Talent Acquisition and Immigration: UK Employer Guide

The Route Most Hires Use, and What Changed

The Skilled Worker visa is the main sponsored work route, and it requires the employer to hold a sponsor licence. Three changes since 2024 have moved it far enough that older employer guidance is now actively misleading:

• 22 July 2025. The skill level for a new applicant rose to RQF 6 — degree level. The general salary threshold is £41,700, or the going rate for the occupation code, whichever is higher. Medium-skilled codes at RQF 3 to 5 are closed to new applicants unless the code is on the Immigration Salary List or the Temporary Shortage List, and a worker sponsored in a medium-skilled code cannot bring a partner or children
• April 2024. The shortage occupation list was abolished. Its replacement, the Immigration Salary List, gives the lower £33,400 threshold and a lower visa fee, but the full going rate still applies. The old 80 per cent going-rate discount is gone
• 8 January 2026. English for a new Skilled Worker application is B2, up from B1. B1 still applies to an extension on the same route

Care roles are a specific closure worth knowing: applications from outside the UK in codes 6135 (care workers and home carers) and 6136 (senior care workers) closed on 22 July 2025. Those codes are now open only to someone applying to stay in the UK who already holds Skilled Worker permission in a care code, or who has worked for the sponsor in that code for at least 3 months, applying before 22 July 2028 — and in England the sponsor must be registered with the Care Quality Commission and carrying on a regulated activity.

Routes That Need No Sponsorship

Sponsorship is not the only way to employ someone from abroad, and several routes carry a right to work that the employer plays no part in:

• Global Talent — for leaders and potential leaders in academia and research, arts and culture, or digital technology, endorsed by an approved body rather than sponsored by an employer
• Graduate route — for international students who have completed a UK course, with unsponsored work permission for a fixed period. From 1 January 2027 the route shortens to 18 months, with PhD graduates staying at 3 years
• Youth Mobility Scheme — for young people from participating countries, on an annual quota, for up to 24 months

The Global Business Mobility routes, which replaced the old Intra-Company Transfer route in April 2022, do require sponsorship, and the Senior or Specialist Worker route within them carries the skills charge.

Candidates Who Already Have the Right to Work

A right to work check, not an assumption about nationality, is what establishes this. The following need no Certificate of Sponsorship:

• British and Irish citizens
• People with settlement — indefinite leave to remain, or indefinite leave to enter
• Holders of settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
• Partner and spouse visa holders
• Graduate route and Global Talent visa holders
• People with refugee status or humanitarian protection, who have an unrestricted right to work

Most of these people now prove their status with an eVisa in a UKVI account rather than a card: biometric residence permits stopped being issued at the end of 2024. The employer checks the status online using a share code, which lasts 90 days. GOV.UK notes that British and Irish citizens cannot get a share code, so their check is a document check. See GOV.UK on checking a job applicant's right to work and our right to work check guide.

What the Rules Require at Each Stage

Writing the role

• The role must sit in an occupation code the rules allow, at RQF 6 for a new applicant, or in a code reopened by the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List
• Pay must meet both the general threshold (£41,700, or £33,400 for an Immigration Salary List job) and the going rate for the code, whichever is higher. Lower thresholds exist for new entrants, PhD-relevant roles and a small number of named occupations — see our salary threshold guide
• The occupation code chosen must genuinely match the job. Assigning a certificate for a role that does not meet the route's eligibility criteria is listed in the sponsor guidance as a reason the Home Office may suspend or revoke a licence
• From 26 March 2026 the salary must actually be paid in each pay period, not averaged across the year

Recruiting

• GOV.UK's Skilled Worker eligibility pages set the conditions on the job — an eligible occupation code, the skill level, the salary — and set no advertising or open-competition step before a certificate can be assigned
• An employer may ask whether a candidate will need sponsorship — that is a question about a process. Treating a candidate less favourably because of their nationality, national origin or ethnic origin is race discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 in England, Scotland and Wales, and under separate legislation in Northern Ireland. Our discrimination guide sets out where the line sits

