To employ an overseas national who is not a settled worker or who does not hold immigration permission to work in the UK, you will need to apply for a Sponsor Licence. Organisations can apply for a sponsor licence under various categories depending on the need.
To apply for a sponsor licence, a company should ensure that they have in place and can demonstrate they are a genuine organisation and have relevant HR systems and processes in place.

In order to apply for a sponsor licence, the organisation will be required to complete an online application form and submit supporting documents to demonstrate the organisation is genuine and currently trading in the UK. Some example documents are:
- Employers Liability Insurance certificate.
- VAT registration certificate.
- Corporate bank statement.
- Signed lease premises/evidence of premises.
If an organisation has been trading for less than 18 months, there are alternative documents that must be provided.
Sponsor licence applications can take up to 16 weeks to be processed upon submission. The Home Office offers priority service and if a priority slot is granted the processing times can be significantly reduced.
Before a decision on the sponsor licence is made, the Home Office may carry out a compliance visit to determine whether the organisation has robust HR processes in place to monitor migrants it will sponsor. Therefore, before considering applying for a sponsor licence, or if an organisation is a current sponsor licence holder, we recommend you carry out a review of your processes in the below key areas:
- Record keeping: an organisation must keep certain documents for each sponsored worker. Such as documents relating to their job, salary any labour market testing for the role.
- Reporting duties: an organisation must report certain changes that affect the migrant worker such as changes in their job role, absences without permission, reduction of salary. There are timelines in which changes need to be reported and so your HR processes will need to be able to demonstrate how these changes will be tracked, monitored and reported in time.
- Prevention of illegal working: an organisation must be able to demonstrate how they comply with preventing illegal working by ensuring individual employees have the right to work in the UK.