Find a New Sponsor Employer

You Need a New Licensed Sponsor, Quickly

You've been made redundant, your team is being restructured, or you've just had a rough conversation with your manager. Whatever the reason, you're on a Skilled Worker visa and you need a new licensed sponsor, quickly.

This page exists to help you find one.

The Clock Is Ticking, but You Have Options

If your employment ends, your sponsor is required to notify the Home Office. You then typically have 60 calendar days to find a new sponsor and submit a fresh application, or you'll be expected to leave the UK. That window is tight, but it's workable if you know where to look.

For most people, the bottleneck is finding an employer who is on the Home Office register of licensed sponsors, actively hiring, and willing to sponsor your role. The application itself is downstream of that.

That's what this directory is built for.

Search 142,000+ Licensed Sponsors, Updated Daily

Every organisation listed here appears on the official UK Home Office register of licensed sponsors. We sync from gov.uk daily, so revoked or expired licences drop out of the results within 24 hours. No stale data, no wasted applications.

You can filter by:

• City: see every licensed sponsor in London, Manchester, Birmingham, or wherever you're based
• Visa route: narrow to Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, or the Global Business Mobility routes
• Industry: from computer programming to healthcare, finance, construction, and everything in between

What "Licensed Sponsor" Actually Means

A UK employer can only sponsor a Skilled Worker visa if they hold a valid sponsor licence issued by the Home Office. The licence entitles them to issue a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS), which is the document you need to apply for or update your visa.

According to gov.uk, to qualify for a Skilled Worker visa you must:

1. Work for a UK employer that's been approved by the Home Office
2. Have a Certificate of Sponsorship from that employer
3. Do a job that's on the list of eligible occupations
4. Be paid at least the minimum salary threshold for your role

If you apply for a job at a company that isn't on the register, they cannot issue you a CoS. Any interviews you do there are a dead end, no matter how well they go. That's the hard filter this site solves for.

How to Use This Site to Switch Employers Fast

1. Confirm your target is licensed

Before you spend hours tailoring your CV to a job posting, check the company against the sponsor register. Go to the directory and search for the name. If they appear, they hold a licence right now. If not, either the licence has lapsed or they never had one.

2. Filter by your visa route

Some sponsors are licensed for Skilled Worker but not for other routes, or vice versa. Use the visa route filter to only see employers licensed for the route you're on.

3. Focus on industries that sponsor heavily

Certain sectors employ visa holders in far greater volumes than others. Computer programming, healthcare, finance, and engineering consultancies have thousands of licensed sponsors between them. Starting there gives you a much larger surface area than cold-emailing random SMEs.

4. Apply to open roles first, cold-outreach second

For each licensed sponsor in your target city and industry, check their careers page for open roles. Only after you've exhausted the active postings should you cold-outreach, with your existing visa status stated up front so the recruiter can flag it to HR early.

What Happens After You Get an Offer

Once a new licensed sponsor offers you a role and issues a Certificate of Sponsorship, you apply to update your Skilled Worker visa. Per gov.uk, you cannot legally start the new job until the updated visa is granted. Decision times are typically within 8 weeks for in-country applications, though priority services are available for faster turnarounds.

The new visa is tied to the new sponsor and the new job, so if you're switching soon after your last CoS, be aware that the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain generally continues as long as there's no gap of more than the permitted grace period between visa validity dates. If the specifics of your situation are complex, speak to an OISC-regulated adviser. This site helps you find employers, it doesn't give legal advice.

What This Directory Won't Do for You

It won't apply on your behalf. It won't tell you which company is a good place to work. It won't guarantee any specific employer will sponsor your particular role, because that depends on the job being on the eligible occupation list and meeting salary thresholds.

What it will do is remove the single most wasteful failure mode in a UK job search: sending applications to employers who can't legally sponsor you.

The Fastest Path to a New Sponsor

If you're on a live visa with a ticking clock, the fastest path to a new sponsor is:

1. Open the sponsor directory
2. Filter by your city and industry
3. Sort by companies that have recently posted roles
4. Apply to the top 10-15 relevant openings this week

For a full walkthrough of the in-country switching process, read the guide on how to switch employers on a Skilled Worker visa without leaving the UK.