How Long Does It Take to Get a Sponsorship Licence

Owning a company is no easy work. As good as it sounds when compared to having a regular job and working for somebody else, it is much harder than only having one role to play during your average shift. Workdays are much different and they encompass so much more when you are the one running the whole thing. The hardest thing to make sure and take care of are your employees, the team that makes it possible. Without your staff, both the primary personnel and those you outsource to, the company cannot properly function. It cannot really even exist.

As difficult and challenging it may be to handle things with the existing employees, things are even harder when hiring new ones. Companies that are just now starting or perhaps growing and in need of more workforce know it best. Apart from locating the right people for the job there is also the question of where do you even look. It does not help that there are usually certain limitations and conditions when hiring people, especially from abroad. Things are similar or almost the same in most countries since there exist proper steps and rules whenever a company wants to hire new people.

In this article we talk about one such example that is present in the United Kingdom. Before employing people from overseas and country, you must have the right means to do so. If you have no idea what it is, worry not. In this article we talk about it in greater detail so that anyone in need of skilled workers for their company can know what they need to do. Most importantly, we discuss how long it takes to get it processed and approved on average. It is an important step in securing a prosperous future of your company so it needs to clear. For more info on this, visit https://imperiallegal.com/media/articles/sponsorship-licence-in-the-uk-how-to-obtain-and-what-is-it-for.

More About It

Before we talk about anything else, it is important to make it clear what a sponsorship licence is and why it even exists. As mentioned above, a sponsor licence, which was formerly known as Tier 2 sponsor licence, allows companies that are based in the United Kingdom to hire workers from overseas and from inside the borders of the country. The important part here is that the workers need to be classified as skilled workers, i.e. have the Skilled Worker visa. Without this license a company is unable to hire the increasingly growing workforce looking to come to the UK either for a certain period or to make a full move through the immigration process.

The Home Office in the UK has made a change towards the end of 2020 when they replaced the Tier 2 program for the new sponsorship licence. Before December of 2020 the Tier 2 visa route was used for sponsored employment. Now, it is Skilled Worker visa, and as of the start of 2024 all companies have to obtain an official sponsor licence before employing any and all skilled workers. This includes almost all foreign citizens even those from countries that are otherwise exempt from similar employment, immigration, and education visas and programs. EU countries are usually not asked to comply to similar programs but in this case they have to.

Make Your Company Ready and Eligible

Before a company can apply to get this sponsor licence, it needs to be eligible for the program. This further means that they have to check all the boxes and comply to all the rules dictated by the governing body overlooking this. The most important thing for every organization aiming to obtain this license is to have a UK presence, as well as to operate/trade in the UK according to every law. One licence is enough no matter the number of branches located in the country. In some situations, each branch may need its own license but all of this depends on circumstances surrounding your specific case.

Companies that have frequent inspections or monitoring done with certain bodies need to submit proof that they are registered with the said bodies. Evidence is needed for planning permissions and consent. Overall, they need to be sure that your company fits the bill, that it is a good candidate for it all. You have to provide proof and evidence that you can offer employment for workers in their respective occupation. Of course, they must be satisfied with your company in every way in order to believe you, mainly your ability and willingness to pay the workers a fair and correct salary that the Home Office specifies in their rules.

Speaking of their rules and guidelines, as a candidate you must agree to perform all of the duties that every holder has. Associating yourself with this program means complying with its foundations. It may be confusing at start especially for new business owners, but this is something that has been necessary for a long time and it has been proven to work well. The size and type of organization determine the application cost. Medium and large companies pay £1,476, while small organizations pay only £536. You qualify as a smaller organization if your assets are £5.1m or less, if your yearly turnover is £10.2m or less, and if you employ less than 50 people.

The Average Waiting Time

Finally, it is time to answer the titular question of this article. So how long does your organization have to wait before it gets a sponsorship license? Well, it takes around 8 weeks on average for the application to be processed once you have everything ready to apply. This is customary for the standard service. In total, you should be ready to wait anywhere from 2 to 3 months on average. UK Visas and Immigration, or UKVI for short, processes the licenses, a division of the Home Office. The more complex and bigger your application, the longer it will take. Also, the quality of the entire submission matters. Make sure to be thorough and to have everything so as not to get rejected on a technicality or due to there being a document missing. Making sure that all of the above happens for your company is the best course of action towards hiring the right professionals for every open position in your company. With due diligence and some hard work on this front, the future of your operation will surely be brighter and you will sleep better knowing you have done the most.