New sponsor compliance duties

23 March 2026 | posted in Immigration law

This insight is part of our Business Law newsletter | Spring 2026 series. Explore the full series at the end of this piece.

The Home Office recently introduced changes to sponsor compliance requirements, with updates across the sponsor guidance, appendix D, and a new glossary of defined terms. These changes materially raise the compliance standard for all sponsor licence holders, and organisations must act immediately to ensure ongoing compliance.

1. Introduction of a new defined term: “eligible role”

The updated guidance introduces the term “eligible role” within the new glossary, which replaces the previous requirement of a “genuine vacancy”.

Core features of the definition:

A role is only eligible for a certificate of sponsorship (CoS) if:

It genuinely exists at the time of assigning the CoS.
It requires the worker to carry out the specific duties, responsibilities and hours for the role as set out in the CoS.
It meets all requirements of the specific sponsored work route, including the applicable skill level and salary threshold.
It aligns with the sponsor’s business model, business plan and scale.

Impact on sponsors:

The Home Office can now challenge whether a role reflects a genuine business need.

This new definition replaces and effectively strengthens the existing “genuine vacancy” concept and may cause issues to sponsorship plans if not carefully assessed at the initial stages.

2. Retention of evidence relating to worker rights and welfare information

What has changed:

Appendix D now expressly requires that sponsors retain evidence that they have provided sponsored workers with written information about their employment rights in the UK. The new guidance outlines acceptable evidence which should be retained, including:

Pension auto-enrolment and opt-outs
Copies of any written communications to workers
Employer duties under the Equality Act
Records of training or awareness courses given to workers
How to raise grievances in the workplace.

Sponsors must now have HR systems or processes in place demonstrating this provision of information.

Why this is critical:

This duty applies to all current sponsored workers.
If evidence does not exist for a current worker, the organisation is already noncompliant.
Sponsors must therefore audit every existing sponsored worker and ensure that the evidence is available and retained.

3. Scrutiny of job descriptions and occupation codes

Changes have also been made to the guidance relating to sponsor duties and compliance, notably as follows:

To confirm that it is the duty of a sponsor to ensure that the actual work being performed by a sponsored worker matches the job description and occupation code as stated on their CoS.

The new guidance also states that if the Home Office discovers the above is not the position, and any changes do not come within what is known as a permitted change, this leads to a mandatory revocation of a sponsor licence.

Action to take

Sponsors will need to consider whether any changes to a sponsored worker’s role, such as a promotion, results in the latter carrying out duties different to what is stated in the job description on their CoS and leads to them coming under a different occupation code.

If so, sponsors will then need to check whether a new CoS is required and a change of employment application needs to be made for the individual in question to ensure compliance.