Sponsor Licence: Compliance and Duties

Key Takeaways

• Your duties start on the day your licence is granted and bind every sponsor, whatever its rating. A B-rated sponsor carries extra duties under its action plan, not fewer. The Home Office groups them under five heads: reporting, record keeping, following the immigration rules and sponsor guidance, complying with wider UK law, and not behaving in a way that is not conducive to the public good.
• Most changes to a sponsored worker's circumstances must be reported through the Sponsorship Management System within 10 working days. Most changes to your organisation must be reported within 20 working days of your becoming aware of them.
• A move to hybrid working does not need to be reported. A new main work location, a new client site or a move to full-time home working does.
• Keep the Appendix D documents for every sponsored worker for as long as you sponsor them, and then until one year after sponsorship ends or a compliance officer has examined and approved them, whichever is earlier.
• Pay at least the salary on the certificate of sponsorship, into the worker's own account and never in cash. The Home Office checks pay against HMRC records. Paying less than the certificate says, without reporting it or where the reduction is not permitted, is a ground on which it will revoke your licence.
• Compliance checks can happen at any time, on site or by video, announced or unannounced. Failing to co-operate, or delaying a check, is a ground on which the Home Office will normally revoke.
• WorkPermitCloud supports sponsors with the day-to-day duties of holding a licence, from reporting and record keeping to preparing for a Home Office visit. See our sponsorship duties service.

Introduction

This page is for organisations that hold a sponsor licence, and for the HR teams and Key Personnel who run it. It sets out what the Home Office expects of you from the day the licence is granted: what you must report and by when, which records you must keep, how you must pay sponsored workers, and what happens during a compliance check. Getting a licence in the first place is covered in Sponsor Licence: How to Apply.

What Your Sponsor Duties Are

A sponsor licence is held at the Home Office's discretion. Part 3 of the sponsor guidance describes sponsorship as "a privilege not a right" and says a licence creates no property or other enforceable right. The Home Office trusts sponsors to help it run the immigration system, and the duties are how it checks that trust is deserved.

When Your Duties Start and End

Your duties as a sponsor start on the day the licence is granted and continue until you surrender it, the Home Office makes it dormant (for example after you are taken over), or it is revoked. The Home Office can also take into account conduct from any time, including before you held a licence.

Your responsibility for each individual worker starts when you assign them a certificate of sponsorship and ends when any of the following happens:

• you withdraw the certificate, or the Home Office cancels it, before it is used in an application
• the worker's permission expires, unless you have assigned them a new certificate
• the worker's permission lapses while they are outside the UK, unless you assign a new certificate or a Creative Worker concession applies
• you tell the Home Office you have stopped sponsoring the worker
• for a Scale-up Worker, 6 months after the permission started

The Five Kinds of Duty

Paragraph C1.11 of Part 3 lists the duties under five heads. The rest of this page follows the same structure, so you can move between it and the Home Office's own guidance.

A B-rated sponsor must also follow its action plan, which can add duties of its own, and every sponsor must follow any good practice guidance for sponsors produced with the Home Office's agreement.

How Seriously the Home Office Treats Each Duty

If the Home Office reasonably suspects you are not meeting your duties, it can reduce your allocation of certificates or set it to zero, downgrade your licence to a B-rating, suspend it, revoke it, or report you to the police or other authorities. The grounds it relies on are set out in three annexes to Part 3, and each has a different strength. Some breaches mean it will revoke your licence, some mean it will normally revoke unless there are exceptional circumstances, and some mean it may revoke. Throughout this page, where a duty has a matching ground, we say which of the three it is.

Two grounds sit behind everything else. Failing to comply with any of your sponsor duties is a ground on which the Home Office will normally revoke (Annex C2(a)), and so is not having the processes and systems in place to comply with them (Annex C2(b)). Neither requires the breach to be deliberate. How the Home Office then decides between a downgrade, suspension and revocation is explained in Sponsor Licence: Suspension and Revocation.

