Sponsor Licence Application
The Purpose of This Visa Application
If you want to hire someone from outside of the country for your UK-based company, your company must have a sponsoring license. In this way, you can sponsor your employees, document them and confirm that you will recruit them. What does this mean? Before a person can apply for a visa to enter or stay in the UK for business purposes, they must seek a job offer from a sponsored employer. The sponsor confirms this by assigning a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to the worker.
Sponsorship is not a right but a privilege, so there are rules that you must follow after you receive the license.
The sponsor licence you will receive has different categories, just like the visa types. At this stage, you need to apply for the right sponsor licence by knowing which visa type your future employee is applying for.
Types of Sponsor Licences
Basically, there are two main types of license categories that can be applied with a Sponsorship License Visa. These are 1) Employee License and 2) Short Term Employee License. Both categories have sub-application branches. You can see all the categories in the table below. You must select the category you want to apply for and complete the application by fulfilling the requirements of this category.
Eligibility and The Basic Criteria
The eligibility of your application will be evaluated according to the following requirements, as described in the relevant visa guide.
- Do you have a Human Resources department or a corresponding system to implement your sponsorship roles?
- Can you meet the requirements of the visa type that you are going to apply for the license? For example, if you are applying under the Skilled Worker or Intra-Company visa types, can you offer real employment that covers the employee’s salary
Note: Home Office employees may come to observe your workplace with unplanned visits while your sponsor license application is being evaluated.
If you have a company in the UK, you can apply for a sponsor licence. The criteria you must meet for your license application will of course vary depending on the category you are applying for. However, there are basic steps to be followed for each category and basic requirements you must meet.
For example:
- You must have a company in the UK (sole proprietorship / sole trader or limited company)
- You should not have had a sponsor license revoked in the last 12 months
- To apply, you must complete an online form. In this form, there will be fields that you need to fill in specifically related to the sponsorship system. If you have all the information, it will take 20-30 minutes to fill out this form.
- While filling out the form, you need to assign authorized units/persons in your company related to the sponsorship license and fill in their information.
- After finishing this form, you must pay an application fee. This fee will vary according to the category you are in.
- After the form is completed, you need to send the supporting documents to the Home Office via e-mail.
Your application will be evaluated according to the documents you submit and the information you provide. You can view the document options that must be submitted from the link down below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-documents-for-sponsor-applications-appendix-a/appendix-a .
Sponsorship Licence System Users
While filling out the application form in question, you need to assign authorized unit/persons in your company related to the sponsorship license and fill in their information. These are as follows:
- Authorising Officer
This person should be the most senior relevant person in your company. He will be responsible for the other persons listed below regarding the sponsorship licence. You must have an authorized officer during your licence period.
- Key Contact (Contact Person)
This person is the person who will mediate negotiations with the Home Office and your company. It has no direct connection with the licensing system. Unlike the other people you will appoint, this person may be from an organization legally authorized to represent you.
- Level 1 User (Level 1 User)
Your Level 1 user will be the person who will follow up the daily work related to your sponsorship license. This person will work under your authorized officer and will be controlled by him/her. If you are obtaining a license for the first time, you must appoint one of your in-house employees / officials as a Level 1 user. After obtaining your license, you can appoint Level 1 users to represent you if they are legally authorized. The basic responsibilities of Level 1 users are listed as follows:
- To assign sponsorship certificates to employees
- To stop the current sponsorship certificate
- To request to increase the number of sponsorship certificates
- To request to increase the number of Level 1 / Level 2 users
- Notifying the minor changes in details to UKVI
- Updating the status of employees (e.g. if he / she does not come to work, etc.)
- To follow-up the update messages from UKVI
- Applying to renew your license and follow the application process
The following cannot be assigned as Level 1 users:
- Temporarily contracted employee (contractor)
- consultant working on a contract for a specific project
- consultant working on a contract for a specific project
- Those who have not been released from bankruptcy
4.Level 2 User
Level 2 users work under and have less authority than Level 1 users.
Sponsorship Classes
When you purchase a license for the first time, it will be categorized as “Class A” because you have just passed an audit and been approved. However, during the period of validity of your license, you may be subject to various checks. As a result, you may fall into “Class B”. In this case, you need to request an “action plan” from the Home Office in order to have a class A license again. The cost of this plan is £ 1,476. What you need to do to upgrade your license degree will be determined by Home Office. If you cannot complete all the steps, your license may be cancelled.
You cannot process a new sponsorship certificate while in B class, which means you cannot hire a new immigrant employee. However, the sponsor license system allows you to process new certificates for your existing employees. For example, you can create an up-to-date CoS for your employee’s visa extension application.
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Costs
Your license application fee varies according to the scale of your company and the category to which you choose to apply. You can contact us for more detailed information.
| Licence Category | Pricing for
the small scale organisations |
Pricing for medium or large scale organisations |
| Worker | £536 | £1,476 |
| Temporary Worker | £536 | £536 |
In addition to the license application fee, you may have to pay additional fees depending on the category you want to be licensed. You can contact us for more detailed information on the subject.