If you are a UK business and you wish to employ skilled workers from Europe or outside of Europe, your UK business will need a sponsor licence. This is known as a skilled worker sponsor licence (previously known as Tier 2 General Sponsor licence).The Home Office will grant a sponsor licence to the UK business provided the organisation satisfy all the requirements under Appendix A.

The business must evidence that it has a genuine vacancy which could not be fulfilled within the UK labour force. Furthermore, the Home Office will want to see if the business has all the HR systems in place to prevent illegal working. The Home Office can make an unannounced visit to the UK business to ensure the HR systems are in place and more importantly the worker is carrying out the role he or she was employed to do. Failure to adhere to the Home Office’s requirements can result in the Sponsor licence being revoked or suspended.

Once the Sponsor licence application is granted the UK business will need to assign a Certificate of Sponsorship (COS) to the ideal candidate. The COS can only be assigned through the Sponsor Management System (SMS), once the licence has been granted. The COS will confirm the job title, salary, job duties and it with this COS the individual will be able to apply for his / her skilled work visa (commonly known as a work permit visa amongst the lay persons).