The people who carry these duties inside your organisation are your Key Personnel. The Authorising Officer is the senior person with overall responsibility for your activity as a licensed sponsor. Who they must be, and how to change them, is covered in Sponsor Licence: SMS and Key Personnel, and our Authorising Officer guide for sponsor licence compliance looks at the role in more detail.

Reporting Changes in a Sponsored Worker's Circumstances

Changes to a sponsored worker are reported through the Sponsorship Management System, using Workers, then Sponsorship duties, then Report migrant activity. The Home Office's SMS manual 9: reporting worker activity gives the screens step by step. Unless the guidance says otherwise, the deadline is 10 working days from the change or event. A working day is any day other than a Saturday, a Sunday or a UK bank holiday.

What you report can be used by the Home Office to cancel the worker's permission or take enforcement action against them. That is not a reason to delay. Holding back a report, or keeping someone on the books who is no longer working, puts your licence at risk and does not protect the worker.

When a Worker Does Not Start on Time

Once a worker has been granted permission, they should normally start within 28 days of whichever is the latest of:

• the start date on their certificate, including any change you reported before their application was decided
• the "valid from" date on their eVisa or entry clearance
• the date they were given permission to enter, if they came in under the Creative Worker visa concession
• the date they were told their application had been granted

If they have not started by the end of that period, you must either tell the Home Office the new start date and the reason, or stop sponsoring them, and report either one no later than 10 working days after the 28 days end. Acceptable reasons include travel disruption from a natural disaster, conflict or pandemic, a notice period with a previous employer, delays in obtaining an exit visa, and illness, bereavement or other compelling personal circumstances. The Home Office may cancel the worker's permission if it does not accept the reason. A delay of 28 days or less does not need reporting.

Unauthorised Absence

If a sponsored worker is absent without your permission for more than 10 consecutive working days, report it no later than 10 working days after the 10th day, even if you plan to keep them on. Include the date the absence started, the date they came back if they have, the steps you have taken to contact them if they have not, any salary deductions for the period, and whether you intend to continue sponsoring them.

Unpaid Leave and Reduced Pay

You must normally stop sponsoring a worker who is absent without pay, or on reduced pay, for more than 4 weeks in total in a calendar year (1 January to 31 December). For a Scale-up Worker the period is the time you are responsible for them. The 4 weeks can be one absence or several added together, and they are counted on the worker's normal pattern: 20 working days for someone who works 5 days a week, 12 for someone who works 3.

Some absences are permitted, and you do not have to stop sponsoring because of them, provided the worker's other absences without pay or on reduced pay in the year do not themselves take them over 4 weeks:

• statutory maternity, paternity, parental, shared parental, adoption and neonatal care leave
• sick leave
• helping with a national or international humanitarian or environmental crisis, where you agreed to the absence
• taking part in lawful industrial action
• jury service, or attending court as a witness

You must still report a permitted absence once it passes 4 weeks. Where no exception applies but you believe there are compelling reasons to keep sponsoring the worker, report the absence with your reasons and the Home Office will decide. It may cancel the worker's permission if it is not satisfied. Shorter absences without pay do not need to be reported, although tracking them helps you see when a worker is approaching the limit.

Salary Reductions

If a worker's salary is reduced for a reason unrelated to absence, you must report it. You must stop sponsoring the worker if the new salary no longer meets a salary, hourly or going rate requirement for the job or the route, or if the change is not otherwise permitted. For a Skilled Worker, check the rules before you cut pay, because some reductions need a new certificate and a new application.

You can report a reduction and carry on sponsoring where:

• the reduction goes with a temporary cut in hours, or a phased return to work, for health reasons, supported by an occupational health assessment, and the hourly rate stays at or above any hourly requirement that applied at the worker's last grant
• a Global Business Mobility worker has a temporary reduction while working for the group or linked business outside the UK
• a Skilled Worker, Global Business Mobility worker or Scale-up Worker would still score the points for salary after the change
• the worker otherwise continues to meet the salary requirements of their route

Changes to the Job

A worker can move to a different role, job title or set of core duties, or be promoted, without a new application, if the new role is in the same occupation code and the other conditions in paragraph S9.10 of Part 2 are met. There is also a short list of other changes that do not need a change of employment application. Report either within 10 working days of the change taking effect. Any other change of job, or a move to a new employer, needs a change of employment application before the worker starts. Failing to assign a new certificate where one is needed is a ground on which the Home Office will revoke (Annex C1(u)). That process is explained in Skilled Worker: Apply, Switch and Extend.

