Your UK visa sponsorship licence rating

Various ratings for a UK visa sponsorship licence and how to upgrade if your licence is downgraded.

You’ll get an A-rated licence if your application is approved.

An A-rated licence lets you start assigning certificates of sponsorship.

Your business will be listed in the register of sponsors.

You’ll get a ‘provisional’ rating instead of an A-rating if your authorising officer is based outside the UK.

You’ll only be able to assign one certificate of sponsorship, which must be assigned to the authorising officer so they can enter the UK.

Once they’ve got their visa, you can upgrade your licence to an A-rating and request additional certificates of sponsorship using the sponsorship management system (SMS).

Downgrading to B-rating

Your A-rated licence may be downgraded to a B-rating at a later stage if you do not continue to meet your sponsor duties.

If this happens, you will not be able to issue new certificates of sponsorship until you’ve made improvements and upgraded back to an A-rating.

You’ll still be able to issue certificates to workers you already employ who want to extend their permission to stay.

Upgrade to an A-rating

You need to follow an ‘action plan’ provided by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) to upgrade your licence.

You have to pay £1,579 for an action plan.

You must pay the fee within 10 working days of the date UKVI tells you about the downgrade. If you do not, you’ll lose your licence.

At the end of the action plan

You’ll be upgraded to an A-rating if you complete all the steps and there’s nothing else you need to improve.

You’ll lose your licence if you do not complete all the steps.

If you need to make other improvements, you’ll be given another B-rating and will have to follow a new action plan. You’ll have to pay the fee again.

If you get a second B-rating

You can only have 2 B-ratings while your licence is valid. You’ll lose your licence if you still need to make improvements after your second action plan.