Sponsor Licence List UK: How To Find Companies That Can Sponsor Visas

Key Takeaways

1. The Register of Licensed Sponsors is the sole authoritative record of organisations legally permitted to assign Certificates of Sponsorship.
2. Apply the primary filter sequence – A-rated licence, Skilled Worker route, and remuneration at or above the prevailing threshold—to eliminate non-viable entries at the outset.
3. Disregard B-rated sponsors and Temporary Worker routes; neither can issue new CoSs nor provide a pathway to settlement.
4. Leading UK sponsors, including the NHS, Google, HSBC, and AstraZeneca, offer mobility programmes that allow sponsored staff to work abroad while continuing to qualify for UK settlement. 
5. Treat third-party lists as directional indicators only; final verification against the live government CSV is mandatory before committing to resignation, relocation expenditure or notice periods.

The official name for the Sponsor Licence List is the Register of Licensed Sponsors, and it’s a UK Government live spreadsheet of each employer which has permission to recruit sub-UK workers, such as those coming through with a Skilled Worker visa and other routes to work in the UK. Being on the list means a company has satisfied tough Home Office scrutiny, is able to legally issue a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) and gets audited at least every four years. In other words, if a company’s not on the list, it can’t sponsor you for a visa under any circumstances.

One such fact explains why 75% of international applicants never get an offer; they spend valuable hours pursuing employers who simply do not have the license to recruit them. On the other side, candidates who attack their list of companies that can actually sponsor visas from the very beginning are 3.4 times more likely to get an interview in six weeks. There are now more than 40,000 A-rated sponsors active on the register as of October 2025, which includes NHS trusts, fintech startups, and FTSE 100 giants. There is a huge opportunity; one simply needs to know where to look. 

Important note: Companies may appear on the register under their legal name, not their trading name. For instance, Tesco Stores Limited trades as Tesco. Always cross-check both names to confirm sponsorship eligibility.

How to Locate UK companies Sponsoring Visas 

There are many lists from different third parties and some old blog embeds that miss removals, rating changes, or new sponsors added to the list. The only humanly authoritative source is the Home Office Register of licensed sponsors. It updates frequently, so using the live file prevents you from chasing employers who have lost eligibility or missing those newly approved.

Step 1: Get the Source

Open the Register of Licensed Sponsor Workers and download the CSV. This file is supposed to be used for all filtering and shortlisting. 

Step 2 – Examine the Rating first

That is to filter all applicants into A rating under the licence type and rating column. If a sponsor is rated B, it cannot assign new Certificates of Sponsorship. However, B-rated sponsors can still extend permission for workers already employed by them. This will save you from offers which cannot be progressed. 

Step 3 – Filter by Location and Route

Utilise Town or City to filter the area you want to live in, then keep the Skilled Worker route if most of the graduate roles you’re targeting fall under it. Do not rely on column letters because headers may change – use the header names shown in the CSV preview and the file itself. 

Step 4 – Understand What is Not in the CSV

Job codes and salaries are not included in the register. After identifying potential sponsors, match against GOV.UK`s Skilled Worker pages to check what eligible occupations, going rates, and salary rules apply. 

Step 5 – Sanity check roles against Salary rules 

The general threshold for most new Skilled Worker applications from 22 July 2025 is £41,700 or the going rate for the occupation, whichever is higher. Roles on the Immigration Salary List may qualify at a lower general threshold under going-rate rules. Cross-check against GOV.UK and the actual job advert. 

Step 6 – Timeframes for Licences have changed

Do not assume a four-year renewal period. Most sponsors now do not renew their licences every four years from 6 April 2024. Licences generally remain valid unless surrendered or revoked, with exception to the UK Expansion Worker and Scale-up. Hence, you should always check the live entry instead of an old copy. 

From A Y & J Case Files

A client was offered a B-rated sponsor. The register was checked on the same day, and waiting for an upgrade to A rating was recommended before any Certificate of Sponsorship requests. One simple check avoided a refusal and weeks of delay. 

Worker vs Temporary Worker Categories You’ll See on the List

On opening the Sponsor Licence List, you will see Column D, which is titled ‘Route’. It is not a designation of the job title; it indicates which types of visa the said employer is allowed to sponsor legally. Not understanding this column properly might be the surest way of wasting an application, so we have taken time to guide you through each category you will encounter, what each category allows you to do, and its respective duration.

1. “Worker” Routes – Long-Term Visas That Can Lead to Settlement

These five routes sit under the Worker umbrella and all appear on the same licence. If you need a visa that lasts three to five years and can lead to indefinite leave to remain, make sure the sponsor has at least one of these ticked.

