Sponsor Guidance Update – New Risk Areas for Visa Sponsors

On 6 March 2026, UKVI published new updates to the multiple guidance documents for applying for sponsorship, sponsoring workers and for remaining compliant with sponsorship duties.

These updates are now live and have a broad and significant effect on organisations who are looking to sponsor workers for the first time and for well-established sponsors with workers currently being sponsored.

Summary of changes:

Sponsors are now expected to undertake right to work checks for worker who are not being directly employed.

There is now a requirement for sponsors (not all UK organisations yet) to also be assured of the right to work for any self-employed, contracted or subcontracted workers who are working for them under contract.

Sponsors are now expected to record how they have made sponsored workers aware of their employment rights.

Once sponsored, workers must be made aware of the full scope of their employment and worker rights, and this must be recorded on an HR file.

Closer scrutiny will be paid to SOC codes and job roles.

There is now a stricter emphasis on a review of a job role and the SOC code proposed in a CoS request to make an assessment on whether or not this truly reflects the worker’s role and whether or not it is realistic for a company to be employing a person in this position.

Closer scrutiny will be paid to a general assessment of an organisation for both sponsor licence applications and CoS requests.

This has always been something that has been implied, but now we have more scope for refusal or revocation of a sponsor licence where a company’s trading history does not provide enough of a justification for visa sponsorship.

All sponsors are mandated to have HR systems that record right to work checks, absences, personal detail tracking and records of awareness of employment rights.

It’s now not sufficient for files to be maintained on computer or paper files (or even rolodexes as I have seen in the past!) – sponsored workers files and details need to be in an online HR programme.

New sponsor applications will likely be refused if the organisation has no other role that would qualify for sponsorship (under RQF6 presumably)

There are obvious cases where this will be exercised – the question will often be, “Does this company require a Business Development Manager?”, which will have obvious ‘no’s and justifications needed for the ‘yes’s.

There is no need for a resident labour market test (but there is a need for a resident labour market test!).

The Resident Labour Market Test was removed in 2020, but was it? There has always been a requirement for a company to still show how it has identified a worker and the recruitment process it might have undertaken to be assured of meeting genuine role requirements. The guidance is now specifying that sponsors should anticipate having to provide this information at any point.

Home Office can now reduce CoS allocation to zero as an action.

In addition to downgrading, B-rating, suspension and revocation, the Home Office can also reduce a CoS allocation to zero now, preventing a company from sponsoring from within the UK. More thorough rationales needs to be provided to request Undefined CoS and annual CoS allocations.

There’s much more discretion now in sponsorship with licence applications, CoS allocations and audits.

The guidance is now scattered with references to ‘reasonableness’ and ‘suspicion’, allowing UKVI scope for refusing and revoking sponsor licences without providing objective evidence, which is very worrying development and will lead to many more refusals, revocations and challenges by Judicial Review.

What should sponsors be doing now?

Now is a very good time to self-audit to be prepared for a Home Office inspection considering the new guidance, and to review processes and how to now review a wider pool of workers in terms of right to work.

For a free, no-obligation chat about how we can help support your company in light of these changes, please get in touch.