Published on: 07th July 2022
Reading time: Approx 5 mins

A Sponsor Licence for UK employers is necessary for businesses looking to bring-in or hire foreign employees in a UK-based company. As a sponsor licence holder, you are obligated to meet all the duties and responsibilities associated with sponsoring a migrant worker – compliance of duties, immigration rules and prevention of abuse of the system, to be precise. A sponsor loses their licence in case of breach of the rules associated with a Sponsor Licence holder.

When a sponsor loses their licence, it can be problematic, not only for the sponsor but also for the migrant employees working in the organization.

A sponsor loses their licence for reasons like breach of rules and/or responsibilities like:

• Submitting false information on the sponsor licence application
• Breaching sponsor duties
• Posing threat to immigration control
• Non-compliance with the UK immigration rules
• Poor record keeping (of migrant employee’s contact details)
• Insufficient recruitment practices, poor HR policies
• A Certificate of Sponsorship being used incorrectly or completed incorrectly

• The Home Office issues a suspension notice, it comes with the reason/s for suspension. The content of the notice will help you with the steps further.
• During the suspension period, the organization will not be allowed to assign any certificates of sponsorship and will be prohibited from sponsoring new migraine employees.
• Any CoS issued before the suspension, still under processing – will be put on hold until the investigation is over and a decision is made by the Home Office.
• However, you must continue to comply with the sponsor duties, throughout your suspension as well.

The next few steps are critical. As a Sponsor Licence holder, a Sponsorship Licence revocation might raise questions in your mind like – how does this impact sponsored worker’s visas, how do you respond to this hurdle, or how long it would take to resolve this issue?!

It is an understandable cause of concern. But definitely not the end of the road.

After you’ve received a notice of suspension, you have 2 choices:

• Respond to the allegations by challenging the evidence and seeking to reinstate the licence
• Respond by accepting the allegations and acknowledging how you will address these breaches.

The Sponsorship Licence suspension notice will advise the deadline for your response. However, you have 20 days to send a written response to the Home Office. These 20 days are your chance to seek a review of the decision and set out any mitigating arguments you believe exist.

The response must be in writing and attached with relevant supporting documents, which serve as grounds to help your case.

Our UK immigration lawyers at The SmartMove2UK are experienced with the entire process of a Sponsor Licence for UK employers. We have not only been guiding clients through the process of application, but also resulted in many success stories. If you have any other Sponsor Licence queries regarding the United Kingdom or business, tourist, or family visas, our lawyers will guide you comprehensively for the same.

You can reach out to our UK sponsorship lawyers or experts on: