2026 has already got off to a busy start in the world of UK immigration, particularly for organisations who sponsor skilled workers. On 6 March 2026 the government published a new Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules. This was accompanied by an Explanatory Memorandum. There have also been several updates to the sponsor guidance, most recently on 8 April 2026.
Given that the Home Office deem holding a sponsor licence to employ overseas nationals to be a privilege and not a right, they have placed significant trust in sponsors to ensure that the immigration system is not abused. This means that failure to comply with their sponsor duties can therefore lead to severe penalties including having their sponsor licence revoked. It is essential that all employers who hold a sponsor licence are aware of these changes.
The announcements include changes to right to work checks, a tightening of overall sponsor compliance expectations, a new eligible role test, new worker welfare obligations and an increase in the English language requirement for skilled workers. This is in addition to the proposals to introduce an ‘earned settlement’ model in the UK, which if adopted, would mean that sponsored workers would need to complete a longer qualifying period of residence before they will be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain. Reports suggest that this is likely to apply retrospectively to Skilled Workers already in the UK.
We have set out these recent changes in detail below.
Salary and Pay Periods
From 8 April 2026 a skilled worker must be paid the required salary in each pay period and not averaged across the year as was previously the case. Required salary in this context means the salary specified on their Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS), or higher. There are limited circumstances permitted by the Home Office in which a worker can be paid less than the relevant salary threshold, or the amount stated on their CoS. Sponsors will normally need to report any salary reductions to the Home Office via their Sponsor Management System when this occurs, and the worker themselves may need to make a new visa application. These limited circumstances include statutory maternity leave, statutory paternity leave and sick leave.
From April 2026, the Home Office will have direct access to HMRC payroll data, giving them significantly greater visibility over sponsor activity and migrant worker records, meaning that compliance failures will be much easier to detect. The Home Office are intending to make regular checks with HMRC to ensure sponsors are paying their sponsored workers the amount they said they would in their CoS. Unless an exception applies, if the Home Office find sponsors are paying them less, they will cancel the worker’s permission and take compliance action against the sponsor. This change ensures that the Home Office do not need to wait until a full year of salary has been paid where there are concerns about underpayment.
What action should you take now? We would recommend that you sense check payroll arrangements for sponsored workers to ensure that the above requirement is met, ahead of further salary compliance enforcement action from the Home Office. Further, it is vital that you continue to report any decreases in salary for permitted reasons on the SMS, within 10 working days of the relevant change.
English Language Requirement
From 26 March 2027, the English language requirement for settlement as a skilled worker will increase from B1 to B2. This means in turn that all skilled workers in the route who will be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain after this date will need to pass another English language test at the higher level of B2. This includes skilled workers already in the route.
Visa Break
The Home Office will now, for at least the time being, be refusing skilled worker entry clearance applications from main applicants who are nationals of Afghanistan. This change will not affect Afghan nationals who already have permission to remain in the UK.
Brand New Glossary Document
The Home Office have now introduced a new, centralised glossary document for sponsors, which separates definitions from the main sponsor guidance. This glossary can be found here.
Changes to Sponsor Licence Compliance and Enforcement
Over the last 12 months, the Home Office has significantly increased its enforcement activity around sponsor compliance and the prevention of illegal working, with record numbers of sponsor licences being revoked and civil penalty notices being issued. Recent updates to the Sponsor Guidance signal a clear move towards even stricter sponsor monitoring and enforcement by the Home Office. This will make it far easier for the Home Office to identify issues such as:
- Discrepancies between sponsored salary records and HMRC payroll submissions
- Salary reductions that were not reported via the SMS
- Delayed start dates that were not reported within the required timeframe
What action should you take now? We would recommend that you carry out a full audit of your sponsor licence processes and records to identify any gaps in your compliance with your sponsor duties, or reports that have been missed and carry out any remedial action immediately.
New Explicit Requirement for Sponsors to Provide Workers With Employment Rights Information
The new version of the Home Office sponsor guidance confirms at Section L2.6 that “all sponsors have a responsibility to comply with UK employment law. This includes ensuring and promoting the workplace-related welfare of workers they sponsor and ensuring workers understand their employment rights. This guidance has been updated at Paragraph L2.7 to read: “You must have human resources systems or processes in place which demonstrate that you provide this information to any employees or workers you sponsor. You must retain this evidence for any workers you sponsor, in accordance with Appendix D to this guidance.”
