UK Employer Sponsorship Licence

Licence key personnel

A business must nominate a person or persons to fill three Employer Sponsorship Licence immigration compliance roles.  Each of these roles will work to ensure UK immigration law compliance and maintain records for the Home Office database of migrant workers.

One person can occupy all three roles, or the roles can be split between one, two or three different people.  Some roles can be filled by UK Visa Bureau or a nominated legal representative outside of the business.

The person or persons nominated for these roles must be based in the UK and must currently have a National Insurance Number.

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Sponsoring personnel roles

  • Authorising Officer

    The Authorising Officer is a staff member of the business that wishes to employ migrant workers. The Authorising Officer is ultimately and fully responsible for the actions of the business as they relate to hiring migrant workers and should be a competent and senior person within the business.

    The Authorising Officer must be a permanent paid staff member and cannot be a consultant, temporary employee, or person contracted for a specific project. A legal representative cannot be the Authorising Officer.

    People who are undischarged bankrupt cannot act as an Authorising Officer for a business.
  • Level 1 User

     The Level 1 User is responsible for using the Home Office Sponsorship Management System to conduct the day-to-day activities and record keeping relating to immigrants employed by the business. 

    This day-to-day activity may include assigning sponsorship certificates to migrants, notifying the Home Office of any changes, reporting the activity of migrants and managing the administrative functions of the Sponsorship Management System.

    You may nominate UK Visa Bureau or a legal representative from outside of your company to act as your Level 1 User.
A business may also appoint a Level 2 User to undertake simple day-to-day duties and maintain the Sponsorship Management System by assigning Certificates of Sponsorship to migrants and updating the Home Office of migrant activities.  However, there must always be a Level 1 User.
  • Key Contact

    The Key Contact acts as the primary point of contact between a business and the Home Office.  The Home Office will contact the Key Contact in the event that they have any questions, need documentation, or encounter any other issues with the business's hiring of migrants.

    You may nominate UK Visa Bureau or a legal representative from outside your company to act as your Key Contact.

Legal representatives


Although the Authorising Officer is the ultimate responsibility and must be a permanent staff member, a business may nominate people outside of the company to act as the Key Contact, Level 1 or Level 2 users.

This allows businesses without in-house expertise in migration law to contract out the day-to-day maintenance of their system to a qualified legal representative.

Legal representatives must be based in the UK, and must be regulated by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), or exempt from the requirement, or otherwise compliant with the Immigration and Asylum Act of 1999.

The UK Visa Bureau is qualified to act as a Legal Representative and can fulfill the Key Contact and Level 1 or 2 user roles for your business under OISC registration no. F200600117.