TUPE Transfer and Skilled Worker Visa: What Happens
When your employment transfers to a new employer through TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings), your employment rights are protected, and your sponsorship passes to the new employer without a new visa application, as long as the new employer holds or applies for a sponsor licence in time. This guide explains what the sponsor guidance requires.
- Section
- Costs, English & General
- Reading time
- 10 min
- Last checked
- 2 September 2026
- Source
- The published Immigration Rules and GOV.UK guidance, linked throughout this guide.
- Rowan does not
- Look at your own case, tell you which route to choose, or say what the Home Office will decide. This guide shows the published rules and where to read them.
In short
- Under TUPE, no new certificate of sponsorship or visa application is needed if the new employer holds a Skilled Worker sponsor licence.
- The new employer must confirm through the sponsor management system that it accepts responsibility for you.
- A new employer without a licence must apply for one within 20 working days of the transfer.
- Your ILR qualifying period carries on, because your permission is unchanged.
- If no licence application is made in time, or it is refused, transferred workers' permission is cancelled.
TUPE protects employment terms when a business transfers, and the sponsor guidance says transferred Skilled Workers do not need a new certificate of sponsorship or a new visa application, provided the new employer holds a Skilled Worker sponsor licence and accepts responsibility for them. A new employer without a licence must apply within 20 working days. This guide covers the process, the deadlines, and what happens if they are missed.
What Is TUPE
TUPE stands for Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. It applies when:
- A business or part of a business is transferred to a new owner
- A service provision changes (for example, outsourcing, insourcing, or a change of contractor)
Under TUPE, employees transfer to the new employer on their existing terms and conditions. Immigration sponsorship is a separate relationship between the employer and the Home Office, so the sponsor guidance sets out its own rules for what happens on a transfer.
What Needs to Happen
When a Skilled Worker visa holder is affected by a TUPE transfer, the following steps are needed:
- Check the new employer has a sponsor licence for the Skilled Worker route. If not, it must apply for one, or apply to extend the scope of an existing licence, within 20 working days of the transfer. See our sponsor licence guide.
- The new employer accepts responsibility for you by confirming this through its sponsor management system (SMS) account and reporting the change within 20 working days. It does not need to assign a new certificate of sponsorship.
- You do not make a new visa application. Your existing permission continues, provided your duties stay the same.
- The old employer reports the transfer through its SMS account within 20 working days, listing the workers who have moved.
The key is coordination between the two employers. The rules are in the sponsor guidance on GOV.UK (Part 3, section C4).
Timing: The 20-Working-Day Deadline
Because no new application is needed, there is no section 3C leave period to think about. The deadline that matters is the new employer's. Within 20 working days of the transfer, it must:
- Make a valid application for a sponsor licence (or to extend the scope of its existing licence) if it does not already hold one for the Skilled Worker route
- Report the change through its SMS account, listing the workers it has accepted responsibility for
If no valid licence application is made within 20 working days, or the application is refused, the sponsor guidance says the permission of the transferred workers will be cancelled. Where the worker was not at fault, the Home Office normally cancels permission so that 60 days remain, the same window that applies after redundancy.
Salary and Going Rate
There is no new application, so the thresholds for new applications do not have to be met at the point of transfer. The new sponsor takes over all sponsor duties, including paying you at least the salary recorded on your certificate of sponsorship and reporting any reduction. The salary threshold and going rate in force at the time apply again when you next extend your visa or apply for settlement.
TUPE protects your existing salary terms, so most transferred workers continue on the same pay.
Employer Obligations
Old Employer
- Report the transfer, and the workers moving, through SMS within 20 working days
- Cooperate with the new employer on timing
- Provide relevant records to the new employer
New Employer
- Hold a sponsor licence, or apply for one within 20 working days
- Confirm through SMS that it accepts responsibility for the transferred workers
- Meet all sponsor duties
- Conduct a right to work check
- No new certificate of sponsorship is assigned, so no Immigration Skills Charge arises from the transfer itself
Check the full set of obligations on GOV.UK.
If Things Go Wrong
The biggest risk is a new employer that does not hold a licence and misses the 20-working-day deadline, or whose licence application is refused. In those cases:
- The permission of the transferred workers is cancelled, normally leaving 60 days to find a new sponsor, switch route or leave
- A sponsor licence application can use the priority service (£750 for a decision within 10 working days, with limited places each day)
- The 60-day window works in the same way as after redundancy: see our guide on the 60-day rule
Next Steps
If a TUPE transfer is planned, the new employer should confirm its sponsor licence status (or begin applying for one) as soon as the transfer is announced, because the 20-working-day clock starts on the date of the move. As the worker, ask the new employer to confirm that it has accepted responsibility for you through its SMS account, and keep a copy of that confirmation.
Related guides:
Questions and answers
Do I need a new visa if my employer changes through TUPE?
Usually not. The sponsor guidance says workers who change employer under TUPE or similar protection do not need to make a new application, and the new employer does not have to assign a new certificate of sponsorship, provided the new employer holds a sponsor licence for the Skilled Worker route, confirms through the sponsor management system that it accepts responsibility for you, and your duties stay the same. If the new employer has no licence, it must apply for one within 20 working days of the transfer.
What happens to my ILR qualifying period during a TUPE transfer?
It continues. Because no new application is needed, your permission carries on unchanged and the time with your previous employer counts toward the five-year qualifying period for ILR (indefinite leave to remain). The new sponsor takes over responsibility for you from the date of the transfer.
Does the new employer have to pay the immigration costs?
The transfer itself does not create a new visa fee, because no new application or certificate of sponsorship is needed. For future costs, the new employer inherits your existing employment terms under TUPE. If your original contract included employer-paid visa costs, the new employer takes on that term. Otherwise, it is a matter for negotiation.
What if the new employer does not have a sponsor licence?
The new employer must make a valid application for a sponsor licence within 20 working days of the transfer. Most licence applications are decided in under 8 weeks, and your current visa stays valid while it is considered. If no valid application is made in time, or the application is refused, the sponsor guidance says the transferred workers' permission will be cancelled.
This guide is general information about published immigration rules. It is not advice about an individual application under s.82 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and Rowan is not regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority. Immigration rules change several times a year. For advice on a particular situation, contact an adviser authorised by the Immigration Advice Authority or an immigration solicitor. Always check GOV.UK for the authoritative current rules.