Sponsor guidance changes include backtrack on right to work checks

22 May 2026

There are several updates to Home Office guidance this week that sponsors should be aware of. Especially as since the last set of updates sponsors are now required to read Home Office sponsor guidance in full and be aware of any developments (this being the third set of changes in three months).

The most dramatic update, which will come as a relief for many sponsoring employers, is a reversal of guidance updated just last month which required sponsors to carry out checks on the right to work of anyone they “directly engage” – not just their employees or workers they sponsor. The guidance has reversed this position.

These are the most significant updates – effective immediately (from 20 May 2026) with our explanation. The changes are in bold and links to the full guidance can be found below. Do take legal advice if you are concerned about how these updates will affect sponsor licence applications or compliance.

Summary of important 20 May 2026 sponsorship guidance changes

1. Sponsors don’t need to conduct right to work checks on non-sponsored workers they “directly engage rather than employ.
2. Expansion in record keeping duties to include records of right to work checks on all employees.
3. The Home Office will likely revoke a sponsor licence if a sponsored worker doesn’t have relevant right to work permission.
4. Guidance asserts a sponsor licence application will be refused if it’s just to bring someone to the UK.
5. How to satisfy the Home Office an organisation is operating or trading to qualify for a sponsor licence.

1. Roll back on right to work checks (for now)

Following updates in March and April to sponsor guidance, sponsors were told they must conduct right to work (RTW) checks where they are employing or “directly engaging” a worker (whether sponsored or not). The wording –“You must check that any worker you wish to sponsor (including a worker who is not your direct employee), or any worker you otherwise wish to employ or directly engage, has permission to enter or stay in the UK and can do the work in question before they start working for you”)  – appeared to suggest that the duty of employers with sponsor licences to carry out RTW checks may now extend to include all workers, including non-direct employees (e.g. self-employed, contactors, secondees etc).

This week’s new Home Office update revokes this expansion in scope of RTW and reverts to the original pre-March 2026 position that sponsors are not required to perform right to work checks on workers they don’t sponsor who are not employees.

NB: The guidance still insists that sponsors must perform checks on all sponsored staff (whether employees or not – as an example, non-employees may include a partner in a firm or someone self-employed) and all unsponsored employees.

Many sponsors and their representatives – including our firm – wrote to the Home Office asking for clarification on last month’s update (would sponsors be required to conduct checks on window cleaners or emergency plumbers, for instance, were any self-employed contractors included?) The guidance appears to have been redrafted again to remove requirements to check all those “directly engaged” in response – at least until the government defines the scope of the UK’s new RTW code following recent legislation.

The backdrop to all this is an expanded RTW regime expected to come into force later this year, following the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025. The legislation included RTW checks and the large financial penalties they provide protection against being broadened from pertaining to employees to encompass employment “and other working arrangements”. The UK Government’s consultation on how a new right to work code would include “other working arrangements” ended in December, with no timeline yet for implementation. We expect all employers will have to comply with a new code perhaps as soon as this autumn when the relevant provisions of the legislation commence.

2. Sponsors must now keep records of right to work checks on non-sponsored employees too

In a related change, Appendix D of the sponsor guidance (dealing with the records sponsors must keep) has expanded the scope of sponsors’ record-keeping duties to include retaining evidence that they have carried out right to work checks on:

• Any worker you employ, whether or not you are sponsoring them; and
• Any worker you sponsor, whether or not you are their employer

These checks must show that any worker you are employing or sponsoring has the legal right to work in the UK and to do the work in question.

If you are the worker’s employer, you must carry out these checks both to comply with your sponsor duties and to establish a ‘statutory excuse’ against liability for a civil penalty under illegal working legislation. In other cases, although you are not required to establish a statutory excuse, you must carry out these checks to comply with your sponsor duties.”

This expansion of record-keeping duties means that sponsors now have a duty to retain RTW evidence for their entire sponsored or employed workforce, rather than just the sponsored workforce as was the case before.

