Sponsor Licences are granted for an initial period of 4 years. If you wish to continue to sponsor migrants, you will need to renew your licence before it expires.  If your sponsor licence renewal application is successful, your sponsor licence will be extended for a further 4 years.

Eligibility requirements for a Sponsor Licence Renewal

Sponsor licence renewal applications must be submitted online via the Sponsor Management System (SMS).

Once you have submitted a valid application to renew your sponsor licence, you may be asked to send additional business-related documents to UKVI. Any additional corporate documents will need to be sent to the Home Office within 5 working days.

If, as a sponsoring company, you fail to send requested documents, UKVI may reduce or remove your CoS allocation or downgrade, suspend or revoke your licence.

When you apply to renew your sponsor licence, UKVI may visit your business premises. This is particularly likely if you have not received a Home Office compliance visit in the last 4 years.

If UKVI compliance officers have any concerns about your actions as a sponsor then they may downgrade or revoke your licence.

Important Considerations for Sponsor Licence Renewals

As a sponsor company you can apply to renew your licence up to a maximum of 90 days before your licence is due to expire.

If you have any sponsored migrants working for you and you want them to continue working for you, you must renew your licence before it expires, even if you do not plan to sponsor any new migrants.

Before applying to renew a sponsor licence, it is important that thorough checks are carried out to ensure that sponsor licence details are correct and that all sponsor duties have been complied with.

If you fail to renew your sponsor licence then you will not be able to assign any more CoS and your company details will be removed from the online public register of licensed sponsors.

If you fail to renew your licence but continue to employ sponsored migrants, their leave will be curtailed. This means that they will have their visa shortened to 60 days, after which point they will have to switch immigration category, leave the UK or be subject to removal.

How our immigration lawyers can help

Our business immigration lawyers understand the importance of renewing your sponsor licence for your business operations. We will work with you to ensure that you are able to successfully extend your sponsor licence.

Before an application to renew a sponsor licence is lodged with UKVI, we can help your organisation to check that all details on your sponsor licence are correct and make any necessary changes to your sponsor licence. We will ensure that all sponsorship duties have been complied with in relation to your migrant workers, including record-keeping, reporting and compliance checks. If the Home Office has not carried out an audit for some time, we can conduct a mock Immigration Audit of your business in advance of any Home Office visit.