Can a recruitment agency sponsor your visa? What the UK sponsor rules allow

A recruitment agency can hold a Home Office sponsor licence, but only to sponsor people it employs directly to work in its own business, such as its own recruiters. It cannot sponsor you and then supply you as labour to a client, such as a care home or a hospital, however the contract is worded. If you will be working for the client, the client must be your sponsor. Agencies in Great Britain also cannot charge you a fee for finding you work. This is how the Home Office sponsor guidance and gov.uk put it, checked on 23 October 2026.

This is general information, not immigration advice. If an agency has offered to sponsor you, check the arrangement with a regulated adviser from the Immigration Advice Authority register before you pay for anything or sign a contract.

What do the sponsor rules say about agencies?

The sponsor guidance, part 1 deals with this directly. An employment agency, employment business or other intermediary "can apply for a sponsor licence but only to sponsor workers who will be employed directly by you in connection with the running of your business". It goes on: "You cannot sponsor a worker and then supply them as labour to another organisation, regardless of any genuine contractual arrangement between the parties involved."

The sponsor guidance, part 2 sets out the general test for anyone working on a contract basis. The sponsor must be "whoever has full responsibility for all of the duties, functions and outcomes or outputs of the job". It says a sponsor cannot sponsor a worker if the job amounts to "the hiring out of the worker" to fill a position with another organisation, or to do "an ongoing routine role" for a third party.

There is a narrow exception for genuine projects. A company contracted to deliver a project with a fixed end date, such as an IT system, can send its own sponsored employee to work at the client's premises, because it stays fully responsible for the work. That is very different from placing a carer, nurse or warehouse worker into a client's ongoing rota.

What happens to an agency that breaks the rule?

The sponsor guidance, part 3 lists the circumstances in which the Home Office "will revoke your licence". They include a sponsor that is, or is acting as, an employment agency or employment business where "you have supplied a worker you are sponsoring to a third party as labour".

For you, a revoked sponsor is a serious problem. The Home Office's caseworker guidance says that when a sponsor loses its licence, a worker who was not involved will normally have their permission cut to 60 days, to find a new sponsor or leave. A worker who was complicit can face immediate cancellation.

Who should your sponsor be if an agency found you the job?

The organisation you will actually work for. Part 1 of the sponsor guidance says an employer can assign a certificate of sponsorship to a worker introduced through an agency only if it:

• has genuine responsibility for deciding all the duties, functions and outcomes of the job
• is responsible for agreeing and paying the worker's salary

So an agency can introduce you to an employer, and the employer can then sponsor you. In health and social care, the government's code of practice for international recruitment in England asks employers to use agencies on the NHS Employers ethical recruiters list.

How many recruitment agencies hold a sponsor licence?

We keep a daily copy of the Home Office Register of Licensed Sponsors. On 23 October 2026 we counted Skilled Worker licences held by organisations whose names contain recruitment, recruiting, recruiters, staffing, resourcing, personnel, employment agency or executive search.

Two cautions. A name match is a heuristic: some agencies do not use these words, and a few organisations that do are not agencies. And the register never says why a name was removed. A removal can follow a revocation, a suspension, a surrendered licence or a change of name, so none of the 34 should be read as a revocation. Our monthly register change reports track additions and removals across the whole register.

These agencies hold licences to sponsor their own staff. Our page of recruitment and staffing agencies that sponsor visas in London lists them by name, which is useful if you want a job inside an agency, for example as a recruiter. It is not a list of agencies that can sponsor you for a client's job, because none can.

Can an agency charge you a fee?

Not for finding you work. Gov.uk's guide to employment agencies and businesses says agencies cannot "charge a fee to a work-seeker for work finding services", withhold wages due, or make unlawful deductions from pay. They can charge for other services, such as CV writing or transport, only if the terms are in a separate document given to you before the service is provided.

The health and care code of practice goes further for international recruits. It says recruitment organisations must not charge candidates fees for recruitment services, and that employers must not use agencies, including overseas sub-contractors, that do.

On top of that, Home Office rules say the employer that sponsors you must pay the certificate of sponsorship fee and the Immigration Skills Charge itself and must not recover them from you. Anyone presenting these costs as yours is breaking the rules.

Red flags when an agency offers sponsorship

• It says it will sponsor you and then place you with a client.
• It asks you for a "sponsorship", "CoS" or "placement" fee.
• Your contract is with the agency, but you will work on a client's rota under the client's managers.
• It offers a care worker visa from outside the UK. That route closed to overseas applicants on 22 July 2025.
• It will not tell you who your employer and sponsor will be in writing.

Before you accept any offer, check the employer named on it with our sponsor licence check.

Sources: register figures come from our copy synced at 02:02 on 23 October 2026, and every gov.uk page linked in this article was checked that day.

Frequently asked questions

Can a recruitment agency sponsor me for a Skilled Worker visa? Only if the agency itself will employ you to work in its own business, for example as a recruiter. Home Office guidance says an agency cannot sponsor a worker and then supply them as labour to another organisation, whatever the contract says.

Can a care agency sponsor a care worker? A care provider that directly employs and manages its own care workers, and in England is registered with the Care Quality Commission, can be a sponsor, subject to the rule that care worker applications must now be made from inside the UK. What is not allowed is a recruitment agency sponsoring a worker and hiring them out to another organisation's care home or rota.

What happens if my agency sponsor is caught supplying me to a client? The sponsor guidance lists this among the circumstances in which the Home Office will revoke the licence. Caseworker guidance says a worker who was not involved would normally have their permission cut to 60 days to find a new sponsor or leave.

Is it legal for a recruitment agency to charge me a fee to find a job in the UK? No. Gov.uk says agencies cannot charge a fee to a work-seeker for work-finding services. They can charge for optional extra services, such as CV writing, only on separate written terms given in advance.

How many recruitment agencies hold a UK sponsor licence? As of 23 October 2026, 398 organisations with recruitment, staffing, resourcing or personnel in their name held a Skilled Worker licence in our copy of the Home Office register. They can sponsor their own staff, not workers they place with clients.