Offer and start date

• A right to work check must be completed before employment begins, for every worker, to establish the statutory excuse
• A Certificate of Sponsorship must be used within 3 months of being assigned
• GOV.UK service standards for a decision: 3 weeks for a work visa applied for from outside the UK, 8 weeks for a Skilled Worker application made inside the UK, and 3 weeks for a Health and Care Worker application inside the UK. A priority service costs £500 and super priority £1,000
• A sponsored worker moving to a new sponsor needs a new certificate of sponsorship and must apply to update their visa. GOV.UK is explicit about the timing: "You should not start your new job until you've got confirmation of your new permission." Submitting the application is not enough

The Costs, and Who Must Bear Them

Employer costs, from the published Home Office fee table:

• Sponsor licence: £611 small or charitable, £1,682 medium or large. Priority processing £750 for a decision in 10 working days. GOV.UK says most applications are decided in less than 8 weeks
• Certificate of Sponsorship: £525 for Skilled Worker, T2 Minister of Religion and Global Business Mobility Senior or Specialist Worker; £55 on most Temporary Worker routes and Scale-up
• Immigration Skills Charge: £480 for the first 12 months plus £240 for each further 6 months for a small or charitable sponsor, to a maximum of £2,400 over 5 years; £1,320 plus £660 for a medium or large sponsor, to a maximum of £6,600. Exemptions include certain science and higher education codes, a student switching in the UK, and Global Business Mobility assignments under 36 months
• Sponsor action plan, if the licence is downgraded: £1,579

Worker costs, for context:

• Skilled Worker visa from outside the UK: £819 for 3 years or less, £1,618 for over 3 years. From inside the UK: £943 and £1,865. On an Immigration Salary List job: £628 and £1,235
• Immigration health surcharge: £1,035 a year for most applicants, £776 for students, their dependants, Youth Mobility and under-18s

The recoupment rule is the one that ends licences. Since 31 December 2024 for Skilled Worker, and 9 April 2025 for the other Worker and Temporary Worker routes, a sponsor that asks a worker to pay — or recoups from them by any means — any part of the sponsor licence fee, the Certificate of Sponsorship fee, their associated administrative costs, or the Immigration Skills Charge will normally have its licence revoked. GOV.UK puts it directly: "You must pay the immigration skills charge yourself. Your licence may be revoked if you ask the sponsored worker to pay the fee or any costs linked to your application." Clawback clauses covering those items fall inside the prohibition.

The visa fee and health surcharge are the worker's own liability and an employer may choose to pay them. Our cost of hiring overseas guide works through the arithmetic. GOV.UK publishes no total cost per hire, so this guide gives none.

What the Licence Obliges You to Do Afterwards

Sponsor duties run for the life of every sponsorship. In summary, the guidance requires a sponsor to:

• Report changes in a sponsored worker's circumstances through the Sponsorship Management System within the stated deadlines, including a worker not turning up, leaving, or changing role
• Keep the documents listed in Appendix D of the sponsor guidance for each sponsored worker
• Co-operate with compliance checks. Failing to co-operate, or delaying compliance activity, is itself a listed reason the Home Office will normally revoke
• Ensure sponsored workers are doing the job described on the certificate
• Not pay a sponsored worker in cash

The consequences the Home Office publishes: a licence can be suspended, downgraded to a B-rating with a 3-month action plan, or revoked. Separately, GOV.UK says an employer can face a civil penalty of up to £60,000 for each illegal worker where a correct right to work check was not carried out, and that someone found guilty of employing a person they knew or had reasonable cause to believe had no right to work can be sent to prison for 5 years and pay an unlimited fine. Our Home Office audit guide and sponsor responsibilities guide go through the duties in detail. The official source is the GOV.UK sponsor a Skilled Worker guidance, and current fees are on GOV.UK.

Related guides:

• Sponsor Licence Guide
• Visa Types: Employer Overview
• Hiring an Overseas Worker Guide
• Right to Work Check Guide
• Immigration Salary List

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