How to Check Whether a UK Employer Has a Sponsor Licence

To employ most people from outside the UK, an employer needs a sponsor licence from the Home Office. Organisations that hold one appear on the public Register of licensed sponsors: workers, published on GOV.UK by UK Visas and Immigration. Each entry shows the sponsor’s name, the town, the category of workers they can sponsor, and their sponsorship rating. The register is updated regularly and can be viewed online or downloaded as a CSV file.

A licence lets an employer issue a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) for a suitable role. It does not, by itself, mean the employer is currently hiring, that a given vacancy is a sponsored role, or that any application will succeed. GOV.UK is explicit that “sponsoring someone does not guarantee that they’ll get a visa”.

Work through these steps in order:

1. Find the employer’s legal (registered) name — check the job advert, the company’s own website footer, or Companies House. This can differ from the brand or trading name you see day to day.
2. Open the official Register of licensed sponsors: workers on GOV.UK and search that legal name.
3. Match the town / location shown against the employer you mean — large names can have several similar entries.
4. Check the visa route. For most skilled roles you are looking for the Skilled Worker route in the “category of worker” column.
5. Read the job advert itself for explicit wording such as “visa sponsorship available” — a licence alone is not an offer.
6. Confirm directly with the employer that this specific role includes sponsorship before you rely on it.
7. Never pay an employer or agent to secure a job or a Certificate of Sponsorship. You do pay your own official visa fee and health surcharge — directly to the UK Government, not to an employer.

Sponsors are listed under their registered legal entity, which is often not the customer- facing brand. A restaurant chain, care provider or agency may trade under one name but be registered under another, and a group may have multiple companies. If you cannot find a match, try the parent company or the name on the employment contract, and use the town to disambiguate similar entries. A name that appears nowhere on the register — for the right entity and route — is a reason to ask the employer directly rather than assume.

Where a job on Abrodio Jobs shows a “sponsor-licensed employer” indicator, it means the employer’s name matched the public register at the time of checking. Treat it as a helpful prompt to look further, not a guarantee that the advertised role comes with sponsorship. Employer names can be ambiguous or change, so verify against the current register and confirm with the employer. See our Information Sources and Data Policy for how this indicator is derived, and Corrections to report a listing that looks wrong.

Do not pay an employer or recruiter to secure a job offer or Certificate of Sponsorship. Sponsors are responsible for sponsor-licence costs and the relevant sponsorship charges. You may still need to pay your own official visa application fee and Immigration Health Surcharge — but you pay those directly to the UK Government through the proper GOV.UK process, not to an employer or agent. Paying the right government fees for your own application is normal; being asked to pay someone to “get” you the job or the sponsorship is not.

Treat these as warning signs of a scam:

• Anyone asking you to pay them for a job offer, a Certificate of Sponsorship, or a visa outcome they promise to guarantee.
• Pressure to pay quickly, pay in cash or cryptocurrency, or pay an “agent” fee up front.
• A “sponsor” you cannot find on the official register under the right legal name and route.
• Offers that skip interviews, references or any real recruitment process.
• Requests for your passport, bank details or money before a genuine, written job offer.

If something feels wrong, stop and verify independently. You can discuss experiences with others in the Abrodio Community — but treat community posts as personal experience, not official advice.