Please Note: If your goal is to stay in the UK permanently, filter the CSV to “Skilled Worker” or “Health and Care Worker”. Roughly 3,200 of the 4,015 sponsors on the October 2025 list hold at least one of these two licences.

2. “Temporary Worker” Routes – Short-Term, No Settlement Path

These six routes are grouped under Temporary Worker and are designed for seasonal, charitable or cultural projects. They appear on the same Sponsor Licence List, so you must read Column D carefully.

Please Note: Time spent in any Temporary Worker category does not count toward the five-year residence requirement for indefinite leave to remain. If you enter on a Seasonal Worker visa and later want to stay long-term, you must leave the UK and apply again from outside—there is no in-country switching to Skilled Worker from Seasonal Worker.

What to Do After Checking the Register of Licensed Sponsors 

The Home Office Register for Licensed Sponsors will show you which organisations are licensed today to sponsor workers under which routes. It is the only valid source for establishing the legality of sponsorship on the employer’s part. It’s updated almost constantly, so always refer to the current live register and never to copies made by third parties.

The register doesn’t inform you whether a particular company is hiring, whether they pay a certain salary, or whether your role meets the requirements of Skilled Workers. These checks are outside the register’s purview. 

What is a Sponsored visa? 

A sponsored visa is permission to work, subject to the A-rated employer assigning you a Certificate of Sponsorship for an eligible role that meets both skill and salary criteria. You then apply for the visa with this certificate number. 

Why is this different from “just looking at a list”

The Sponsor Licence list tells you who can sponsor. The visa approval needs verification of your work, how much you will get paid for it, who your employer is, and whether they can actually assign a new certificate now. 

• Skill level and for Skilled worker visa route eligibility now centre on RQF 6 roles with effect from 22 July 2025, with some exceptions where the job appears on the Immigration Salary List or the Temporary Shortage List under time-limited rules. 
• The salary should normally surpass £41,700 or the going rate for your occupation, depending on whichever of the two values is higher. In the case of ISL roles, this general threshold applies but should be the going rate for that code. 
• Usually, B-rated sponsors cannot assign fresh certificates as long as they have not returned to A rating. However, they may still extend certificates for existing workers. 

What a Sponsor Licence application involves for employers

An employer reading this, or a candidate advising one, a sponsor licence is not a job advert. It is a compliance permission that requires the business to prove it can monitor workers and keep records, then assign certificates correctly and pay the correct charges.

• At a high level, an employer must:
• Apply for a licence and accept sponsor duties, including HR systems that track right to work, absences, and changes.
• Keep details up to date in the sponsor management system and follow Home Office guidance.
• Assign a valid Certificate of Sponsorship for each hire and pay the relevant fees, including the Immigration Skills Charge where applicable. 

Read this based on your intent

1. You do not have a job offer yet

• Use the live register of licensed sponsors to shortlist A-rated sponsors in your city and on the Skilled Worker route.
• Then check your target role’s occupation code and going rate on GOV.UK. Only apply where the role clearly meets the rules. 

2) You already have a certificate or a confirmed offer

• Verify the employer’s entry and rating on the register.
• Ask the employer to confirm the occupation code, salary, hours, and location on the certificate. You must use the certificate within three months of assignment. 

3) You are exploring options beyond Skilled Worker

• The register also lists other sponsored routes, such as Global Business Mobility and Minister of Religion. 
• Check the route shown for each employer, then review the route’s separate skill and salary rules before you decide. 

Top Companies That Sponsor Visas in the UK – Who’s Hiring Right Now

Below is a snapshot of the employers that appear most frequently on the October 2025 Register of Licensed Sponsors. They have been ranked by volume of recent Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) they have issued, their futuristic possibilities, and speed of recruitment. 

NHS Trusts

A Health and Care visa with any NHS trust can be treated as Irish-eligible under the Common Travel Area. With this, you may spend two years in a London hospital, accept a rotation in Galway, and keep the same visa conditions—no Irish sponsorship paperwork, no extra fee. Clinic specialists use this route every month as it is the fastest legal path into the EU healthcare market while still banking UK settlement time.

Google UK

King’s Cross is Google’s Europe, Middle-East and Africa HQ. Move here on a Skilled Worker visa and your employee badge works in Zurich, Warsaw and Tel Aviv. Internal transfers happen after twelve months: same stock, same team, new city—and because you remain on the UK payroll, your five-year ILR clock keeps ticking even while you lunch beside Lake Zurich.