Work Location, Hybrid and Remote Working

You must report a change to a worker's normal work location as recorded on their certificate. That includes a move to a branch or client site not already on the certificate, and a move to working from home on a permanent or full-time basis with little or no need to attend a workplace. Where a worker will work entirely from home, the Home Office may ask you to explain why you need to sponsor them to be in the UK at all.

You do not need to report a move to hybrid working, where the worker works remotely on a regular basis but also regularly attends an office, branch or client site. You must still report any change to their main office location or any new client site, and keep suitable records of their working pattern. Occasional days at another site or at home do not need reporting. A move to a related organisation or branch that is not registered on your licence needs extra steps, set out in section S1 of Part 2 of the sponsor guidance.

When You Stop Sponsoring a Worker

You must tell the Home Office whenever you stop sponsoring a worker, for any reason. The guidance gives these examples:

• the worker's application has been refused, or their permission cancelled, and any administrative review or appeal has been finally decided
• the worker does not take up the post, or you withdraw the offer
• the contract ends earlier than the date on the certificate
• a professional registration the worker needs for the job, such as GMC registration for a doctor, is withdrawn
• the worker has been absent without pay, or on reduced pay, for more than 4 weeks and no exception applies
• the worker has been granted settlement, or permission on a route that does not need sponsorship
• the worker resigns, is dismissed or is made redundant
• the Home Office tells you a change you reported is not permitted

Report it within 10 working days of the event, which for a worker who leaves is normally the date their employment ends, and include the worker's last known residential address, telephone number and any personal email address you hold. The same contact details are needed when you report an unauthorised absence. Our post on how the Home Office remotely monitors sponsor licence compliance describes a sponsor whose request for a new certificate was rejected because a refused worker had never been reported. What happens to the worker afterwards is explained in Skilled Worker: Job Loss and Second Jobs.

Suspected Breaches and Criminal Activity

Two duties have no fixed number of days. As soon as reasonably practicable, you must tell the Home Office if you know or suspect that a sponsored worker has breached the conditions of their permission, and you must give the police any information suggesting that a sponsored worker may be involved in terrorism or criminal activity.

Extra Reporting on Some Routes

Some routes add their own duties. If you sponsor a Scale-up Worker, you must report the date they actually start, within 10 working days. If you sponsor an overseas nurse or midwife as a Skilled Worker, you must report when they complete their NMC registration, or that they have not done so within 8 months. UK Expansion Worker sponsors and sponsors of Creative Workers below school-leaving age have further duties in their route guidance.

If you sponsor an offshore worker who arrives directly in UK waters without first entering the UK landmass, you must report the dates they first arrive in and finally leave UK waters, no earlier than the date itself and no later than 10 working days after it, with the name of the vessel and how they left. The Home Office may revoke your licence if you do not.

Reporting Changes to Your Organisation

Most changes to your organisation must be reported within 20 working days of your becoming aware of them. A Level 1 User reports them through the Sponsorship Management System, using the request changes to licence details function. The SMS manual 2: manage your sponsorship licence shows the screens.

The 20 working days do not apply to replacing your Authorising Officer or Key Contact, and the guidance sets no other period for them. That is not extra time. You must have an eligible Authorising Officer in place throughout the life of the licence, and having no eligible Authorising Officer, or no Level 1 User able to run the licence day to day, is a ground on which the Home Office will normally revoke (Annex C2(m) and C2(k)). Submit a replacement as soon as the change takes effect. Changes to Key Personnel and SMS users, and the rules on how they must use the system, are covered in Sponsor Licence: SMS and Key Personnel. How organisation size and charitable status affect what you pay is covered in Visa Fees and Sponsorship Costs.

