Sponsor Licence which is part of the new point based system has introduced the sponsor licence which is required under the Tier 2, Tier 4 and Tier 5 categories under the point based system. This section tells you how to apply for a sponsor licence to sponsor migrant workers or students under the points-based system.

ICS Legal Practice is listed under the Home Office website. ICS Legal has demonstrated a good understanding of the sponsor licence arrangements and we have given evidence about the type of checks and services that we will do when working with clients. ICS Legal can provide you with a document that assesses your readiness to make a sponsor licence application. 

You can then choose whether to submit this document to the Home Office in support of your sponsors licence application - if you do so, one of the benefits you may take advantage of is the fact that Home Office will not normally duplicate the checks that Home Office expect us to have already made. Home Office would therefore expect to make decisions on applications supported by one of these documents well within the standard six-week timescale for processing an application. However, Home Office reserve the right to carry out checks and to visit any prospective sponsor as part of the sponsorship application and management process at any time.

Before you apply, you should check whether you are eligible to apply for a sponsor licence, and make sure that you have the right human resource (HR) systems in place to comply with your sponsors licence duties. The Home Office service standards set out how quickly they aim to decide sponsor licence applications. The standard is that the Home Office decide 95% of applications within four weeks.