What has been Updated
On 20 May 2026, the Home Office published updated versions of five sponsor guidance documents. Nine days earlier, the Skilled Worker caseworker guidance version 19.0 was published on 11 May 2026. Between them, these six documents introduce new mandatory grounds for licence refusal and revocation, clarify long-standing ambiguities around right to work obligations, reflect the continued rollout of the eVisa system, rename two key regulatory bodies and so forth.
The updated documents are:
- Sponsor Guidance Part 1: Apply for a licence (version 05/26, replacing version 03/26 of 6 March 2026)
- Sponsor Guidance Part 2: Sponsor a worker (version 05/26, replacing version 04/26 of 8 April 2026)
- Sponsor Guidance Part 3: Sponsor duties and compliance (version 05/26, replacing version 03/26 of 6 March 2026)
- Sponsor Guidance: Appendix D, record-keeping duties for work sponsors (version 05/26, replacing version 03/26 of 6 March 2026)
- Sponsor Guidance: Glossary (version 05/26, replacing version 03/26 of 6 March 2026)
- Skilled Worker caseworker guidance (version 19.0, published 11 May 2026)
Sponsors, HR professionals, and immigration practitioners should review these changes carefully. Non-compliance with sponsor duties carries serious consequences, including licence revocation, and civil penalties.
This article covers each significant change, explains what it means in practice, and sets out the steps sponsors should take now.
New Powers Against Organisations Set Up to Facilitate Immigration
This is the most significant change in the May 2026 updates. The Home Office has introduced a coordinated set of provisions targeting organisations it considers having been established primarily to facilitate immigration rather than to operate as genuine businesses. The new provisions appear across three documents, covering both new licence applicants and existing licence holders.
New Mandatory Refusal Ground
Part 1 of the sponsor guidance now includes a new mandatory refusal ground at Annex L1(v). The Home Office will refuse a sponsor licence application where it has “reasonable grounds to consider or suspect” that the 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.
The word “mandatory” matters here. Where the Home Office considers this ground is engaged, it will refuse the application. There is no discretion to grant the licence regardless.
New Mandatory Revocation Ground
A mirror provision has been inserted at Annex C1(oo) of Part 3. Existing licence holders face the same test: if the Home Office has reasonable grounds to consider or suspect that the organisation exists mainly to facilitate immigration, the licence will be revoked. This is a mandatory ground with no room for discretion.
How the Home Office will Assess This
The sponsor guidance at Part 1, L8.8 sets out that the Home Office will consider whether granting or maintaining a licence could pose a risk to the integrity or good governance of the sponsorship scheme or to wider immigration control, and whether the applicant has engaged in behaviour that is not conducive to the public good.
At L8.9, the Home Office gives a worked example. A foreign national who does not have permission to enter or stay in the UK registers a business with Companies House while resident overseas. They employ a UK-based worker and appoint that worker as a Level 1 User to apply for a Skilled Worker sponsor licence and assign a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to the foreign national.
The sponsor guidance states that 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 is likely to put an end to the self-sponsorship scheme for owners applying from overseas, and they would now need to rely on the Expansion worker route instead.
What This Means in Practice
The threshold is low. The test is “reasonable grounds to consider or suspect,” which falls well below proof on the balance of probabilities. The provision also targets the organisation’s purpose rather than any individual application, so a company that is genuinely trading but was set up with immigration as a primary motivating factor could still be caught.
Start-up businesses established by overseas nationals who intend to sponsor themselves or connected persons will need to be particularly careful. Companies with limited trading history applying for a sponsor licence should expect closer scrutiny. Existing licence holders whose business model or trading activity could be questioned should review their position now, because the revocation ground applies to them too.
New Addition to Glossary: Operating or Trading
The New Glossary Definition
The Glossary (version 05/26) now includes a formal definition of “operating or trading.” Until this update, the term had no sponsor guidance definition, despite being central to licence eligibility.
The definition draws a distinction between “trading” and “operating.” Trading refers to operations of a commercial kind where the trader provides goods or services to customers for reward. Operating is broader: it includes the activities of charities and other not-for-profit organisations where they provide a service to clients, customers, or service users. It also covers businesses engaged in pre-trade activities with a genuine intention to commence commercial trading in the foreseeable future.
