Register of licensed sponsors: search the list of the day
127,800 organisations held a worker or temporary worker licence on 13 October 2026, 122,416 of them for the Skilled Worker route.
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Register of licensed sponsors published by the Home Office on 13 October 2026 (127,800 organisations), Open Government Licence v3.0. Searched in your browser. Not affiliated with the Home Office.
Published by Radif Partners · How we calculate · Home Office fees of 8 October 2026, rules checked 13 October 2026
The register of licensed sponsors is the list, published by the Home Office every working day, of the organisations allowed to sponsor people on work routes: only an employer on it can issue the certificate of sponsorship a Skilled Worker needs. The file of 13 October 2026 has 143,218 lines for 127,800 organisations, because an employer appears once for each route it may use. 122,416 organisations can sponsor Skilled Workers; others hold licences for Senior or Specialist Workers, ministers of religion, creative workers, charity workers or sportspeople. Almost all are A-rated; 95 carry a B rating, which stops them assigning new certificates until they complete an action plan. The search above reads that same file in your browser: type the name, add a town or a route, and it shows each matching employer with its town, rating and routes. Being on the list does not mean an employer has a job for you, only that it is allowed to sponsor one.
What the register contains, route by route
| Route | Lines in the register | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Skilled Worker | 123,195 | 86.0 % |
| Global Business Mobility: Senior or Specialist Worker | 10,439 | 7.3 % |
| Tier 2 Ministers of Religion | 1,961 | 1.4 % |
| Creative Worker | 1,584 | 1.1 % |
| Charity Worker | 1,531 | 1.1 % |
| International Sportsperson | 1,474 | 1.0 % |
| Religious Worker | 1,433 | 1.0 % |
| Global Business Mobility: Graduate Trainee | 622 | 0.4 % |
| Global Business Mobility: UK Expansion Worker | 431 | 0.3 % |
| Government Authorised Exchange | 247 | 0.2 % |
| International Agreement | 134 | 0.1 % |
| Scale-up | 92 | 0.1 % |
| Global Business Mobility: Service Supplier | 56 | 0.0 % |
| Seasonal Worker | 6 | 0.0 % |
| Global Business Mobility: Secondment Worker | 6 | 0.0 % |
| Tier 2 General | 5 | 0.0 % |
| Intra-company Routes | 1 | 0.0 % |
| Intra Company Transfers (ICT) | 1 | 0.0 % |
Each line gives the organisation's name as licensed, its town and, for some, a county, the type and rating of the licence, and the route. There is no address, no sector and no occupation code: the register says who may sponsor, not for which jobs. An organisation that sponsors on several routes appears on several lines, which is why the search groups them under one name and town.
Ratings: A, B and the rest
| Type and rating | Lines |
|---|---|
| Worker (A rating) | 137,411 |
| Temporary Worker (A rating) | 5,610 |
| Worker (UK Expansion Worker: Provisional ) | 95 |
| Worker (B rating) | 94 |
| Worker (A (Premium)) | 4 |
| Temporary Worker (B rating) | 1 |
| Worker (A (SME+)) | 1 |
| Temporary Worker (A (SME+)) | 1 |
| Temporary Worker (A (Premium)) | 1 |
A licence that is granted starts with an A rating, which allows the sponsor to assign certificates of sponsorship. When a sponsor stops meeting its duties, UKVI can downgrade it to B: it then cannot issue new certificates, except to workers it already employs who extend their stay, until it completes an action plan, which costs £1,579 and must be paid within 10 working days of the downgrade. A sponsor can have only two B ratings during the life of its licence; failing the second action plan means losing the licence, and a revoked sponsor must wait at least 12 months before applying again. Applicants under the UK Expansion Worker route may also see a provisional rating, which allows a single certificate for the person setting up the UK branch.
Using the search well
Search by the legal name rather than the brand: many employers are licensed as a company ("… Limited", "… LLP", "… NHS Foundation Trust") or through a group entity. Short words help: "Siemens" finds every licensed Siemens company, while the full name of one subsidiary may not. The town in the register is the one the sponsor gave, often its head office, so a branch in another city can be licensed under the head office's town. If an employer is missing, it may hold its licence under a parent company's name, or it may not be licensed yet: it can apply, which usually takes about 8 weeks, as the sponsor licence page explains.
The copy on this site is the Home Office CSV of 13 October 2026, reused under the Open Government Licence and refreshed each working day. For a decision that depends on it, such as accepting a job, check the employer's licence number on your certificate of sponsorship and the official register.