Table Of Contents
- Information you can find on the sponsor list
- How to Find a Sponsor for a UK Work Visa Using Sponsor List
- Access the Sponsor’s List
- Apply Filter to Search Jobs within the Industry or Sector of your Choice
- Search the Job sponsors within the County/City/Town of your Choice
- Research about the shortlisted Sponsors
- Use Job Portals to Find Jobs Offered by Sponsors
- Find Sponsors in High-Demand Occupations
- Attend Job Fairs
- Conclusion
UK is a beautiful country to live in. The country also offers great career opportunity. This is why thousands of foreign nationals want to work in the UK. There is UK Work Visa for such non-UK aspirants. For foreign nationals who wish to work in the UK and apply for a UK work visa, they must have a job offer, in the area of their skills, and a certificate of sponsorship from an approved sponsor.
Now if you are a foreign national wanting to work in the UK, you may have this question: how to find a sponsor for a work visa? The first thing for you to know is that only an approved sponsor can sponsor foreign workers and hire them for a visa-sponsored job. A visa-sponsored job is one in which an approved sponsor, which means a UK-based company or organization, offers you a job at an appropriate skill and salary level so that you can come to the UK and work in their company.
The UK government maintains a register of organizations licensed to sponsor foreign workers on various visas. You can find a list of organizations licensed to sponsor workers on the Worker and Temporary Worker immigration routes here.
Organizations that receive sponsor licenses successfully are added to the list of sponsors. After receiving the sponsor license, such organizations can assign the Certificate of Sponsorship. The list of approved sponsors is regularly updated, with organizations being added to it and removed from it.
Information you can find on the sponsor list
In the sponsor list, you can find important information that will help you find a job and apply for a work visa. This should answer how to find a sponsor for a work visa, as the list lets you choose the right sponsor you want to work for.
Name of the Organizations –
In the sponsor’s list, you can see the names of sponsors who can assign COS. This makes it easier for you to know about the genuineness of employers who can offer you a job.
Locations of the Organizations –
In the sponsor’s list, you can also see in which city, town, and county the primary offices of organizations are located. This makes it easy for you to choose employers in a particular geographic location in the UK where you may prefer to work.
Type and Rating of Sponsors –
You can also check the type of sponsor license, worker and temporary worker, and their rating, A-rated or B-rated, here. This is important to note that only A-rated sponsors can issue certificates of sponsorship to foreign workers. If a sponsor is downgraded from an A-rating to a B-rating due to their failure to comply sponsor’s duties they cannot issue a new COS. B-rated sponsors can assign new COS only when they get back their A-rating.
Visa Route –
You can also see in the last column visa routes for which sponsors can hire foreign workers. Depending on the type of visa (Worker and Temporary worker) sponsors can hire employees in the following visa routes.
If the sponsor has a Worker type Sponsor License they can hire under the following visa categories:
- Skilled Worker Visa (Majority of foreign workers are hired under this visa route)
- Senior or Specialist Worker Visa (Global Business Mobility)
- Minister of Religion Visa
- Intra-Company Transfer Visa
- International Sportsperson Visa
Similarly, if sponsor has Temporary Worker Sponsor License they can hire under the following visa categories:
- Creative Worker Visa
- Charity Worker Visa
- Religious Worker Visa
- Government Authorized Exchange Visa
- International Agreement Visa
- Seasonal Worker Visa
- Scale-up Worker
- Graduate Trainee Visa (Global Business Mobility)
- Service Supplier Visa(Global Business Mobility)
- UK Expansion Worker Visa (Global Business Mobility)
- Secondment Worker Visa(Global Business Mobility)
Employers can apply for both worker licenses and temporary licenses depending on their recruitment needs.
How to Find a Sponsor for a UK Work Visa Using Sponsor List
You can take advantage of the sponsor’s list to find a suitable job in the UK that matches your educational qualifications and skill sets. Follow the below steps for this purpose.
1. Access the Sponsor’s List
You can access the register of worker and temporary worker licensed sponsors here. On this web page, you will see the organization name, town/city, county, type &r rating, and route. On the same page, you can click on the “Download CSV” link to download the CSV file format which gives you access to the full list of licensed sponsors.
2. Apply Filter to Search Jobs within the Industry or Sector of your Choice
From the list, you can filter down sponsors in different industries and sectors such as IT companies, healthcare organizations, financial services firms, and educational institutions which help you narrow down the job in the area of your skills and expertise.
3. Search the Job sponsors within the County/City/Town of your Choice
You may want to apply to work in a particular location (city/town/county) in the UK. The sponsor’s list gives you the sponsor’s primary office’s address. So, you can choose to apply for a job offered by sponsors in locations of your choice.
4. Research about the shortlisted Sponsors
Once you have shortlisted the companies, you can now start researching about each of them in detail. You can visit their website where you can also find what type of current job openings matching your skills are there.
5. Use Job Portals to Find Jobs Offered by Sponsors
You can also use job portals such as Indeed UK, Total jobs, LinkedIn Jobs, etc., to find openings in various companies (listed in sponsors register) in the UK.
6. Find Sponsors in High-Demand Occupations
There are jobs in ‘shortage occupations’ such as Healthcare (doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants), IT, and engineering in the UK. Shortage occupations mean that there are not enough workers in the UK to fill the vacancies. So, if you apply for a job in this category, you should search for such sponsors offering jobs in ‘shortage occupations’.
7. Attend Job Fairs
You can also attend job fairs in your country or the UK (if you are already here on a different visas) where you can find various job offerings from potential sponsors in the UK. These fairs give you good opportunities to connect with potential employers looking to recruit foreign workers.
These are some of the ways we have tried to find the answer to the question of how to find a sponsor for a UK work visa.
Conclusion
Every non-UK nationals need an authorized sponsor in the UK to get a job here. Only an approved sponsor can assign a certificate of sponsorship, a mandatory digital record for each foreign worker looking to apply for a UK work visa, to migrant workers.
You can find potential sponsors on the portal. Here you will find the name of organizations, their primary office location, and type of sponsor, their rating, and visa routes they can sponsor in.
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