Two Worked Examples of Insufficient Activity
The Part 1sponsor guidance at L8.4 now sets out two specific scenarios where the Home Office is unlikely to consider an organisation to be operating or trading.
The first example concerns an organisation with no significant external revenue. If the only financial activity consists of payments to HMRC, utility bills, leasing, and insurance, with all or most income coming from a related company or private investors rather than from trading with external customers, the Home Office is unlikely to accept that the organisation is actively trading.
The second example targets what the sponsor guidance calls “circular trading.” Where invoices and contracts exist but are wholly or mainly between entities linked by common ownership or control, or which share common personnel, and there is little or no evidence of services being provided to external customers, the Home Office will treat this as trading activity manufactured to support a licence application rather than genuine commercial activity.
Who Should Pay Attention
These examples will concern companies funded primarily by an overseas parent or related entity with little UK customer-facing revenue. Group structures where services flow between entities under common ownership should review whether they can demonstrate genuine external commercial activity.
Pre-revenue start-ups are not automatically excluded, since the definition does allow for pre-trade activities, but they will need to show a credible plan to commence commercial trading in the foreseeable future.
The Home Office has noted that these examples are “not exhaustive.” Similar reasoning could be applied to other fact patterns. Sponsors in group structures should ensure their evidence of trading goes beyond inter-company invoicing.
Right to Work Check Obligations Corrected
The Error and its Correction
Paragraph S1.40 of Part 2 has been amended to correct an error that appeared in versions 03/26 (published 6 March 2026) and 04/26 (published 8 April 2026). Those earlier versions had suggested that sponsors were required to undertake right to work checks on unsponsored workers who were “directly engaged” but not employed by them. That reference has now been removed.
The sponsor guidance includes a note confirming the correction: “Amendments to paragraph S1.40 published on 6 March 2026 (version 03/26 of this sponsor guidance) and 8 April 2026 (version 04/26) suggested that sponsors were required to undertake right to work checks on unsponsored workers ‘(directly) engaged’ but not employed by them. Following user feedback, this reference has now been deleted.”
The Position Now
The right to work check obligation under the sponsor guidance applies to two categories of worker. First, any worker the sponsor wishes to sponsor, regardless of whether that worker is the sponsor’s direct employee. Second, any worker the sponsor wishes to employ, whether that worker is sponsored or not.
It does not extend to unsponsored individuals who are merely engaged by the sponsor in a non-employment capacity. Genuinely self-employed contractors who are not being sponsored fall outside the scope of this obligation under the sponsor guidance, although separate legislative obligations under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 may still apply to some arrangements.
Part 3 (paragraphs C7.27 to C7.30) and Appendix D (section 1.1) have been updated to align with this correction. The Appendix D wording is now clear: sponsors must retain evidence of right to work checks on any worker they employ (whether or not they sponsor them) and any worker they sponsor (whether or not they are the employer).
What This Means in Practice
The correction has two immediate consequences for sponsors who use subcontractors or agency workers.
First, subcontractors and contractors on your sites who are not your employees: the updated sponsor guidance no longer requires you, as a sponsor, to conduct right to work checks on them. This is a reversal of the position under the previous versions of the sponsor guidance.
Second, agency-supplied temporary workers: the agency, as the employer, bears the primary statutory obligation for right to work checks. The updated sponsor guidance does not impose a separate obligation on you as sponsor to check agency workers who are not your employees.
Your existing obligations as a sponsor remain unchanged. You must still conduct right to work checks on all workers you sponsor (regardless of the nature of the employment relationship) and on all individuals you employ (whether sponsored or not). Paragraph C7.28 of Part 3 (Sponsor duties and compliance) confirms this.
Any organisation that extended its internal right to work processes in response to the March or April wording should review whether those adjustments are still necessary.
Looking Ahead: Section 48 and the Expanded Civil Penalty Regime
The sponsor guidance changes should be read alongside section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 2 December 2025. Section 48 will expand the illegal working civil penalty regime to a broader range of working relationships.
A recent Home Office consultation on a draft Code of Practice indicates the expanded regime will apply to engagements commencing from October 2026. Further sponsor guidance is expected before that date.
