Sponsor licence advice

We specialise in advising licensed sponsors and prospective sponsors – whether you wish to newly employ or continue to employ eligible employees to work in the UK.  Our London based business immigration solicitors are experts in applying for a sponsor licence, sponsored visas and the UK's points-based sponsorship regime.

The sponsor licence regime is complex and can be difficult to successfully navigate. We work with organisations of all sizes and in all major industry sectors, advising and helping to simplify the regime and put it into ‘plain English’. We can support whether you have a long-established presence in the UK or need visas for employees to help establish operations in the UK. 

A-rated sponsor licences allow eligible businesses and other organisations in the UK to sponsor eligible employees to work in the UK.

We can advise on sponsor licence and sponsored visa related issues including: 

• applying for a Skilled Worker and/or Global Business Mobility: Senior or Specialist Worker sponsor licence
• applying to renew sponsor licences
• Skilled Worker visa applications
• Global Business Mobility: Senior or Specialist Worker visa applications
• applying for defined and undefined Certificates of Sponsorship
• sponsor licence compliance audits
• complying with sponsorship duties relating to mergers and acquisitions, including share acquisitions and asset purchases
• complying with sponsorship duties relating to administrations, insolvencies and restructurings
• drafting sponsor licence compliance manuals and internal immigration policies
• how to try to speed up Home Office processing times relating to sponsor licence and visa applications
• training relating to sponsor licences and compliance with sponsorship duties
• challenging sponsor licence revocations or downgradings
• defending Home Office sponsor licence related enforcement action
• ongoing compliance with sponsorship duties and the sponsorship regime

Our team offers:

Breadth of sponsor licence expertise

Our expert immigration solicitors advise on all tiers and aspects of the UK's sponsorship regime. We’ve been instructed to advise on sponsorship related matters by organisations ranging from multi-billion pound multinationals, to large financial institutions, to professional services firms, to small and medium sized businesses and charities.

Success rate and track record

Our immigration lawyers have an extremely high success rate when assisting clients to apply for sponsor licences and sponsored visas.

Highly rated

We’ve been highly and independently ranked as one of the leading business immigration law teams in London and the UK for many years. We’ve been singled out for praise for our sponsor licence related advice, giving our clients added confidence and reassurance when instructing us for sponsorship related advice.

High stakes sponsorship matters

Due to our expertise, approach and ability to also handle the most complex and high value sponsorship related matters, we’re perfectly positioned to advise on high stakes sponsorship related scenarios. For example, where an organisation's sponsor licence has been revoked or downgraded (there are dozens of grounds on which this can potentially occur) or where a sponsor licence is needed within an extremely short timeframe.

Advice if things go wrong

Given the complexity of the sponsorship regime, it can be relatively easy for employers that are licensed sponsors to lapse into non-compliance with sponsorship duties that could potentially trigger severe Home Office enforcement action. This could potentially (amongst other risks) prejudice a sponsor licence and the visas of all sponsored employees. We’re recognised for challenging negative Home Office/UK Visas and Immigration decisions for organisations, and also have significant expertise in helping to avoid such decisions being made in the first place.

Industry expertise

Over many years our immigration team has developed broad sponsorship related experience in all major industry sectors, including the financial services, retail, tech, energy and infrastructure and healthcare sectors.

Recent independent directory comments about our immigration team or our immigration solicitors include:

“strong track record of supporting sponsor licence applications”
Chambers UK (2024)

“frequently represents clients in the utilities sector, as well as fintech and private equity firms”
Chambers UK (2024)

“particular experience in handling immigration mandates for national and international corporates”
The Legal 500 (2024)

“undertakes complex work for … those seeking to establish start-ups”
The Legal 500 (2024)

“client service and general level of service is very strong”,  “service levels and responsiveness are very strong”, “incredibly responsive”, “exceptional in explaining processes to us”, “excels in all areas of UK business immigration law” and  “ability to deliver to budget and provide overall value for money is strong”
Chambers UK (2024)

Charges are usually based on our hourly rates plus disbursements. We will provide an initial estimate of your likely legal costs and will update this if your requirements or the circumstances of the work change. We may also be able to offer fixed priced options depending on your budget and the size, type and complexity of the work involved.

We would be pleased to discuss your requirements free of charge and tailor a proposal accordingly. Find out more about our immigration pricing, including examples of fee estimates on our immigration law charging information page.