Business Immigration

We advise businesses to acquire a sponsor licence to hire individuals under the UK immigration system. Once the sponsorship licence is obtained, we advise the employers certificate of sponsorships (COS) and with the requirements for their employees (skilled worker) and their dependent visas.

Sponsorship Licence

A UK employer requires a sponsor licence to employ a skilled migrant worker from outside the UK including European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland to work for your organisation in the UK. You will be given a sponsor licence rating if the application is successful, and you will be able to issue certificates of sponsorship (COS) if you have jobs that are suitable for sponsorship. The sponsor licence will be valid for 4 years, but you may lose your licence if you don’t meet your responsibilities as a sponsor. If an employer’s application is successful, the Home Office will provide you with a reference number (which acts as license) and activate their Sponsor Management System (SMS) and also be added in the Home Office SW register. The Director or HR Manager will be appointed as the Level 1 user and Authorising Officer to access the Sponsor Management System in order to assign your prospective employee(s) Certificate of Sponsorship (online document). Once you have been allocated with the COS, they would be able to assign the Certificate (issue the work permit) to your prospective employee to claim points in order to qualify for leave to remain/enter. Please note that the issuing of a licence to an organisation does not alleviate the need for your potential employee to obtain entry clearance in their country of origin or further leave in the UK.

Skilled Worker

Once the Certificate of Sponsorship is assigned, a skilled worker and his/her dependants can apply for their visas. A Skilled Worker visa allows people to come to or stay in the UK to do an eligible job with an approved employer. The job must be on the list of occupation and you must be paid a minimum salary prescribed for that particular job. The English requirement at level B1 needs to be satisfied as well. So, the precondition for this category is to have a certificate of sponsorship from an approved employer(authorised by the British government). After having completed 5 years on this route, the applicant becomes eligible to apply for settlement/indefinite leave to remain. The partners(spouses/unmarried partners) and children of the skilled workers can accompany them to the UK.

Vikas and Caroline, our Immigration Solicitors will be happy to help you through the whole process of acquiring the sponsorship licence and obtaining skilled worker visas.