Sponsor Licence Suspension and Revocation: Handled by WPC Lawyers

A suspension letter is one of the most serious things a sponsor can receive from the Home Office. While your licence is suspended you cannot assign new certificates of sponsorship, and your business is taken off the public register of licensed sponsors. The letter gives you a short, fixed period to respond in writing, and that response is usually your best chance of keeping the licence.

If the licence is revoked, there is no appeal and no administrative review. The only way to challenge a revocation is judicial review, and time is short. Revocation also normally cuts short the permission of the workers you sponsor.

• Find the response deadline in the letter and put it in the diary today. It runs from the date of the letter.
• Keep meeting every sponsor duty while the Home Office decides. A suspension is not the end of the licence.
• Pull together the records the letter refers to, such as right to work checks, HR files and payroll.
• Send a copy of the letter to WPC Lawyers straight away, so the response is not rushed.

A B-rating is different from a suspension. You keep your licence and work through a Home Office action plan to get your A-rating back. Work Permit Cloud can help with that and with the compliance gaps behind it: see our sponsor licence duties support.

Our guide Sponsor Licence: Suspension and Revocation explains how the Home Office decides between a downgrade, a suspension and a revocation, what each one means for your sponsored workers, and what happens after a revocation. The Home Office rules are in Part 3 of the sponsor guidance on GOV.UK.

Back to Sponsor Licence services.