Where the SMS produces a submission sheet, send it with the signed declaration and any supporting documents within 5 working days, and send anything further the Home Office asks for within another 5 working days. If you miss either deadline, the request is refused and the Home Office may revoke your licence. Failing to supply documents requested to support a reported change within the time limit is also listed as a ground on which it will normally revoke (Annex C2(h)).

Some changes update your account automatically once reported: your main or head office address, and the address of your Authorising Officer, Key Contact or a Level 1 User where their new postcode matches that of your main or head office (or your representative's, where a representative holds the role). If your licence is fully active and A-rated, replacing your Authorising Officer or Key Contact, or adding a Level 1 User, also updates automatically where the new person's postcode matches in the same way, although you must still send the signed submission sheet. Anything else goes to a caseworker before your account changes.

If nobody in your organisation can log in to the SMS, for example because your only Level 1 User has left, use the sponsor change of circumstances form to add a Level 1 User, or to replace your Authorising Officer where they will also be your sole Level 1 User. The same form is used to surrender the licence or ask for it to be made dormant when nobody has access. Unless you are surrendering the licence, you must have at least one Level 1 User in place at all times.

If You Enter an Insolvency Procedure

If you go into administration, including special administration, or administrative receivership, tell the administrator that you hold a sponsor licence as soon as possible, and tell the Home Office within 20 working days. The insolvency practitioner must be appointed as your Authorising Officer.

A company voluntary arrangement must be reported within 20 working days of being agreed. If it results in a change of ownership, the Home Office treats it as a sale and revokes the licence, and a new owner who wants to keep the sponsored workers must apply for its own licence within 20 working days of taking ownership. If ownership does not change, you keep the licence. The same applies to a debt management plan or debt arrangement scheme with no change of ownership.

Liquidation must be reported within 20 working days and leads to revocation. Where sequestration or a signed trust deed means you stop trading, report it within 20 working days of the date you finish trading, and the licence is revoked. If nobody can access the SMS to report either, email the Sponsor Compliance Team. A sole trader who enters an individual voluntary arrangement or debt arrangement scheme must report it within 20 working days, and keeps the licence if they remain sole owner and carry on trading. If the arrangement results in the business being sold, the licence is revoked, and a buyer who wants to keep the sponsored workers must apply for its own licence within 20 working days of taking ownership. A bankruptcy order or sequestration against a sole trader must be reported by email to the Sponsor Compliance Team within 20 working days, and the licence is revoked.

Mergers, Takeovers and TUPE Transfers

A sponsor licence cannot be transferred. If there is a change of ownership, a sale of all or part of the business or of a controlling shareholding, a takeover, or a split into new organisations, your Level 1 User must report it within 20 working days. If you do not, the Home Office may downgrade or revoke your licence, and your sponsored workers' permission may be cancelled.

Where direct ownership changes, the old licence is revoked or, if the sponsored workers have moved to another licence, made dormant. The new owner needs its own licence to keep employing them. Workers who move under TUPE, or similar protection such as a statutory public sector transfer scheme, do not need a new application or a new certificate, provided the new sponsor holds a licence on the right route, accepts responsibility for them and their duties stay the same. A new employer without the right licence must apply for one, or apply to extend its existing licence, within 20 working days of the transfer. If it does not, or the application is refused, the transferred workers' permission is cancelled, apart from any the new employer can already sponsor under a licence it holds.

The sponsor that is taken over must report the change within 20 working days, list the workers who are moving, and report separately any who are not, whose permission will then be cancelled. The new sponsor must confirm through the SMS that it accepts responsibility for the transferred workers, report the change within 20 working days, and ask for the previous sponsor's licence to be made dormant. Because the transferred workers will not appear in its own SMS records, it reports changes about them by email to the Home Office's Worker and Temporary Worker Reporting mailbox, giving the previous sponsor's name and licence number. The Home Office's Annex C4 to Part 3 works through the common scenarios. The worker's side of a transfer is covered in Skilled Worker: Job Loss and Second Jobs.