On close reading, the legislation is primarily aimed at workers’ contracts (excluding contracts of employment), individual subcontractors, and online matching services. It does not straightforwardly impose new duties on end-users who receive agency workers, unless the end-user is itself contracted to provide work to a third party, which would trigger supply chain liability under new section 15A of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006.
The distinction matters: the current sponsor guidance position (corrected in May 2026) and the forthcoming legislative position (under section 48) are not identical. Sponsors should take care not to conflate the two and should begin preparing their processes now for the broader obligations that section 48 will introduce when it comes into force.
eVisa Transition: What Sponsors need to Know from 20 May 2026
What has Changed
Part 2 and Appendix D have been updated to reflect the continuing shift from physical immigration documents to eVisas. The key change is this: entry clearance applications decided on or after 20 May 2026 will result in the worker receiving an eVisa only, provided they used a Home Office accepted passport or identity document in their application. No vignette sticker will be issued.
This follows earlier steps in the transition. The Home Office stopped producing biometric residence permits for applications submitted after 31 October 2024 and began phasing out vignettes for entry clearance applicants from 15 July 2025.
Who Receives an eVisa Only
A worker will receive an eVisa only (with no other proof of immigration status) if they are granted permission following an application for entry clearance from outside the UK where the application was decided on or after 20 May 2026 and they used a Home Office accepted passport or identity document, or if they applied for permission to stay from within the UK on or after 1 November 2024.
Exceptions
A vignette will still be issued alongside the eVisa where the worker applies for entry clearance and does not have a Home Office accepted passport or identity document, for example a passport issued by a country or territory not recognised by the UK. Workers granted permission under the Creative Worker visa concession will not receive an eVisa at all.
Where a worker has been issued a 90-day vignette affixed to a FAV (form for affixing the vignette), they must travel to the UK within that 90-day period or apply for a replacement vignette and FAV. However, where the vignette is affixed to a passport, there is no requirement to apply for a replacement if the worker does not travel within 90 days, provided they still have a valid eVisa.
Right to Work Checks And Date of Entry
Sponsors must now conduct online right to work checks for workers with eVisas, using the “Check a job applicant’s right to work: use their share code” service on GOV.UK. Workers need to create a UKVI account to access their eVisa and generate a share code for their employer.
The notification letter or email telling the worker the outcome of their application is not proof of immigration status and cannot be used for right to work checks.
For date of entry checks, Appendix D has been updated to reflect that sponsors checking a worker’s date of entry will increasingly find that the worker has an eVisa only with no vignette. Where the worker has an eVisa only, their entry stamp will be on a blank page of their passport or travel document, and the sponsor must retain a copy of that page.
HR teams should be briefed on this change. The entry stamp will not be next to a vignette sticker, as it may have been previously, and staff conducting checks need to know to look for it on a blank page.
Skilled Worker Caseworker Guidance: Key Clarifications
Skilled Worker caseworker guidance version 19.0, published on 11 May 2026, is addressed to Home Office decision-makers. Several of the changes are directly relevant to sponsors and practitioners advising Skilled Worker applicants.
Transitional Salary Provisions: the CoS Assignment Date is What Counts
The guidance clarifies how to determine whether a worker qualifies for the transitional salary provisions (options F to J) that apply to workers granted permission under the rules in place before 4 April 2024.
The relevant date is when the sponsor assigned the CoS, not when the worker submitted their application or when the Home Office made its decision. Workers whose CoS was assigned before 4 April 2024 qualify for the transitional salary provisions, regardless of when they applied or were granted permission in relation to that CoS.
This is a helpful clarification for sponsors who assigned a CoS before 4 April 2024 but whose workers applied or received a decision after that date. Those workers remain eligible for the lower salary thresholds under the transitional arrangements.
Crown Dependencies: No Switching from Within the UK
The guidance now confirms that workers with leave granted by Jersey, Guernsey, or the Isle of Man cannot switch to the Skilled Worker route from within the UK. They must leave the Common Travel Area (CTA) entirely and apply for entry clearance from abroad.
This affects any employer looking to recruit a worker who currently holds a work permit from one of the Crown Dependencies. The worker cannot simply apply to switch while in the UK; they will need to travel outside the CTA and make a fresh entry clearance application.
