Employer Guide to Skilled Worker Sponsorship

1. Obtaining a Sponsor Licence

To sponsor overseas workers on the Skilled Worker route, your organisation must hold a valid Skilled Worker sponsor licence issued by the Home Office. Without this, you cannot legally hire someone on a Skilled Worker visa.

Eligibility to apply

To be eligible for a licence, your organisation must:

• Be a genuine trading business with a lawful presence in the UK
• Have no unspent criminal convictions for immigration offences, fraud, money laundering or similar crimes
• Offer genuine skilled employment (the roles must meet the skill and salary requirements)
• Have appropriate HR systems and processes to meet sponsor duties
• Appoint key personnel (see below)

Key personnel you must appoint

Role	Responsibilities	Notes
Authorising Officer (AO)	Overall responsibility for the licence. Signs the licence application.	Must be a senior member of staff or a director. Cannot be the same person as Level 1 User.
Key Contact	Main point of contact with the Home Office	Can be the same person as the AO
Level 1 User	Day-to-day management of the Sponsor Management System (SMS)	Can assign CoS, update records, report changes. At least one must be a settled worker.
Level 2 User (optional)	Limited SMS access — typically line managers	Optional — can be overseas nationals

Applying for a licence

Apply online via the Home Office's Sponsor Management System (SMS). You will need to provide supporting documents including evidence of your business activities, HR systems and key personnel. As of 2026, the application fee is £536 for small/charitable sponsors and £1,476 for medium/large sponsors. Licences are typically granted within 8 weeks (or 2 weeks with priority).

2. Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS)

Once licensed, you assign a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to each worker you wish to sponsor. A CoS is a digital record — it has a unique reference number but is not a physical certificate.

Types of CoS

Type	Used for	Validity
Defined CoS	Applicants applying from outside the UK, or switching from most UK visa routes	Must be used within 3 months of assignment
Undefined CoS	Applicants already in the UK on a Skilled Worker visa (extension or same-employer switch)	Assigned from your annual allocation

What the CoS must contain

• Worker's name, nationality and date of birth
• Job title and SOC code
• Annual gross salary and hourly rate
• Work location and start date
• Employment type (full-time, part-time) and hours per week

3. Salary Compliance

Meeting salary requirements is one of your most critical compliance duties. From 8 April 2026, the rules became more stringent:

Threshold	Requirement
Standard going rate	Must meet or exceed the going rate for the worker's SOC code
Standard minimum	£41,700/yr — must be met in every pay period from April 2026
Discount route minimum	£33,400/yr — only if worker qualifies for a tradeable route
Absolute salary floor	£25,000/yr — no exceptions

Immigration Skills Charge (ISC)

You must pay the ISC when assigning a CoS. It is charged per year per worker:

Organisation type	ISC per year per worker
Medium / Large employers	£1,320 (increased December 2025)
Small employers & charities	£660

For a worker sponsored for 5 years, a large employer pays £6,600 in ISC alone.

4. Ongoing Sponsor Duties

Holding a sponsor licence comes with significant ongoing obligations. Failure to comply can result in your licence being suspended, downgraded or revoked.

Record-keeping duties

• Keep copies of each sponsored worker's passport and visa
• Maintain records of any qualifications relied upon in the CoS
• Keep a record of contact details (phone, address) for each sponsored worker
• Retain payslips and evidence of pay for each sponsored worker

Reporting duties — notify the Home Office of:

• Worker fails to turn up for first day of work
• Worker's employment is terminated (for any reason)
• Worker changes their job title, salary or work location significantly
• Worker is absent from work without pay for more than 4 consecutive weeks
• Worker's contact details change and you cannot locate them
• Significant organisational changes (mergers, TUPE transfers, change of address)

5. Costs Summary

Cost	Amount (2026)	Paid by
Sponsor licence application (medium/large)	£1,476	Employer
Sponsor licence application (small)	£536	Employer
Certificate of Sponsorship fee	£239	Employer
Immigration Skills Charge (medium/large, per year)	£1,320	Employer (cannot pass to worker)
Immigration Skills Charge (small/charitable, per year)	£660	Employer
Visa application fee (worker, from outside UK, up to 3 years)	£719	Employer or worker
Immigration Health Surcharge (per year)	£1,035	Employer or worker

Always verify current fees on GOV.UK. Note: employers cannot pass the ISC or CoS fee to workers.