Keeping the Right Records: Appendix D

Appendix D to the sponsor guidance lists the documents you must keep for each sponsored worker. They can be on paper or electronic, in any system you like, as long as you can produce them when asked and every relevant part of each document is visible.

Unless Appendix D sets a different period for a particular document, keep the documents for as long as you sponsor the worker, and then until whichever is earlier of one year after sponsorship ends, or the date a compliance officer examines and approves them. Separately, keep the documents you submitted with your licence application for as long as you hold the licence. Other laws can require some of the same documents to be kept for longer. Right to work evidence is the main example, and its retention rules are set out in our Right to Work Checks guidance. You must also meet your duties under data protection law.

The Home Office can ask for any document about your sponsored workers or the running of your organisation that it considers relevant to your compliance, not only those in Appendix D. If you do not provide them when asked or by the deadline set, it will take action against you. Failing to provide an Appendix D document within the time limit is a ground on which it will normally revoke (Annex C2(g)). Our Appendix D guide to sponsor record keeping goes through each section with examples.

Right to Work Checks as a Sponsor Duty

Every employer must check that its employees have the right to work. For work beginning on or after 1 October 2026, the duty also covers organisations that engage people under a worker's contract or as individual sub-contractors, and those running online matching services, as explained in Right to Work Checks. A sponsor's duty goes further. You must carry out a right to work check on every worker you sponsor "regardless of the nature of the employment relationship", before they start, with follow-up checks where their permission is time-limited. That includes a sponsored worker who is employed by a related organisation, where you may keep a copy of that organisation's check instead of doing your own, and a sponsored worker who is self-employed, where the check gives you no statutory excuse but is still required as a sponsor duty. For a worker under 16, where sponsorship is permitted, view their live eVisa and keep a screenshot.

In most cases the check must be done online, using the worker's share code, through the service for checking a job applicant's right to work. How to carry out a check is covered in Right to Work Checks, and the consequences of employing someone without permission, including civil penalties of up to £60,000 per illegal worker, are covered in Illegal Working and Civil Penalties. For the licence, sponsoring or employing someone who does not have permission to do the work, where you did not carry out the correct checks or could reasonably have known, is a ground on which the Home Office will normally revoke (Annex C2(d)). Our right to work check tool takes you through a check.

Date of Entry Checks

If you sponsored a worker's application for entry clearance, you must check that they entered the UK during the validity of their visa and keep the evidence. First establish the "valid from" date, which is also the date the online right to work check shows the worker's right to work starting. Then find the entry stamp: for a worker with an eVisa only, it is usually on a blank passport page; for a worker granted entry clearance before 20 May 2026 who has a vignette, it is normally on the vignette; and for a worker without an accepted passport, it is on the form for accompanying an eVisa or the older form for affixing a visa. Copy the page with the stamp.

Many workers have no stamp, for example because they arrived from elsewhere in the Common Travel Area or used eGates. In that case, see evidence of their travel, such as a ticket or boarding pass, and record the date they entered. You do not need to keep a copy. A worker who entered before their visa's "valid from" date does not have permission to work for you, and you should advise them to leave the Common Travel Area and re-enter once the visa is valid. The check does not apply to workers granted permission to stay from inside the UK. Workers entering under the Creative Worker visa concession need a leave to enter stamp or remote clearance instead, and offshore workers are covered by the separate reporting duty above.

Paying Sponsored Workers Correctly

You must pay each sponsored worker at least the salary on their certificate, or any figure you have since notified to the Home Office. It checks this through compliance checks and through regular checks with HMRC, comparing what you said you would pay with what your payroll shows. Paying less than the certificate says, where you have not reported the change or the reduction is not permitted, is a ground on which the Home Office will revoke your licence (Annex C1(aa)). So is artificially inflating a salary so that a worker meets a threshold (Annex C1(bb)).

Pay must go into the worker's own bank account, in the UK or overseas, or onto a pre-paid card you can show you loaded. Cheques must be paid into the worker's own account. Never pay a sponsored worker in cash. The guidance says the Home Office is likely to revoke your licence if you do, and Annex C2(p) makes it a ground on which it will normally revoke.