This duty applies to all employees and workers you currently sponsor and therefore if no evidence exists for someone already in post, you are already technically non-compliant.
What action should you take now? Although there is no confirmation in the guidance about how this should be provided or communicated to sponsored workers, we would recommend that it is provided to them during training or awareness courses. You will also need to ensure that your staff handbook, contract of employment and onboarding processes are comprehensive and robust to make sure that this requirement is met. Employers should actively discuss employment rights with its sponsored workers and keep records of workers’ written confirmation of receipt of relevant policies and signed contracts.
Clarification on Roles Eligible for Sponsorship
The Guidance has also been updated to replace the concept of genuine vacancy with a new definition of ‘eligible role.’ The definition of eligible role is found in the new glossary document and is as follows:
- Exists at the point you assign the relevant Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to the worker or which you can reasonably anticipate will exist by the time you assign the relevant CoS.
- Requires the jobholder to perform the specific duties and responsibilities, including the number of hours worked each week, for the job as set out on the CoS.
- Meets all of the requirements of the route the worker is being sponsored on.
- Is appropriate to the business or organisation in light of its business model, business plan and scale.
This gives the Home Office an explicit basis for questioning whether a sponsored role is genuinely connected to a real business need, and to challenge the sponsor on this point.
Renewed Importance of Accurate Job Descriptions in Certificates of Sponsorship
There is now a greater emphasis on the importance of the job descriptions in Certificates of Sponsorship being accurate specifically in the guidance i.e. the role described on the CoS must reflect the actual job that the worker will or does perform.
By way of reminder, if the sponsored worker’s role changes after their immigration permission has been granted, sponsors must consider whether a new immigration application is required or whether the change must be reported via the SMS. This will largely depend on whether the role remains in the same Standard Occupation Code. When reporting is required, the change must be reported on the SMS within 10 working days and failure to report changes may lead to compliance action from the Home Office.
The sponsor guidance clarifies that if the Home Office discover that a sponsored worker is working in a role that does not match the occupation code or job description for which the CoS was assigned, and this is not a permitted change, this will be a mandatory ground for revocation of your sponsor licence.
What action should you take now? Review the SOC Code, job title, and job description in all Certificates of Sponsorship assigned to sponsored workers to make sure that this is an accurate reflection of the role undertaken by the worker in practice. You will also need to ensure that internal processes for handling promotions, restructures and role changes are compliant with this duty.
Right to Work Checks
Changes to the sponsor guidance regarding right to work checks comes off the back of Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 receiving Royal Assent on 2 December 2025. When this is implemented in due course, this will represent the biggest change to right to work legislation in the UK since 2008.
The changes to the sponsor guidance appear to pre-empt part of what may become required under the expanded illegal working regime. Part 2 of the sponsor guidance now clarifies that sponsors are must check that any worker they wish to sponsor, or any worker you otherwise wish to employ or directly engage, has permission to enter or stay in the UK and can do the work in question before they start working for you. This applies even if the worker is, or appears to be, a British citizen or other settled worker. If you fail to carry out a right to work check, or any necessary follow-up checks, you will be in breach of your sponsor duties and may be liable for a civil penalty under illegal working legislation. If you are issued with a civil penalty, or otherwise fail to carry out the correct checks, the Home Office will normally revoke your sponsor licence.
This places a duty on a sponsor to carry out compliant right to work checks not just of their own employees, but also to workers who are not their direct employees if that individual is directly engaged by them. Unhelpfully, the term ‘directly engage’ has not yet been defined in the guidance or elsewhere, but is likely to include self-employed persons, agency workers, zero-hour worker and other directly engaged contractors.
This duty must be complied with by sponsors right away and therefore event before the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 comes into force. Failure to carry out compliant right to work checks on these individuals, who you would not have previously needed to, could now result in the loss of your sponsor licence and therefore this is a significant change to the sponsor guidance.
If this is something that you require further advice for, then please get in contact with our Immigration team.