Company Closure and the 60-Day Rule for Sponsored Workers

When the 60-Day Rule Applies

The 60-day rule applies when your sponsored visa is curtailed. This can happen when:

• Your sponsoring employer closes or goes into administration
• Your sponsor's licence is revoked by the Home Office
• Your employer ends your employment and reports it to UKVI
• Your employer decides to stop sponsoring you

In these cases the Home Office normally shortens the permission so that 60 days remain. Sponsor guidance describes it in exactly those terms for one common scenario — a Certificate of Sponsorship found to have been improperly assigned — and adds the limit that matters: “permission will normally be shortened so they have 60 days’ permission remaining to give them a chance to find a new sponsor, apply on another immigration route or make arrangements to leave the UK (we will not shorten their permission if they already have no more than 60 days’ permission remaining)”.

So the window is 60 days, or what is left of the existing permission if that is less. Curtailment cannot lengthen a permission. The operative date is the one on the notice. Our curtailment entry covers the notice itself.

The same guidance draws a distinction on the improperly assigned CoS point: where the worker was actively involved in it, permission is cancelled rather than shortened, and no 60 days follow.

Your Options

Option 1: Find a New Sponsor

A new employer holding a sponsor licence assigns a new Certificate of Sponsorship, and the worker makes a change of employment application. Sponsor guidance paragraph S9.2 says an application made from inside the UK must be made before the existing permission expires, and that one made afterwards will be refused unless an exception for overstayers applies.

Two constraints on which jobs can be sponsored at all, both since 22 July 2025: the job must be at degree level (RQF 6) or above unless its occupation code is on the Immigration Salary List or the Temporary Shortage List, and the general salary threshold is £41,700 a year or the going rate for the occupation code, whichever is higher. The lower threshold of £33,400 applies only in defined cases, and being on the Immigration Salary List does not reduce the going rate — it gives the lower threshold and a lower fee. Roles on the Temporary Shortage List cannot bring dependants.

Option 2: Switch Visa Categories

The Immigration Rules allow applications to be made from inside the UK on a number of routes, each with its own requirements — the family route, the Student route, and the Graduate route among them. The Graduate route is open to people who successfully completed an eligible course in the UK on a Student visa; for applications made on or after 1 January 2027 it lasts 18 months rather than 2 years, with PhD holders keeping 3 years.

Whether any of these is open to a particular person is an assessment of that person's circumstances against the rules, which is regulated immigration advice. This entry does not make it.

Option 3: Leave the UK

Leaving before the curtailed date means the permission has not been overstayed at all. Where there has been a short overstay, Part Suitability of the Immigration Rules disregards a period of 30 days or less where the person left voluntarily and not at the expense of the Secretary of State. Where a period does run, it starts from the date of departure and is set by how the person left and who paid, as set out in our overstaying entry.

Can You Work During the 60 Days?

This is the question that goes wrong most often, and the published answer is narrower than people assume.

You cannot start the new job on the strength of a new Certificate of Sponsorship. Sponsor guidance paragraph S9.14 says the change of employment application “must be approved, and the sponsor must carry out relevant right to work checks, before the worker can start work in their new job. This applies in all cases, even if the new job is with the same sponsor.”

You cannot start work by switching, either. Paragraph S7.16 says a person who has applied to switch to a sponsored work route “must not start working for you until their application has been granted”, unless on the date of application they already hold a different permission that allows the work in question.

What does continue is the old job, if it still exists. Paragraph S9.14 goes on: provided the worker applies before their current permission expires, they can continue working in the same job and for the same sponsor as in their last grant of permission until the change of employment application is granted — or, where their conditions permit it, while working out a contractual notice period. That is section 3C leave doing what it does: continuing the existing permission and its conditions, and nothing more.

The short version: applying is not permission to work. The grant is. And from the employer's side, starting someone before the grant is what costs them the statutory excuse — see our illegal working penalties entry.

Consequences of Overstaying

If you remain in the UK beyond the 60-day period without submitting a new application or having valid leave, you become an overstayer. This can result in:

• A mandatory refusal period under Part Suitability of the Immigration Rules on a later application for entry clearance or permission to enter: 12 months if you left voluntarily at your own expense, 2 or 5 years if you left voluntarily at public expense depending on timing, and 10 years if you were removed at public expense
• No period at all where the overstay was 30 days or less and you left voluntarily and not at public expense — paragraph SUI 11.5 disregards it
• No right to work, and liability to removal

Employer Responsibilities

Employers have duties when they stop sponsoring a worker. See our guides on employer responsibilities and employer sponsor duties for details on what employers must do when ending sponsorship.

For information on the costs employers face when sponsoring workers, see our dedicated guide.

Protecting Your Future

While you cannot prevent your employer from closing or revoking your sponsorship, you can prepare:

• The register of licensed sponsors is public and searchable, so which employers in a sector hold a licence is a checkable fact
• The published service standard for a Skilled Worker application made inside the UK is 8 weeks, which is longer than the 60-day window. The priority service is £500 and usually 5 working days; see our priority services entry
• Settlement after 5 years removes the dependence on a sponsor entirely; see our English for settlement entry

Further Resources

Check the register of licensed sponsors at GOV.UK. See also our guides on citizenship requirements, English for ILR, and community support.

You may also find our UK Visa Fees: Complete Guide andHome Office Contact Guide helpful.

Questions and answers