Every sponsored role must also comply with the National Minimum Wage and the Working Time Regulations, even on routes with no salary threshold of their own. If the Home Office finds you breaching either, it will normally revoke your licence. Our employer's guide to the National Minimum Wage covers the rates and what counts as working time.

What Counts Towards a Skilled Worker's Salary

For the Skilled Worker route, only guaranteed basic gross pay counts, measured before tax and including the worker's own pension and National Insurance contributions, together with any other guaranteed payments treated exactly like basic pay for tax, pension and National Insurance. Allowances do not count, even when they are guaranteed, and putting them into the salary on a worker's certificate is a ground on which the Home Office may revoke your licence. Nor do shift allowances, overtime, bonuses, employer pension or National Insurance contributions, benefits in kind, one-off payments or payments towards immigration costs. The only exception is a transitional provision for workers first granted permission as Tier 2 (General) Migrants, with continuous permission since, whose last grant you sponsored. It allows guaranteed allowances in limited cases and ends for applications made on or after 1 December 2026. The full rules on what counts, pro-rating and deductions are in Skilled Worker: Eligibility and Salary.

How the Home Office Tests Pay Over Time

Where a Skilled Worker's certificate was assigned on or after 8 April 2026, pay is tested in two separate ways, and a sponsor must pass both.

The first test is per pay period. The worker must be paid at least monthly, unless their contract sets a different frequency, and the pay in each pay period must meet the going rate for every hour worked in that period. A shortfall in one month cannot be made up later.

The second test is a rolling total. Over any three-month period, a worker paid monthly or less often must receive at least a quarter of the required annual salary. Over any 12-week period, a worker paid more often must receive at least 12/52 of it. Where the worker's regular hours differ from week to week, you confirm the pattern on the certificate and the test runs over any 17-week period instead.

Meeting the rolling total does not cure a pay period that falls below the going rate, and meeting the going rate each period does not help if the rolling total falls short. These rules are in paragraph SW 14.3B of Appendix Skilled Worker, and the Home Office checks them through HMRC data and compliance checks. The detail, including how permitted deductions are treated, is in Skilled Worker: Eligibility and Salary.

Costs You Must Not Pass On

You must not ask a sponsored worker to pay, or recover from them, the Immigration Skills Charge, the charge for a certificate of sponsorship on the routes where that is prohibited, or the sponsor licence fee and associated costs. Each is a ground on which the Home Office will normally revoke. Which costs are covered, and from when, is explained in Sponsor Licence: How to Apply and Visa Fees and Sponsorship Costs.

Making Sure the Job Matches the Certificate

The sponsorship system relies on the certificate describing the job the worker actually does. When you assign a certificate, the occupation code and job description must match the role, and once it is assigned you are responsible for making sure the worker's day-to-day work continues to match them. The duration on the certificate must reflect how long the role is expected to last, not be stretched to win a longer grant.

Part 3 also requires you to:

• sponsor only workers who are qualified, registered or experienced enough to do the job, and keep evidence of it
• stop employing a worker who is no longer entitled to do the job
• assign certificates only for roles that meet the route's eligibility rules and are genuine vacancies
• allow the worker to do only the work their permission allows
• assign a certificate only to someone you believe intends to fill the role, can do so, and is likely to comply with their conditions
• on the Skilled Worker, Global Business Mobility, Government Authorised Exchange, International Agreement and Scale-up routes, check whether the worker needs an Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate, confirm it on the certificate of sponsorship and keep a copy, and stop sponsoring a worker who refuses to apply or is refused one
• never allow an SMS user to assign a certificate to themselves, a partner or a close relative, and add a sponsor note where a certificate goes to a relative of someone else in your organisation

Allowing an SMS user to assign a certificate to themselves, a partner or a close relative is a ground on which the Home Office will revoke (Annex C1(o)). Stating on a certificate that a worker does not need an ATAS certificate when they do is a ground on which it will normally revoke (Annex C2(z)), and failing to confirm the point, or sponsoring a worker who needs a certificate but does not have one, are grounds on which it may revoke (Annex C3(h) and C3(i)).