The Home Office has also updated its guidance to reflect that from 20 May 2026 the eVisa will now be the only proof of immigration status (ie: no vignette too) given to workers granted permission in most circumstances.

3. Update on when the Home Office is likely to revoke a licence

The following clarification on “relevant permission to work” is added to the Home Office’s guidance for sponsors on their duties and compliance (Part 3). It is a warning that if they sponsor a migrant, even one who is not an employee, and they are found to be working in a capacity that they do not have the right to work in, the sponsor is likely to lose their licence:

“Where the statutory right to work scheme does not apply (for example, where you are not the worker’s direct employer) but you are otherwise sponsoring a worker who does not have the relevant permission to work, we are likely to revoke your licence.”

So, if an organisation sponsors someone to work as a partner, for instance, perhaps as a senior solicitor in a partnership, and they are actually working in another role, for instance, cleaning windows, the Home Office would be likely to revoke the sponsor licence.

There is also another reminder that:

“As a licensed sponsor, you also have a duty to carry out a right to work check on any worker you are sponsoring, regardless of the nature of the employment relationship between you and the sponsored worker.”

4 Refusing a sponsor licence application if there is not enough evidence it’s not primarily to bring someone to the UK

Part 1 of the sponsor guidance on applying for a licence has been updated to insist that the Home Office will refuse a sponsor licence application if they have reasonable grounds to suspect a prospective sponsor organisation has been established or exists mainly to facilitate the entry or residence of a worker who would not otherwise have the relevant permission to work in the UK.

There has always been a requirement that a sponsored role is a genuine position (including that the role genuinely exists and has not been created solely so that the person can come to the UK). Updates now clarify how the Home Office will be assessing applications for sponsor licences. Under the “Suitability” section of its guidance, the following advice is added:

“The following is an example of where we are likely to consider that your organisation has been established mainly to facilitate the entry or residence of a person who would not otherwise have permission to work in the UK or do the work in question:

Example

A foreign national (who does not have permission to enter or stay in the UK) registers a business with Companies House while resident outside the UK. They employ a UK-based worker and appoint that worker as a Level 1 User for the purposes of applying for a Skilled Worker sponsor licence and assigning a CoS to the foreign national. In this scenario, it is considered unlikely that the company would otherwise exist if it were not for the foreign national’s wish to enter the UK.”

This would not necessarily change our advice to anyone applying for a sponsor licence, whether from the UK or abroad. Any application benefits from as much evidence as possible of a genuine business. A lack of such evidence may give the Home Office reason to suspect a company may not be a genuine concern, just a construct to sponsor someone to have permission to be in the UK.

The consequences are spelled out in a new addition to the guidance on when a licence will definitely be revoked. The Home Office warns a sponsor will lose their sponsorship licence if:

“We have reasonable grounds to consider or suspect that your organisation has been established, or exists, mainly to facilitate the entry or residence of a person who would not otherwise have permission to work in the UK or do the work in question.”

5 Showing the Home Office that a sponsor is operating or trading

In an update to how the Home Office assesses eligibility for a sponsorship licence, the following has been added to the guidance in Part 1:

“If you have no operating or trading presence in the UK (or, in the case of UK Expansion Worker, if you have no UK footprint), we will refuse your application. If we find you have no operating or trading presence in the UK after granting a licence, we will revoke your licence…

Below are two examples of where are likely to conclude that you do not have an operating or trading presence in the UK. These examples are not exhaustive:

• Example 1: no significant trade activity
  • You apply for a sponsor licence. Excluding payments made to HMRC and utility, leasing, insurance and other related bills, there is no evidence of financial transactions taking place between your organisation and any customers, clients or service users. All or most of the finance your organisation is receiving is being supplied directly by a related company or private investors, rather than through trading activity. In this scenario, we are unlikely to be satisfied that you are actively trading as a business for the purpose of holding a sponsor licence.
• Example 2: trading with related entities (‘circular trading’)
  • You apply for a sponsor licence. Although you have provided invoices and contracts for services, these are wholly or mainly between entities linked to you by common ownership or control, or which share common personnel involved in the day-to-day running of the relevant entities. There is little or no evidence of providing any services to customers, clients or users outside of your organisation (or those entities). In this scenario, we are unlikely to be satisfied that your business is engaging in meaningful operating or trading activity and is instead engaged in a system of ‘circular trading’ to move money through linked businesses for the purpose of acquiring a sponsor licence.”