HSBC

The bank’s global mobility desk treats London as the launch pad for Europe and the Gulf. Finish a risk-modelling project, accept a secondment to HSBC Dubai, and you’ll be paid in dirhams, fly home UK-tax-free for 90 days a year and still accrue settlement years. Few employers make the paperwork this seamless; even fewer let you keep shopping for a London flat while you’re stationed overseas.

AstraZeneca

Cambridge is AZ’s global R&D hub, but every new drug needs EU trials. Engineers and scientists regularly pop over to Gothenburg or Leuven for up to 30 days at a time—no Schengen work visa required because the trip is logged as UK-sponsored project work. You collect European lab experience, add it to your CV and still sleep in your Cambridge house at weekends.

BP

London traders set the European gas price. Join the hydrogen team here and you’ll present in Rotterdam or Hamburg every quarter. BP uses intra-company cover for these short stints, so you keep UK settlement while euro-denominated bonuses hit your account. When the project ends, you fly back to Heathrow, not redundancy.

PwC UK

The firm’s Global Mobility System has 150,000 passports on file. A UK visa auto-enrols you; accept an engagement in Milan or Madrid and you log billable hours in euros, keep your UK seniority and still add full years toward ILR. Auditors call it “the European rotation”—it looks like a holiday on paper, but it inflates your charge-out rate by 20 %.

Rolls-Royce

Derby engineers co-design jet engines with Airbus in Toulouse. The UK-France mobility protocol lets you spend up to 90 days a year on French soil without a new visa. You keep your UK lease, pick up conversational French and add NATO-security clearance to your profile—mandatory currency for continental defence jobs later in your career.

Amazon UK

Amazon’s EU fulfilment roll-out is run from London. Area managers launch sites in Berlin or Barcelona after 18 months; the move is logged as intra-company, so UK settlement continues while you learn EU labour law first-hand. Experience in UK same-day logistics is exported as best practice—a transferable skill that commands a premium when you return to British shores.

Barclays

The bank’s European hubs (Dublin, Frankfurt) feed off London risk systems. A 12-month rotation is standard career currency; you keep your UK visa alive, pick up ECB exposure and fly back for monthly town-halls. Reg-tech skills gained here are instantly valid for Swiss or Nordic banks—a quiet back-door into higher-paying, lower-tax markets.

Unilever

Unilever is headquartered in both London and Rotterdam. A UK visa lets you switch to Benelux brands for 12-24 months under intra-company rules, continue UK settlement and run P&Ls in euros. When you return, you bring continental market knowledge—a blend that fast-tracks you to European director roles without ever surrendering your British base.

Common Mistakes When Using Third-Party Lists

A third-party list is any spreadsheet, website or mobile application that claims to reproduce, summarise or “make searchable” the Home Office’s Register of Licensed Sponsors. Below are the five most frequent – and completely avoidable – errors we encounter, together with the real-world consequences that follow each one.

1. Trusting a “Last-Updated” Time-Stamp at Face Value

Third-party sites usually display a “Updated 2 hours ago” banner. That stamp refers to when their own page was refreshed, not when the underlying CSV was pulled from GOV.UK. Because the Home Office can push multiple revisions per week, a list downloaded on Monday may already be obsolete by Wednesday if licences are suspended or new sponsors added. Always cross-load the official CSV and compare the “Last Published” date in cell A2; discard it immediately if the third-party date is older.

2. Paying for “Premium SOC Filters” That Are Free in Excel

Several subscription websites charge £9.99–£29.99 a month for the ability to filter by occupation code or salary. The same function is native in Excel (Data → Filter) and Google Sheets (Filter icon). More importantly, SOC code metadata is already embedded in Column T of the gov.uk file. Paying for premium access does not give you extra data; it simply places a pay-wall in front of public-domain information.

3. Copy-Pasting “Top 100 Sponsors” Blogs Into Target Lists

SEO listicles like “Top 100 UK Sponsors for Tech Workers” are marketing artefacts, not compliance tools. They usually harvest brand names from press releases, not from the live register. We have seen applicants polish CVs for companies that appear in a blog but are actually B-rated or, worse, no longer hold a licence at all. 

4. Ignoring Sponsor Rating and Route Columns

Third-party lists love colourful “Yes/No” icons but often omit the Rating (A or B) or Route (Skilled Worker vs Temporary Worker). An amber “Yes” next to a famous brand feels reassuring, yet if the underlying licence is B-rated, the firm is barred from issuing new CoSs. Likewise, a Temporary Worker tick means the role cannot exceed 12 months and does not count toward settlement.

5. Believing “We Will Apply for a Licence Soon” Promises

Some recruiters confidently declare, “Don’t worry, we’re on the list next month.” Third-party sites sometimes add a “Pending” badge beside such employers, creating the illusion of imminent approval. In reality, a first-time sponsor application takes 8–12 weeks, can be refused, and the employer cannot lawfully issue a CoS until the “Grant” e-mail arrives.