Salary Pro-Rating
The guidance includes updated detail on how salary requirements are pro-rated. The general salary threshold cannot be pro-rated for part-time work. Where the applicant is sponsored to work more than 48 hours a week, only the salary for the first 48 hours can be considered. The exception is where hours are not the same each week; in that case, hours above 48 in some weeks can count, provided the average over a regular cycle of up to 17 weeks does not exceed 48.
Settlement qualifying period
The guidance corrects information about the settlement qualifying period. An applicant must have spent a continuous period of five years in the UK with permission (not as a dependant) in any combination of the qualifying routes, with their most recent permission in either the Skilled Worker or Tier 2 (General) route.
The guidance also confirms that an applicant does not need to have switched from Tier 2 (General) to Skilled Worker before applying for settlement, because the Immigration Rules definition of Skilled Worker includes those with Tier 2 (General) permission.
Swiss Service Providers Route Closed
Paragraph S1.13 of the Part 2 sponsor guidance has been updated to remove the bullet point relating to Swiss Service Providers. This route closed on 31 December 2025 and the reference has now been formally removed from the sponsor guidance. Sponsors should note that Swiss nationals and Swiss-based businesses can no longer rely on this route.
Institutional Renaming: Fair Work Agency and Immigration Advice Authority
Two institutional name changes are reflected across the May 2026 updates.
The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) is now the Fair Work Agency. References throughout Part 3, including the Seasonal Worker route revocation ground at Annex C1(kk), have been updated. The regulatory framework remains the same; only the name of the body has changed.
The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) is now the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA). This change is reflected across all updated documents, including Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and the caseworker guidance. Again, the registration requirements and regulatory framework are unchanged.
Sponsors and firms should update internal compliance documents, training materials, and any client-facing materials to reflect these new names.
Action Points for Sponsors
The May 2026 sponsor guidance updates require action from sponsors on several fronts. Here is a summary of the key steps to take now.
- Review your organisation’s position under the new “sham sponsor” provisions. If your business was established by an overseas national, has a limited trading history, or could be characterised as existing primarily to facilitate immigration, take legal advice on your exposure to the new mandatory refusal and revocation grounds.
- Check that your trading evidence is robust. The new “operating or trading” definition and the worked examples on insufficient activity and circular trading mean the Home Office will look more closely at whether your business has genuine external commercial activity. Sponsors in group structures should ensure their evidence goes beyond inter-company invoicing.
- Revisit any changes made to right to work processes after March 2026. If you extended right to work checks to unsponsored, non-employed contractors or agency workers in response to the earlier (now corrected) wording in Part 2, review whether that is still necessary. The obligation now applies only to workers you sponsor or employ.
- Start preparing for section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025. The expanded civil penalty regime is expected to come into force from October 2026 and will extend right to work checking obligations to a broader range of working arrangements, including individual subcontractors. Begin reviewing your processes now so you are ready when the new rules take effect.
- Brief your HR team on eVisa changes. From 20 May 2026, most workers granted entry clearance will receive an eVisa only. Your team needs to know how to conduct online right to work checks using the GOV.UK share code service, and how to locate entry stamps on blank passport pages when no vignette is present.
- Check transitional salary eligibility for workers whose CoS was assigned before 4 April 2024. If you have workers in this position who applied or received decisions after that date, confirm they are being assessed against the correct (lower) salary thresholds.
- Update internal references to the Fair Work Agency and Immigration Advice Authority. Compliance documents, training materials, and client-facing information should reflect the new names.
Conclusion
The May 2026 sponsor guidance updates represent a substantive tightening of the UK’s sponsor licensing framework on several fronts. The new mandatory refusal and revocation grounds, combined with the formal definition of “operating or trading” and the worked examples of circular trading and inactive businesses, signal a more assertive approach to licence integrity.
At the same time, the correction to the right to work obligations in S1.40 brings welcome clarity for sponsors engaging contractors and other non-employed workers. Sponsors uncertain about their compliance position, or about how these changes affect their specific circumstances, are advised to seek specialist immigration legal advice.
If you need advice on any of these changes, or want to review your sponsor licence compliance, contact City Legal Solicitors for a confidential discussion.
