Important changes for sponsor licence holders: Spring 2026
The Home Office continues to ramp up the compliance requirements for sponsor licence holders. New Home Office guidance issued in March and April 2026 increases and enhances sponsor accountability. The Home Office is keen to emphasise that “sponsorship is a privilege, not a right.”
Sponsored workers’ awareness of employment rights
Sponsors already have a responsibility to comply with wider UK law, including UK employment law. The guidance has now been updated to specifically require sponsors to ensure that their workers understand their employment rights, including but not limited to:
- 1. Entitlement to national minimum wage
- 2. Compliance with Working Time Regulations
- 3. Pension auto-enrolment and opt-outs
- 4. Entitlement to statutory leave and pay
- 5. Health and safety
- 6. Trade union memberships
- 7. Employer’s duty under the Equality Act
- 8. How to raise grievances
Employers are required to have HR resource systems in place to demonstrate that the above information is provided to their workers and this evidence must be retained for any workers who are sponsored throughout their employment and up to one year after sponsorship ends or the documents have been examined by a compliance officer and approved by them, if this is less than one year after sponsorship ends. This could include, for example, copies of any written information provided to workers or training or awareness courses provided to the sponsored workers.
Sponsors’ requirement to read all the Home Office guidance
A positive duty is now placed on sponsors to read all relevant parts of the sponsor guidance (including the three main parts, glossary and the guidance specific to the immigration route that they are licenced on) and any changes made to the guidance. The voluminous guidance is complex, changes fairly frequently and quite often at short notice. It can often be difficult for immigration lawyers to understand and navigate. It seems unrealistic to expect sponsors to read all of it and keep up to date with all developments. It is unclear how the Home Office expects to use this provision. It is possible it could be used to revoke the licences of more high-risk sponsors more easily.
Grounds for taking compliance action against sponsors
Sponsors are required to adhere to the rules of the sponsorship scheme as set out in the guidance. The guidance states explicitly that participation in the sponsorship scheme is voluntary and that sponsors seek membership for their own benefit. A sponsor licence creates no property or other enforceable right.
The Home Office can now take action if they have a reasonable suspicion or concern. This means that the Home Office can refuse a sponsor licence application or revoke a sponsor licence if they reasonably suspect that the sponsor is not suitable for sponsorship or that the sponsor has breached or is likely to breach the guidance. If there are reasonable grounds to suspect a breach of duties, this will likely lead to suspension initially pending further investigations.
Eligible role requirement
The Home Office must be satisfied that the sponsor is able and intends to offer work that meets the definition of “eligible role” which has replaced the term “genuine vacancy”. An eligible role is a job vacancy that the Home Office is satisfied meets specific criteria at the time that a sponsor assigns a certificate of sponsorship (CoS). An eligible role must be a vacancy that exists at the time the CoS is assigned, and which matches the job duties and hours on the CoS or on any CoS allocation request and meets the skill and salary requirements and is appropriate to the business model. The guidance now includes an additional example of a set of circumstances in which the Home Office may not be satisfied that the sponsor can offer employment that meets the skilled worker route. The example in question involves sponsoring workers for roles with an annual salary which does not appear to be commensurate with the turnover of the business, and the sponsor cannot satisfactorily explain how the salaries will be funded. This could be of concern to smaller businesses or start-ups.
The artificial inflation of a sponsored worker’s salary to meet minimum salary thresholds is prohibited and if the Home Office has reasonable grounds to believe that a salary has been so inflated, they will revoke a sponsor licence.
Sponsors will need to review sponsored roles very carefully when considering sponsorship or where skilled workers are extending their visa as to whether it can be explained clearly how the role fits the job description on the CoS and with the occupation code as well as potentially the salary, based on the turnover of the business.
Sponsored roles will need to be carefully monitored as far as day-to-day duties are concerned and changes to roles within the same occupation code will need to be reported as appropriate. Sponsors may wish to undertake a review of their existing sponsored worker roles to check compliance.
Illegal working and sponsors’ right to work checks
The illegal working legislation continues to require employers to carry out right to work checks before employment begins in order to establish a statutory excuse as protection against civil penalties where a person is found to be later working without immigration permission. The obligation to obtain a statutory excuse is tied to employment under the illegal working regime. There is at present, no statutory excuse mechanism for those persons who are not employees, for example those who are engaged as self-employed persons.
The Home Office sponsor guidance now goes much further than the legislation. The sponsor guidance now states that a sponsor must check that any worker that the sponsor wishes to sponsor (including a worker who is not their direct employee) or any worker the sponsor otherwise wishes to employ or directly engage has permission to enter or stay in the UK and can do the work in question before they start work for the sponsor. If a sponsor fails to carry out a right to work check or any necessary follow-up checks, they will be in breach of their sponsor duties and may be liable to a civil penalty. If a sponsor is issued with a civil penalty for having an illegal worker or otherwise fails to carry out the checks the Home Office will normally revoke the sponsor licence.
There is now a compliance risk for sponsors in relation to a person whom they may wish to engage who turns out to be an illegal worker, even if that person is not an employee and is not sponsored. Sponsors need to review current right to work procedures to cover all workers directly engaged, including those who are not direct employees. HR managers also need to be trained accordingly. Sponsors should also assess and record carefully all their working relationships to include workers engaged on a self-employed basis.
Overall, the Home Office is tightening up compliance requirements considerably and sponsors must review their HR processes, procedures and retained documentation to ensure that they keep pace with the developments and to mitigate the potential risks of non-compliance.
For details of the March 2026 Immigration Rules changes see our previous article here.
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