High Court judgement has implications if sponsors fail to report legitimate absences

9 September 2026

A recent High Court judgement may have important implications for sponsors who fail to report legitimate absences. If a sponsor licence is revoked, an employer loses their ability to sponsor workers, who risk losing their visas.

In R (Moon Fish Ltd) v SSHD [2026] EWHC 2289 (Admin), a sponsored worker took unpaid compassionate leave for around eight weeks in 2025. Following a request for salary records on 20 October 2025, UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) identified that the worker had been paid £3,560.51 less than his headline salary during May and June 2025 due to the compassionate leave. The unpaid leave was lawful and not itself a sponsorship breach. Yet Moon Fish Limited accepted it had failed to report this absence as required.

The Home Office treated the lower pay as “paying the worker less than stated on the CoS” (Certificate of Sponsorship) under Annex C1(aa) of sponsor guidance – grounds for mandatory licence revocation. Without first putting concerns to the company or seeking further explanation, the sponsor licence was revoked.

The Court quashed UKVI’s decision to revoke, on two grounds:

Procedural unfairness: UKVI must put the gist of its concerns to a sponsor and give a fair chance to respond before revoking.

Misdirection: C1(aa) is about unreported changes of salary, not lower pay caused by lawful unpaid leave. The possibility of unpaid leave is implicit in an annual salary figure and does not amount to a change in salary.

A mandatory ground with consequences this serious must be clearly worded, and this one was not.

This judgment pushes back against UKVI’s expansive reading of C1(aa) which is significant for sponsors facing mandatory revocation: to date UKVI’s position was that any lesser payment compared to the headline salary stated in the CoS, even due to lawful and agreed unpaid leave, was a trigger for revocation under C1(aa).

Yet the Court was clear that failing to report unpaid leave is still a breach of sponsor duties under C2(a) – discretionary, not mandatory, but a breach nonetheless, and one that can still cost you your licence if UKVI considers it serious enough.

Moon Fish Limited may have won this judicial review. They still spent months in litigation, with their licence and sponsored workers’ immigration status hanging in the balance, over a reporting failure that would have taken minutes to avoid.

If a sponsored worker’s pay changes, for any reason, including absence, check whether it needs reporting on the SMS and report it on time. The sponsor guidance sets out deadlines and thresholds. Missing them can land you in a business-critical situation.

According to the latest Home Office figures, between July 2025 and June 2026, a record 4,403 Skilled Worker sponsor licences were revoked and 4,840 suspended. This represents a 134% increase in suspensions and a 141% increase in revocations compared with the 12-month period before. While the majority were in health and care, enforcement, often driven by checking electronic records, has spread across many other sectors.

If you are worried you may have neglected to report a key change or want to check your general compliance, you should seek immigration advice to pre-empt such problems. If you’re unsure what needs reporting, or you’ve received a request for records or a revocation letter, please contact us for advice before you respond.

You can find a link to the full judgment for this case here.

Vanessa Ganguin is one of the most highly regarded experts in immigration law, with three decades of specialist experience.

She is ranked highly by the main legal guides such as Chambers & Partners UK, in Chambers High Net Worth Guide Top Tier, Legal 500 Hall of Fame and Who’s Who Legal as a Thought Leader in commercial and personal immigration.

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Photograph of the Royal Courts of Justice CC David Castor