For sponsored workers
For sponsored workers
You have done nothing wrong, and the Home Office does not treat you as if you have. But when a sponsor's licence is revoked, the workers it sponsored usually receive a letter cutting their permission short. What you do with that time decides what happens next. This page is for you, not your employer.
The letter tells you your permission has been shortened, in the usual case to 60 days from the date of the letter, or left unchanged if you already had less than 60 days remaining. Until that new expiry date your status is lawful: you are not an overstayer, and the time still counts as lawful residence. Check the exact date on the letter and in your eVisa, and write it down somewhere you will see it. Everything below runs to that date.
Whether you can keep working for your current employer in the meantime depends on your circumstances, including whether the employment itself is continuing. Take advice on your specific position rather than assuming either way, especially if your employer is winding down.
Everything above is the position for sponsored workers generally, and it still is. There is now one exception, and it is narrow. Version 12.0 of the Home Office caseworker guidance Cancellation and curtailment of permission tells caseworkers they "must not cancel a person's permission" where the worker holds permission as a care worker (SOC 6135 or 6145) or senior care worker (SOC 6136 or 6146) and "the sole reason for cancellation would be the revocation of the sponsor's licence". Those workers keep their permission to its original expiry date rather than being cut to 60 days.
It applies to those four occupation codes and no others: every other sponsored worker, on every other code and route, is in the 60 day position described above. Check the code on your certificate of sponsorship rather than going by your job title.
The guidance calls the arrangement "temporary and subject to regular review", so it can be withdrawn without any change to the Immigration Rules. It applies only where revocation is the sole reason to cancel; any other ground is considered in the usual way. And it stops your permission being cut short, it does not extend it: you cannot carry on indefinitely and you certainly cannot renew with that employer, because a sponsor without a licence cannot assign you a certificate of sponsorship. Note too that the sponsor guidance itself, Part 3 version 08/26, still says at C10.2 that workers' permission "will be cancelled". That sentence predates this change. If your permission was already curtailed before 11 September 2026, the guidance does not say what happens, so take advice on the dates rather than assuming either way.
A new sponsor. The most common route. You find a new employer that holds a sponsor licence, it assigns you a new certificate of sponsorship, and you submit a fresh Skilled Worker application before your current permission expires. The new job must itself meet the route's requirements on occupation and salary. Start the search immediately: licensed employers can be found on the public register, and recruiters who work with sponsored candidates know who genuinely sponsors.
A different route. Depending on your circumstances you may qualify under another route altogether: a partner visa if your partner is British or settled, a Graduate or study route, an Innovator Founder application if you have a business, or something more specific. A route switch is sometimes the better long term move, not just the fallback.
A planned departure. If neither is realistic in the time, leaving the UK before your permission expires protects your immigration history. It keeps your record clean for a future application, which overstaying would put at risk. It is a hard option, but as a chosen strategy it is far better than as an accident.
The one option that does not exist is waiting. An application submitted before your permission expires extends your lawful position while it is decided; an application a day after expiry does not. The difference between those two sentences is your entire future flexibility in the UK.
Check your eVisa through your UKVI account, generate a share code, and confirm the expiry date matches the letter. If anything looks wrong, raise it immediately rather than at the border or the job interview.
Payslips, employment contract, references and your certificate of sponsorship details. Get them while your employer still functions and still answers emails: a company losing its licence is often a company in trouble.
Finding an employer, agreeing a role, having a certificate assigned and preparing an application routinely consumes most of the 60 days. Applications made in the final week carry risks that applications made in week three do not.
Dependants, a pending settlement application, a break in employment, an employer disputing the revocation: any of these changes the analysis. One conversation with a solicitor in week one is worth ten in week eight.
Your partner's and children's permission follows yours. Whatever route you take needs to work for them too, and their applications usually travel with your own. Factor them into the plan from the start, not as an afterthought.
Lawyery advises sponsored workers and their families on exactly this situation: honestly, at fixed fees, and at the speed the deadline demands.
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