the main applicant’s permission is or has been cancelled. Each family member’s permission and correspondence therefore needs checking.
Do not assume that everyone has received the same notice or that the main worker’s next application resolves the household’s position.
Where a worker changes employer, the government’s guidance confirms that partners and children make separate applications to update their permission, either alongside the worker or before their own permission expires.
The practical review should identify each person’s status, expiry date and proposed next application.
It should also consider the consequences of a replacement job. A new role may require relocation, affect a partner’s employment or change childcare arrangements. Those practical issues can determine whether an otherwise eligible offer is workable.
Our dependant visa guidance provides the broader family context.
Being close to settlement does not remove the sponsorship requirement
A worker approaching five years may hope that settlement provides an immediate answer to redundancy.
Length of residence is only one part of the Skilled Worker settlement assessment. The Rules require the relevant sponsor to remain approved and to confirm that the worker is needed for the foreseeable future and will receive the required salary.
A confirmed end to employment can therefore be material even where the residence period is nearly complete.
If an application is being prepared or has already been submitted, explain the employment change promptly. An earlier employer letter should not be relied on without considering whether it still describes the current position.
The review should address the timing of the change, the application stage and any realistic alternative employment. Our indefinite leave to remain guidance explains the wider requirements.
What if the employer has also lost its sponsor licence?
Sponsor licence revocation introduces additional considerations.
There is a temporary policy protecting specified care workers and senior care workers where licence revocation would be the sole reason for cancellation. It should not be treated as a general exemption covering every care worker who loses a job.
The employer’s licence position, your occupation and the stated grounds for any decision need to be established.
Our article on what protects workers when a sponsor loses its licence addresses that situation, including the distinction between suspension and revocation.
Keep employment rights and immigration deadlines under review
You may also need advice about the redundancy process, notice pay, unpaid wages or an exit agreement.
Those issues can be important without resolving your immigration position. A dispute with the employer should not be treated as permission to continue working elsewhere or remain beyond an applicable immigration deadline.
Keep the employment documents and immigration documents together, but identify the action required under each process.
Where dates or allegations are disputed, preserve the original correspondence. A clear record can help advisers understand what happened and identify which questions need urgent attention.
The aim is to avoid focusing entirely on one problem while another deadline passes.
What should you prepare for an assessment?
The first review should establish the current position and the next practical decision.
| Information | What it helps establish |
|---|---|
| Immigration grant and any cancellation correspondence | Your permission, conditions and actual deadline |
| Redundancy or dismissal documents | The reason for the change and the employment end date |
| Contract and notice arrangements | Whether employment continues during notice or garden leave |
| Sponsorship information and employer correspondence | What the employer has reported and any disputed facts |
| Replacement job details | Whether a new role can support an application in time |
| Family immigration documents | Each dependant’s position and outstanding requirements |
Bring any relevant health, caring or other exceptional circumstances to the adviser’s attention. Their relevance depends on the decision being considered and the evidence available.
A useful assessment should leave you with a clear timeline, a realistic application option where one exists and named actions for both you and any prospective sponsor.
Knightsbridge can help review your position after Skilled Worker redundancy or job loss, identify the relevant notices and deadlines, and assess whether a proposed next step is workable.
