Skilled Worker Sponsorship: Is It Even Possible Anymore?

*** Written entirely by me, not AI! ***

This is the most restrictive we’ve seen the sponsorship system in years;

— but does that make sponsorship a non-starter?

With the changes we’ve seen over the last couple of years, it is not over-dramatic to ask the question at the top of this page.

The Home Office has slashed the number of job roles eligible for sponsorship, hiked the costs involved, and pushed salary thresholds to dizzying heights.  It’s enough to make most employers think twice.  Which is exactly as intended, if you are the UK Home Office.

With net migration now falling for the first time in years, it looks likely the Government will be able to shout about its immigration-cooling policies in years (and election campaigns) to come, in hopes of seeing off the threat from Reform.

For my part, it’s fair to say I’m doing less sponsorship work.  My practice used to be pretty evenly split between business and personal immigration, but there’s been a definite shift.

But do I think it’s still possible to sponsor?  Absolutely. 

I’d go further: sponsorship can still be a commercially sensible (even strong) option, as long as you’re prepared to be realistic, strategic and deliberate.

I can help you get there.  Read on below for my no-nonsense analysis, and contact me today for a chat about how sponsorship might work for your business.

First Up: The Salary Threshold Shock

The 2024 jump in salary thresholds caused understandable panic, with the headline rate of £41,700 very effective in spooking would-be sponsors.

What got a bit lost in the headlines, however, was that many individual sponsorships still qualify for discounted rates.  It’s not accurate to say simply that everyone must be paid £41k.

Particularly attractive, still, is the new entrant rate, which can help sponsors bag top international graduate talent, often at rates closer to £30k.

But – and it’d be wrong for me to sugar-coat this – your role and salary plans must be subjected to detailed analysis.  It’s no longer possible to ‘ballpark’ the salary, and some real work must be done before you can decide whether sponsorship is financially viable for your business.

That’s where I can help.  I commonly crunch the numbers so businesses don’t have to, which (I hope!) gives would-be sponsors the clarity they need to make the right commercial decision.

Sponsorship Costs: The Financial Reality

If I’m going to call this section “The Financial Reality”, then I’d better give you the financial reality – which is that every cost associated with sponsorship has increased.

Application fee, gone up.  CoS fee, also gone up.  Immigration Skills Charge, would you like to take a guess?!

Priority service, visa fees, Immigration Health Surcharge, I could go on, and I won’t insult you by pretending that sponsorship is anything other than expensive, especially for SMEs.

But, I will suggest you consider the costs of the alternatives.  What does your ‘Indeed’ spending look like?  What’s the cost of not filling the role with good talent?  What risk does lacklustre recruitment pose to your existing contracts and services, or the five-year plan?

I can’t answer these questions for you, but I can suggest you think on it before dismissing sponsorship as a potentially viable alternative, even now.

Compliance: Making Employers Nervous Since Sponsorship Was Invented

The Home Office has always seen sponsorship as “a privilege, not a right” (their wording, not mine).  They have also always shown willingness to take action against non-compliance.  That hasn’t changed.

The Home Office expects – as they always have done – accurate reporting, robust right to work checks, genuine vacancy assessments, effective record-keeping, and HR systems that function as designed.

What’s increased therefore is not so much the expectations, but rather the consistency and likelihood of enforcement action.  Fines for right to work failings have also increased. For businesses that have never held a sponsor licence before, this can all feel intimidating.

But this is what I always say, and mean: if you run your business well, you’re probably 80% of the way there, if not more.

Are you recording sick leave?  Do you have contact details for your workers?  Are you completing right to work checks properly? 

Most businesses will answer yes to most of my questions, and it’s often safe to think of compliance for sponsorship as fine-tuning, rather than starting from scratch.

Again, it’s something I can help with.  I know what the Home Office looks at, and what questions they ask and of whom.  I can help you prepare for a compliance visit, so that if one arrives, you feel confident, not afraid.

Is Sponsorship Still Worth It?

Well, this is where things get a bit more strategic.

I believe sponsorship still makes sense when the role has been hard to fill domestically, and if the employee brings skills you have not been able to find elsewhere.

“He’s one of a kind”, a recent client said, when talking about their planned new hire.  Theirs was a model case: the employee was gifted, qualified, and skilled in exactly the right ways – he happened to be non-British.  But what he brought to my client’s business more than made up for the costs and hassle involved in his sponsorship.

The same could be true for you, if you’re prepared to approach sponsorship in a structured and deliberate way.  I firmly believe sponsorship is not only still possible, but can be commercially attractive – for the right sponsors.

So is that you?  If you’re looking for an honest conversation about how sponsorship might work for you, please get in touch today.