When you integrate an existing sponsor licence with Borderless, one step asks for your Representative Reference Number. This is the reference the Home Office issues when a representative is appointed on your licence. It is the most common sticking point in the whole integration, so it is worth knowing exactly what you are looking for.

A reference beginning SPL, followed by digits, is a different thing. This is the reference for your sponsor licence application and it appears in the subject line of Home Office emails about that application, often alongside your organisation name. It will not work in the Representative Reference Number field.

The example number shown in the Borderless platform illustrates the format only. It is not your number. Always enter the value exactly as it appears in the document you received from the Home Office.

The Representative Reference Number is normally provided in your sponsor licence grant letter. That is a separate document from the emails confirming or acknowledging your application, so search your inbox for the grant letter itself, including attachments, rather than for licence correspondence generally.

If more than one person at your organisation deals with Home Office correspondence, the grant letter may have gone to your Authorising Officer rather than to you. It is worth asking them directly before concluding the letter is missing.

You can check this yourself in the Sponsor Management System (SMS). Log in, open your Licence Summary, and look at the representative details recorded there. Whether we are already listed determines whether you start at the representative step or go straight to the Level 1 User step.

If your sponsor licence was applied for through Borderless, we may already have been added as a representative during that original application. The platform asks you to confirm this, and if you are not sure you can select "I'm not sure" and your Borderless advisor will check on your behalf.

Tick Manual Processing in the integration form and continue. Do not guess a number or enter your SPL reference to get past the step, as an incorrect value will cause the request to fail and add delay.

Then tell your Borderless contact that you could not locate the number, and let them know what you have coming up: visa expiries, a CoS you need to assign, or a change you need to report. Not having the reference to hand does not have to hold up everything else, and we can work out what can be progressed in the meantime.

For the full integration process, including where this step sits, see Sponsor Licence Integration.

Government guidance: Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors part 1, apply for a licence