What is licence revocation?
A sponsor licence can be revoked by the Home Office where a sponsor is found to have failed to meet its compliance obligations. This may result from a Home Office audit, unreported changes, or non-payment of the Immigration Skills Charge.
Impact on sponsored workers
When a licence is revoked, sponsored workers are directly affected:
Their Certificate of Sponsorship is cancelled
The Home Office will issue curtailment letters to workers, informing them that their leave is being shortened, typically to 60 days from the date of the letter, or to however long is left on the visa if that is less than 60 days
Once the curtailment letter is received, workers should act immediately to secure new sponsorship
Can the worker keep working during the 60 days?
Not for the sponsor that lost its licence. Sponsorship ends with the licence, so the employment has to end. GOV.UK puts it plainly: the worker will have to leave their job and leave the UK unless they make a new visa application within that time.
The permission itself is still valid until the curtailed date, so the worker remains lawfully in the UK and can use the window to find a new sponsor and submit a new application. What they cannot do is move straight to a new employer and start work on the old permission. The new employer has to assign a Certificate of Sponsorship and the worker has to make a new application, and the new employer must verify right to work through the Employer Checking Service before that person starts.
If a new application is submitted before the curtailment period expires, the worker is protected and can continue on that basis while the application is pending.
The 60-day window: when it starts and when it doesn't
The 60-day curtailment period only applies where sponsorship has been actively curtailed or terminated. This includes situations where the sponsor licence has been revoked, the employer has ended the sponsorship, or the worker has been dismissed. It does not apply when a CoS expiry date has simply been reached. Where sponsorship has not been curtailed and the worker's visa is still valid, they retain the right to work up to the visa expiry date.
The 60 days run from the date the worker receives the curtailment letter from the Home Office, not from the date sponsorship ended. The Home Office takes a variable amount of time to issue this letter, sometimes a week, sometimes several months.
Supplementary employment after revocation
Once a licence is revoked, workers may not undertake supplementary employment, even if their visa expiry date has not yet been reached. The right to supplementary employment depends on active sponsorship by a valid primary sponsor.
Can a new employer recruit a worker whose previous sponsor was revoked?
Yes, but timing matters. A new licensed sponsor can take on a worker provided one of the following applies: the worker has not yet received a curtailment letter from the Home Office; or the worker has received a letter and is still inside the 60-day period. If 60 days have passed since the curtailment letter was issued, the worker is treated as an overstayer and cannot be sponsored without leaving the UK first.
There is no requirement for the worker to have worked for the new employer for three months before being sponsored, since this is a change of sponsor rather than a switch of immigration category.
Right to work checks during the curtailment period
Employers should use the Employer Checking Service (ECS) during the curtailment period rather than relying on the standard share code check, as the right to work system may not immediately reflect the curtailment.
What about workers whose employer closes down?
If a sponsor's licence is revoked or the sponsoring employer ceases trading, curtailment rules apply in the same way as for any other revocation. The worker will receive a curtailment letter giving them 60 days to find a new sponsor and submit a fresh visa application. Critically, the expiry date shown on the worker's BRP or eVisa is not the operative date in this situation. Any prospective new employer must complete an Employer Checking Service check to confirm the worker's right to work status before allowing them to start, rather than relying on a document showing a later expiry date.
Suspension and revocation are not the same thing
While a licence is suspended, the sponsor cannot assign any new Certificates of Sponsorship, and any extension applications for its workers will not be processed until the suspension ends. Workers already sponsored who hold valid permission are not affected, unless and until the Home Office goes on to revoke the licence. All sponsor duties continue throughout.
When a licence is revoked, the workers' permission is cancelled and the Home Office writes to each of them curtailing their leave.
Hiring someone whose sponsor has lost its licence
The window is 60 days from the Home Office letter, or however long the worker has left on their visa if that is less than 60 days. It is not six months, and it is not measured from the date their employment ended. Within that window the worker can apply on a new basis, including a Skilled Worker application with a new sponsor. Once it expires they are an overstayer and cannot be sponsored without leaving the UK first.
There is one situation with no window at all: where the worker was involved in the reasons the sponsor lost its licence, their permission is withdrawn and they have to leave the UK immediately.
Before you make an offer, ask for four things:
The Home Office letter itself, so you can read the curtailed expiry date rather than working it out
The date the worker received it, which is what the 60 days runs from
Confirmation of whether the licence is suspended or revoked, since a suspension does not affect their permission
A right to work check before employment starts, run on their current status rather than on a document showing a later expiry date
There is no requirement for the worker to have worked for you for three months first. That condition applies to the care worker in-country route generally, and the Home Office guidance confirms it is not imposed where a worker is moving because their sponsor lost its licence.
Timing is the real constraint. A CoS request, a CoS assignment and a visa application all have to fit inside the remaining window, so treat these cases as urgent from the first conversation.
Government guidance: https://www.gov.uk/employee-lose-sponsor-licence