Several other breaches are grounds on which the Home Office will revoke your licence. A sponsored worker doing a role that does not match the occupation code or the job description on their certificate is one (Annex C1(s)), unless the change was permitted and you reported it. Using a certificate to fill a different role from the one on it is another (Annex C1(q)). So is sponsoring a role that does not meet the definition of an eligible role (Annex C1(w)), a role that is not genuine or is a sham (Annex C1(z)), and, if you act as an employment agency or employment business, supplying a sponsored worker to a third party as labour (Annex C1(x)). How to choose the right occupation code and assign a certificate is covered in Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS).

Complying With Wider UK Law

Sponsor duties are not limited to immigration law. Paragraph C1.53 of Part 3 requires you to comply with the rest of UK law as well, including:

• employment law, including the National Minimum Wage, the Working Time Regulations, enrolling workers in a pension scheme where required, and making sure workers know their employment rights
• the right to rent scheme, where relevant
• planning permission or local authority consent for your type of business at your trading address, where the local authority requires it
• registration or licensing with any statutory body you need to operate lawfully, such as those for care homes, healthcare providers, financial businesses and food businesses
• DBS checks where the role requires one
• the Home Office's requirements on safeguarding children, where relevant
• not engaging in criminal activity or being subject to UK or UN sanctions
• paying VAT and other duty penalties

Some of these carry their own revocation grounds. Losing, or never having, a registration or licence you need to trade is a ground on which the Home Office will revoke (Annex C1(d)), as is not holding planning permission or consent the local authority requires (Annex C1(e)). Being subject to sanctions that a continuing licence would breach is a ground on which it will normally revoke (Annex C2(r)). A penalty for failing to pay VAT or duty in the last 5 years is a ground on which it may revoke (Annex C3(g)).

You must also behave in a way that is consistent with the Home Office's fundamental values and not detrimental to the wider public good. The guidance gives fostering hatred or division between communities, justifying or glorifying terrorism, and discriminating against people on protected grounds as examples. Behaviour of this kind, at any time, is a ground on which the Home Office will normally revoke (Annex C2(v)).

Home Office Compliance Checks

The Home Office monitors sponsors continuously and can check your compliance at any time, before or after your licence is granted. A check may follow a reasonable suspicion that you are breaching your duties, a poor compliance record with the Home Office or another government department, information from a worker's application, or an allegation from a member of the public.

How the Home Office Checks Sponsors

A compliance check can involve any of the following:

• asking you for further documents or information, including by telephone, video or letter
• verifying what you have already told it
• visiting your premises
• a digital compliance check, carried out by video
• checks with other government departments, agencies or local authorities
• regular checks with HMRC to make sure you are paying workers what you said you would

Where a check involves visiting or interviewing you, it can be announced or unannounced. Our post on Home Office remote compliance checks walks through a case in which payroll data and unreported changes led to revocation without a site visit.

Digital Compliance Checks

In a digital compliance check the Home Office verifies your trading presence digitally and interviews you by video. It can interview anyone who falls within the definition of "you", such as an owner, director, Authorising Officer, Key Contact or Level 1 User, and any of your sponsored workers, and it may ask you to provide evidence before, during or after the interview. Prepare for it as you would for a visit: have the right people available, and your records and systems ready to show on screen.

What Happens During a Compliance Visit

You must give the Home Office's staff full access, on demand, to any premises or sites under your control. If your sponsored workers work at a third party's premises, such as a client site, you must make sure the third party knows it may receive an unannounced visit and co-operates. If it does not, the Home Office will act against you. Failing to co-operate with a compliance check, or delaying it, is a ground on which the Home Office will normally revoke (Annex C2(e)).

During a check, the compliance officer may:

• verify what you said in your licence application, including by photographing your premises
• verify information given in support of a worker's application
• check that you are meeting all your sponsor duties
• speak to current and former sponsored workers, and to staff involved in recruiting them
• inspect your records and systems, including against Appendix D
• check other workers' right to work
• carry out criminal record and civil penalty checks on anyone within the definition of "you" and others in positions of responsibility, including financiers

The officer will not tell you during the check how it has gone. Officers carry official Home Office identification, and if you doubt that a visitor is genuine you can call the Home Office on 0300 123 4699. Our guide to passing a Home Office compliance visit explains how a visit usually runs. Our Home Office compliance visit page explains the support available around a visit.

