Sponsor Licence Revocation: What Workers and Employers Should Know

A sponsor licence is a Home Office authorisation that allows a UK employer to sponsor workers on certain visa routes — Skilled Worker, Health & Care Worker, Senior or Specialist Worker, Scale-up, Global Business Mobility, and a few others. The sponsor must:

• Be a genuine UK business with at least one UK presence.
• Keep records of every sponsored worker (right to work, attendance, salary).
• Report changes (worker absences over 10 working days, salary changes, role changes, terminations).
• Pay each worker at least the minimum salary threshold (£38,700 for Skilled Worker since April 2024) and the going rate for the role.
• Allow Home Office compliance visits and provide records on demand.

Sponsor licences are graded "A-rated" (full compliance) or "B-rated" (probation after concerns identified). B-rated sponsors cannot issue new Certificates of Sponsorship until upgraded.

The Home Office can revoke a licence for serious or repeated breaches. Common triggers:

• Failure to keep records — particularly right-to-work checks and attendance records.
• Paying below the going rate — care sector revocations have often cited this; the going rate for care workers is much higher than the actual rate paid by some providers.
• Reporting failures — not reporting absences, terminations, or salary changes within prescribed timeframes.
• Hiring workers without valid visas — a separate civil and criminal regime applies, but is also a revocation ground.
• Director or officer criminal convictions — for relevant offences.
• Insolvency proceedings — the licence is suspended on petition and may be revoked if proceedings continue.

The Home Office issues a "Revocation Notice" — a formal letter explaining the grounds and the date of revocation. The employer can pre-empt by surrendering the licence; this avoids "revocation" appearing on the public sponsor register but has the same effect on workers.

When the sponsor licence is revoked or surrendered:

1. All current Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) issued by that sponsor are invalidated.
2. Workers receive a Curtailment of Leave Notice from UKVI — their existing leave is shortened, usually to 60 days from the date of the notice.
3. During the 60-day grace period, the worker can apply for a new visa with a new sponsor (in-country switch), apply for a different route (e.g. spouse visa if they have a British partner), or leave the UK.
4. If no application is made within the 60 days, the worker becomes an overstayer and faces enforcement action.

The 60-day grace period is short. Workers should start contacting recruitment agencies and direct employers within days of receiving the notice. The Home Office sponsor register at gov.uk/government/publications/register-of-licensed-sponsors-workers lists all currently licensed sponsors searchable by industry and location.

Practical steps for workers:

• Update your CV and LinkedIn immediately. The 60-day window is short; speed matters.
• Use the Home Office sponsor register (gov.uk/government/publications/register-of-licensed-sponsors-workers) to identify employers in your sector who hold a current licence.
• Use recruitment agencies that specialise in your route — many in the care, technology, and engineering sectors have established Skilled Worker pipelines.
• Apply for the new visa before the 60-day deadline. Once the application is lodged (with biometrics taken), your leave is extended automatically under Section 3C until decision.
• Check the going rate for your role against the new employer's salary — undertaking a role below the going rate will lead to refusal.
• Get legal advice if the new role pays below the threshold or if there are gaps in your record-keeping. OISC Level 1 advisers can help with most cases; complex cases may need a solicitor.

If you are an employer facing licence revocation:

• Pre-action protocol letter — challenging the decision on grounds of irrationality, procedural impropriety, or material error. The Home Office has 14 days to respond.
• Judicial review — if pre-action fails, apply to the Administrative Court within 3 months of the revocation. The success rate is low (under 20%) but worth attempting where the decision is clearly wrong on the facts.
• Voluntary surrender and re-application — sometimes a clean re-application after addressing compliance issues is faster than litigation. The 12-month cooling-off period before re-application is the key downside.
• Communicate with affected workers — they have rights and you have an ethical and reputational duty. Provide formal letters confirming sponsorship and the dates of revocation; this helps them with new employer applications.
• HR audit and root-cause analysis — establish what went wrong, fix it, document the remediation. Future re-applications depend on this evidence.