If you want to employ a person who is not a settled worker, and who does not otherwise have permission to work in the UK, you will need to be approved by the Home Office. This approval is known as a ‘sponsor licence’. A sponsor license is essentially the permission needed for UK-based employers to recruit foreign migrants to work for them in the UK.
There are two types of sponsor licence — Worker and Temporary Worker — each covering a number of types of UK work visas. The Worker routes are designed for long-term workers, including skilled workers and intra-company transferees. The Temporary Worker routes are to recruit migrants on a short-term basis within a variety of roles including, for example, charity workers, creative and sporting workers, religious workers and seasonal workers.
You will need to decide which route(s) you wish to be licensed under. You can apply to be licensed in more than one route, provided you are eligible. If your application is approved, these will then be the routes on which you can sponsor workers and issue Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS). The CoS is an electronic certificate containing a unique reference number that the worker will need to submit a visa application to the Home Office.
You don’t need to have a sponsor licence to employ someone with an existing right to work in the UK. This includes EEA nationals or family members with either settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
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