Preparing for a Check

These steps are worth taking well before any check is announced:

• keep a file for each sponsored worker that follows the Appendix D sections, so any document can be found quickly
• compare each worker's payslips and bank payments with the salary and hours on their certificate, every pay period
• keep a log of absences, and flag any worker approaching 4 weeks of unpaid or reduced-pay leave in the calendar year
• check that every report due in the SMS has been made, and that your organisation's details and Key Personnel are up to date
• make sure each worker's actual duties and work location still match their certificate
• make sure the people who may be interviewed, including line managers and sponsored workers, understand their roles
• carry out an internal audit, or have one done independently, and fix what it finds

The free HR compliance audit tool lists the main checkpoints, and a fuller independent review is described on our Home Office compliance audit page.

After the Check

The Home Office tells you the outcome in writing. Where it finds a relatively minor breach that you are willing and able to correct, it will in most cases downgrade your licence to a B-rating and issue a time-limited action plan. While B-rated you pay a fee for the plan, cannot sponsor new workers, and lose any automatic Key Personnel changes. Not meeting the plan, not paying its fee within 10 working days, or assigning a certificate to a new worker while B-rated are all grounds on which the Home Office will revoke (Annex C1(l), C1(n) and C1(p)). A more serious breach, such as a significant or systematic failing, can lead to suspension while it investigates further, or to revocation without suspension. Both processes, and how to respond, are covered in Sponsor Licence: Suspension and Revocation. You can check your own licence status, and any other sponsor's, with our sponsor licence status check.

How Breaches of Duty Are Graded

The table brings together the grounds linked to the duties on this page. It is not the full list. Part 3 contains around 80 grounds across its three annexes, and the complete text is in Part 3 of the sponsor guidance.

Where a "will revoke" ground arises, the Home Office can revoke the licence immediately and without warning. If it does not, it will normally suspend the licence while it investigates. A ground in the "may" annex is not generally enough on its own, but the more of them are present, the more likely revocation becomes. The civil penalty grounds, which run from "may" to "will" depending on how many penalties you have had and whether they are paid, are set out in Illegal Working and Civil Penalties.

Detailed Guides on This Topic

• Authorising Officer guide for UK sponsor licence compliance What the senior person responsible for your licence must do.
• Home Office remote compliance checks How payroll data and missed reports can lead to revocation without a visit.
• How the Home Office remotely monitors sponsor licence compliance The data the Home Office uses and the reporting failures it catches.
• The ultimate guide to passing a Home Office compliance visit What happens on the day and how to prepare your team.
• Appendix D guide to sponsor record keeping Each section of Appendix D, with examples of the documents to keep.

How Can WorkPermitCloud Help?

WorkPermitCloud is a Legal and HR-tech company specialising in UK business immigration. We help sponsors meet their duties from the day the licence is granted: setting up reporting and record-keeping processes, checking that pay and job details match each certificate, and reviewing files before the Home Office does. When a compliance check is announced, we help you prepare your records and your people, and support you through the visit or video interview.

Our compliant HR software tracks reporting deadlines, right to work follow-up checks and absence, and keeps each worker's Appendix D documents in one place. See our compliant HR software and our sponsorship duties service for how we can help.

Conclusion

Holding a sponsor licence is an ongoing responsibility, not a one-off approval. The duties fall under five heads, and most licences that are lost are lost on the everyday ones: a report that was never made, a pay cut or long unpaid absence that went unnoticed, a worker whose job had drifted away from their certificate, or a file that could not be found when the Home Office asked for it. None of these needs to be deliberate to count. A sponsor with reliable systems for reporting, record keeping and payroll checks, and Key Personnel who understand them, is in a strong position whenever the Home Office chooses to look.

Glossary