From unlicensed to your first hire
Nine steps, with the published timescale on each. The steps without a clock are the ones you cannot promise a start date around — those are worth knowing before you make an offer.
Typical, depending on how much HR work is needed
Readiness check
Before anything is filed: confirm the entity is eligible, the role is sponsorable at the right occupation code and salary, and the HR systems would survive a visit. This is the step that decides the outcome.
Appoint your key personnel
Name the Authorising Officer, Key Contact and Level 1 User. Each is checked individually, so a nomination that does not hold up delays the whole application.
Submit the online application
Complete the application, pay the fee, and generate the submission sheet. The fee depends on your licence type and whether you count as a small or charitable sponsor.
From submitting the online application
Send your supporting documents
The submission sheet and your documents go to UKVI by email as PDF, JPEG or PNG. Files that cannot be read are treated as not supplied.
Most applications are decided inside this
Assessment, and possibly a visit
A caseworker reviews the file. UKVI may make a pre-licence visit to your premises, usually unannounced, to see whether the HR systems you described actually exist.
Additional £750, subject to daily availability
Priority service, if you need it faster
A limited number of priority slots are released each working day. When you get one, the decision comes back far quicker, for an additional fee.
Licence granted, A-rated
You are added to the register of sponsors and given access to the sponsorship management system. From this point the duties start — the licence is a status you now have to maintain.
Typical decision on a defined CoS request
Assign a certificate of sponsorship
A defined certificate for a Skilled Worker applying from overseas is requested through the SMS. Undefined certificates cover in-country Skilled Workers and all other routes.
The certificate expires if it is not used
Your worker applies for their visa
They must use the certificate within 3 months of it being assigned, and cannot apply more than 3 months before the job start date.
What you have to send
The submission sheet and your supporting documents go to UKVI by email, as PDF, JPEG or PNG. A file that cannot be read is treated as one that was not supplied, so a phone photograph of a document at an angle is a genuine reason to lose an application.
Proof the organisation exists and trades — filed accounts, contracts, invoices, a lease
A business bank account with a UK regulated institution
Employer's liability insurance of at least £5 million from an authorised insurer
Evidence of PAYE and VAT registration where they apply to you
Sector registration where the law requires it — CQC, Ofsted, FCA and similar
Evidence for the specific role: job description, salary, and the occupation code you are relying on
The exact list depends on your licence type, your legal structure and your sector. UKVI publishes it as an appendix to the sponsor guidance, and it changes — check the current version rather than a list someone sent you last year, including this one.
What a compliance officer actually asks
A pre-licence visit is usually short and usually unannounced. The officer is not auditing your business — they are testing whether the systems you described in the application exist and are in use. These are the questions that decide it:
Can the person who answers the door produce a right to work record for a named employee?
Do your attendance records show whether a given worker was at work on a given day?
Are contact details current, and do they match what is on the certificate?
Does the person doing the job actually do what the job description says?
Does the named Level 1 User exist, work here, and know what the reporting deadlines are?
If you cannot answer all five today, you are not ready to apply — and a mock walkthrough beforehand is far cheaper than a refusal.
Who you have to name
Each nomination is checked individually, and each one is a person UKVI can hold to account. Choose them before you start the application rather than during it.
Authorising Officer
REQUIREDYour most senior person responsible for recruitment and HR. Answers to UKVI for everything done under the licence, and for everyone who touches the sponsorship management system.
This cannot be a consultant or an external adviser. It has to be someone inside the business with real authority.
Key Contact
REQUIREDYour main point of contact with UKVI. Takes the calls and the correspondence. Can be the same person as the Authorising Officer.
Level 1 User
REQUIREDThe person who runs the licence day to day. Uses the sponsorship management system: assigns certificates, files reports, updates details. At least one Level 1 User must be an employee, not an adviser.
If your only Level 1 User leaves and nobody replaces them, the licence keeps running while nobody is filing reports. That is how a clean licence becomes a suspended one.
Level 2 User
OPTIONALAdditional day-to-day users, added once the licence is live. Restricted access: can do some SMS tasks but cannot change the licence details or add other users.
Want us to run it end to end?
We prepare the application, assemble the document pack, brief your key personnel, walk you through a mock visit, and handle UKVI until the decision lands.