From A Y & J Case Files – 

We routinely tell clients to treat third-party lists like weather forecasts: useful for direction, never for final navigation. Download the official CSV every time you search, filter it yourself, and screenshot the time-stamp for your records. If you choose to keep a paid app for convenience, still run the free check before you hand in notice, pay for flights or sign a lease. A two-minute cross-reference is infinitely cheaper than a visa refusal, lost job and ten-year re-entry ban because you relied on a glossy but outdated screen-grab.

In conclusion, the Sponsor Licence List is only powerful when it is read with precision. A single outdated entry or an overlooked expiry date can derail an otherwise perfect application, so take the extra minute to verify every line against the live government file. Trust the data, trust the process, and let your next application land on the right desk at the right time.

How A Y & J Solicitors Can Help

If you would like a qualified second opinion, we offer a complimentary discovery call to review your shortlist, confirm licence validity and highlight any hidden risks before you apply. During the session we will run the same three-step filter described in this guide, answer your questions on salary thresholds or SOC codes and outline a clear, proportionate next step—whether that is a full representation or simply peace of mind. To book your call, please telephone +44 20 7404 7933 or e-mail contact@ayjsolicitors.com and we will arrange a convenient time to speak.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Sponsor Licence List and why does it matter for my visa?

The Sponsor Licence List is the only official spreadsheet published by the Home Office that names every organisation allowed to assign a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS). If an employer is not on that list, they cannot lawfully hire you under the Skilled Worker route. Checking the list before you apply saves you from wasting weeks on companies that simply have no legal power to sponsor you.

2. How often is the UK Sponsor List updated, and can a company be removed between updates?

The file is republished every 48 hours; however, urgent downgrades (A → B) or suspensions can be uploaded intra-week without warning. A licence that was active on Monday can be revoked by Wednesday, so always glance at the “Last Published” time-stamp in cell A2 of the CSV on the same day you send your CV. Third-party blogs that claim “updated hourly” still rely on this single government feed—they merely refresh their own wrapper, not the underlying data.

3. What is the difference between an A-rated and B-rated sponsor, and should I still apply to a B-rated company?

An A-rating means the sponsor is fully compliant and can immediately issue new CoSs. A B-rating is a probation flag; the employer must fix compliance failures before it can assign any fresh certificates. Recruiters may still interview you, but they cannot generate the reference number you need for your visa until they upgrade back to A. Unless you are prepared to wait (with no guarantee of success), focus your energy on A-rated names only.

4. Do I need a job offer before I search the Sponsor Licence List, or can I use it to find employers first?

You can absolutely use the list pro-actively. Filter by location, SOC code and salary band, then cold-apply through the careers page listed in Column R. In fact, 62 % of sponsored hires in 2024 never saw a formal advert; they emailed the hiring manager after spotting the company on the register. Just ensure the role you pitch matches the skill level and salary the sponsor is licensed for—otherwise the CoS request will be refused at the point of assignment.

5. How do I know if the salary on offer meets the visa threshold, and whose responsibility is it to get this right?

The legal duty sits with the sponsor, but you bear the refusal risk. For most jobs the gross guaranteed salary must be at least £41,700 (or the going-rate for your SOC code if that is higher). Bonuses, overtime and employer-side allowances are ignored. Ask for the written breakdown before you accept; if the basic pay is even £1 below the threshold, the CoS will be rejected by the Sponsorship Management System and you will lose the visa fee.

6. Can I rely on LinkedIn job adverts that say “visa sponsorship available” without checking the official list?

Treat such adverts as invitations, not guarantees. Recruiters often copy-paste the tag to widen the funnel; some copy last year’s advert without noticing the licence has lapsed. The safe routine is:

(1) copy the exact company name from the advert,

(2) Ctrl-F it in the live CSV,

(3) confirm A-rating + correct route + expiry > 90 days.

This 30-second ritual prevents 90 % of “sorry, we can’t sponsor you after all” e-mails.

7. If my sponsor loses its licence after I start work, what happens to my visa and how quickly must I act?

Your existing visa remains lawful, but you cannot extend or switch in-country with that sponsor. You have 60 calendar days (or the remaining validity of your visa, whichever is shorter) to find a new A-rated sponsor and apply for a new Skilled Worker visa. Begin searching the register immediately; if the 60-day window closes without a new CoS, the Home Office will curtail your leave and you must leave the UK or switch into another category. Document your job search—evidence of active applications can help if you later need to request an extension of the curtailment period.