The glossary to the guidance has also been updated to introduce a new definition of operating or trading:

“Operating or trading is not defined in law and, unless otherwise stated in any part of this guidance, has a plain meaning.

Broadly, ‘trading’ can be taken to refer to operations of a commercial kind by which the trader provides to customers for reward some kind of goods or services.

‘Operating’ includes the activities of both:

• charities and other not-for-profit organisations where they are providing a service to clients, customers or service users
• businesses who are engaged in pre-trade activities with a view to commencing commercial trading activity (as defined above) in the foreseeable future”

It has always been a requirement that a sponsor is a genuine operating and trading business and the language above broadly reflects how we understood the Home Office were assessing applications.

However, the above definitions shed light on how the Home Office may view certain applications from pre-revenue businesses who cannot yet evidence the above, as well as other organisations which do not generate revenue (for example a UK-based subsidiary that only provides services to a parent company abroad – which could be considered either circular trading or non-significant trading activity).

These updates should be read in the context of the Home Office clamping down on self-sponsorship in recent years, which has included measures such as tackling sponsored workers paying towards their own salary through investing in the sponsoring business.

A reminder: sponsors have a duty to read the sponsor guidance in full

The last sponsorship guidance update in April included a requirement that sponsors should now read the sponsor guidance in full including Part 1, 2 and 3, the appendices, the route specific guidance and the glossary, and to remain aware of its contents (i.e. any updates implemented to these documents by UKVI). The relevant guidance documents for Skilled Worker sponsors, including updates can be found here:

• Workers and Temporary Workers – guidance for sponsors part 1: apply for a licence
• Sponsor a worker: sponsor guidance part 2
• Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors part 3: sponsor duties and compliance
• Sponsor a Skilled Worker
• Sponsor guidance appendix A: supporting documents for sponsor applications
• Sponsor guidance appendix B: immigration offences and sponsorship
• Sponsor guidance appendix C: civil penalties and sponsorship
• Sponsor guidance appendix D: keeping records for sponsorship
• Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors: glossary

Sponsors with other routes on their licence should make sure to read the route-specific guidance available here.

These documents run to several hundreds of pages, and this is a significant duty to impose on sponsors so we would advise putting the kettle on and breaking out some biscuits.

Sponsor guidance changes often and at short notice, so it will be important to remain aware of the contents of these documents and any updates made to them in the future. Sponsors’ Level 1 Users are expected to regularly log into the Sponsor Management System to review the message board. This should detail the updates sponsors should be aware of and we recommend this check is diarised monthly.

We are always on hand to discuss these changes with you and advise on record-keeping, sponsor compliance and right to work practice.

Ross Kennedy has a wealth of experience working with individuals on their immigration and nationality routes, as well as corporate clients of all sizes, from start-ups, SMEs and charitable or religious organisations to large multinational companies.

He regularly advises on applications for licences to sponsor skilled workers (including on UKVI compliance requirements, mergers, restructuring and TUPE, as well as training HR teams) and assists with visa applications for skilled workers, temporary workers, sole representatives, as well as creative and sports personalities. Ross advises on immigration routes to set up businesses in the UK such as the such as the UK Expansion Worker visa, Global Talent visa or Innovator Founder route. 

James Lamont advises private individuals and businesses on all areas of immigration and nationality law. He has successfully advised a broad range of business sectors including tech, finance, entertainment and education.

For private clients, James provides advice ranging from highly complex and unusual applications requiring discretion from the Home Office to integrated global mobility projects for family offices and high net worth clients, including elements of business immigration law where applicable.

Photograph of Houses of Parliament (c) Ming Jun Tan / Unsplash