The sponsor licence is now load-bearing.Here's how to keep yours intact.
Overseas care recruitment has closed. Revocations are at a record high, and the Home Office now spots problems from payroll data alone. FlexiEle watches the compliance signals continuously — so you see a risk before a data-match does.
Last checked 16 May 2026 · immigration rules move quickly — we keep this page current and source every figure at the foot of it.
What changed in 2025 — and what happens in 2028.
On 22 July 2025 the Health & Care Worker visa closed to overseas Care Workers and Senior Care Workers. No new applications can be made from abroad. The domestic shortage that drove overseas recruitment has not gone away — the supply line has simply been cut.
A transition period runs until 22 July 2028. Until then a provider can still sponsor people already in the UK — an existing care-visa holder, or someone switching from another route who has been on the payroll for three continuous months. After that date the route is expected to close, and the care worker visa codes to be removed from sponsorship altogether. So the countdown is real — but it counts down to the last day you can sponsor a care worker at all, not to anyone being removed. Source: House of Commons Library
What 22 July 2028 changes
- The last in-country route closes — you can no longer sponsor someone switching from a Graduate, Student or Dependant visa into a care role.
- The care worker and senior care worker occupation codes are expected to be removed from sponsorship eligibility entirely.
- With it goes the last way to bring a new person into a sponsored care role at all.
What it does not change
- Care workers already on a Health & Care Worker visa keep working — they are not removed from the country.
- They can extend their visa, change employer, and stay on a route to settlement.
- Until the date itself, you can still sponsor existing care-visa holders and eligible in-country switchers.
When a licence goes, the workforce goes with it.
Sponsor licence revocations are running at their highest level since the register opened in 2012. Around 3,100 licences were revoked across all sectors in calendar 2025 — up from 1,948 in the year to June 2025, itself roughly double the year before. Source: OTS Solicitors
Adult social care is one of the sectors the Home Office has named for high non-compliance; close to a third of revocations are in health and social care. When a licence is revoked, the provider's sponsored workers have 60 days to find a new sponsor or leave the UK.
For a service where much of the staffing is sponsored, that can mean insolvency — and the rematching scheme meant to catch displaced workers succeeds in only 3 to 4% of cases. Source: Work Rights Centre The licence is no longer a back-office formality. It is a load-bearing wall.
The inspection you can't tidy up for.
The Home Office no longer relies mainly on knocking on the door. UK Visas and Immigration uses HMRC data-matching to spot discrepancies remotely — comparing the salary on a Certificate of Sponsorship against the pay that payroll actually ran. A salary problem is found in the data, often with no visit at all. Source: GOV.UK
That changes what compliance means. You cannot quietly tidy up before an announced visit when much of the detection happens without one — and an issue that might once have drawn a warning can now lead straight to suspension or revocation.
- HMRC data-matching compares the salary on a Certificate of Sponsorship against the pay payroll actually ran — and flags the gap.
- A single pay period can be enough — a sleep-in pattern or unpaid leave that drags qualifying basic pay below the hourly threshold for that period.
- Records must be producible quickly: contracts, payslips, rotas, timesheets and right-to-work evidence, kept per sponsored worker.
Watch every signal the Home Office watches.
FlexiEle began as an HR platform, and that heritage matters here. A care-records product can document care beautifully; it was never built to reconcile a Certificate of Sponsorship against payroll, or to watch a salary threshold across pay periods. FlexiEle's workforce module does exactly that — turning sponsor licence compliance from an annual scramble into something the system holds for you, every day.
Salary-threshold monitor
Every sponsored worker's pay, checked continuously against their Certificate of Sponsorship salary and the £12.82/hour and £31,300 thresholds — flagging any pay period where qualifying basic pay slips below.
CoS-vs-actual reconciliation
What the Certificate of Sponsorship states — role, hours, salary, work address — held against what the rota, timesheets and payroll actually show.
Right-to-work re-checks
Every right-to-work check recorded with its digital status, and re-check reminders raised automatically before any document or visa expires.
SMS reporting prompts
When something changes that must reach the Sponsor Management System within the deadline — a role, an address, an absence, an early leaver — the manager is prompted in time.
Personnel-file completeness
Missing documents flagged per sponsored worker — contracts, evidence, qualifications — so a gap is closed before the Home Office finds it.
One-click compliance pack
The bundle a compliance officer asks for — contracts, payslips, rotas, timesheets, right-to-work and recruitment records — assembled per worker, on demand.
3-month payroll tracker
For in-country switchers, the three continuous months of payrolled employment required before a Certificate of Sponsorship can be assigned, tracked automatically.
Displaced-worker evidence
Support for the rule requiring providers to consider displaced international care workers first — with the recruitment trail to evidence it.
You can't recruit your way out of this any more.
With the overseas route closed, your workforce is — for the first time — genuinely finite. Every carer who leaves is increasingly one you cannot replace from abroad, and may struggle to replace at all.
So retention stops being an HR nicety and becomes the workforce strategy. The surest way to protect a sponsor licence is to depend on it less — by keeping the people you already have.
FlexiEle's workforce module is built for that: a rota that respects continuity, working-time limits and people's lives; a training pathway mapped to the Care Certificate and the Care Workforce Pathway; and supervisions that are tracked rather than hoped for.
Inside the workforce module- A fair, predictable rota — built around continuity and working-time rules, not around gaps.
- A real development path — training and progression mapped to recognised care frameworks.
- Supervisions that happen — prompted and tracked, never quietly skipped.
Sponsor licences & the visa change — asked and answered.
What happened to the care worker visa in 2025?
On 22 July 2025 the Health & Care Worker visa closed to overseas Care Workers and Senior Care Workers. New applications can no longer be made from abroad. A transition period allows in-country switching to continue, but only until 22 July 2028.
Is 22 July 2028 a deadline for my sponsored workers to leave the UK?
No — and this matters. It is the date the last in-country recruitment route is expected to close. Care workers already on a Health & Care Worker visa can keep working, extend their visa, switch employers and remain on a route to settlement. The countdown is about recruitment ending, not workers being removed.
What happens if my sponsor licence is revoked?
Your sponsored workers are given 60 days to find a new sponsor or leave the UK. If a large share of your staff are sponsored, losing the licence can lead to insolvency. In some breach categories revocation is mandatory — the courts have confirmed the Home Office must revoke, whatever the consequences.
What triggers a sponsor licence revocation?
Common grounds include actual pay falling below the salary stated on the Certificate of Sponsorship or below the £12.82/hour threshold; failing to report changes to the Sponsor Management System within the deadline; incomplete personnel files or missing right-to-work evidence; roles that are not genuine; and supplying sponsored workers to third parties.
Does the Home Office still need a site visit to find a problem?
No. UK Visas and Immigration now uses HMRC data-matching to identify salary discrepancies remotely. A problem can be found in the payroll data with no visit at all — and an issue that might once have brought a warning can now lead straight to suspension or revocation.
Can I still recruit care workers from overseas?
Not on the Health & Care Worker visa. Until 22 July 2028 you can still sponsor people already in the UK — an existing care-visa holder switching employer, or someone moving from another route (such as a Graduate or Student visa) who has been on your payroll for three continuous months.
How much does it cost to sponsor a care worker?
The employer pays — never the worker. Costs include the Immigration Skills Charge (around £480 a year for small employers and charities, £1,320 otherwise, per worker), a £525 Certificate of Sponsorship fee, plus licence and visa fees. Asking the worker to cover any of it is itself a revocation-grade breach. Source: Davidson Morris
How does FlexiEle help protect a sponsor licence?
It continuously monitors the signals the Home Office checks — pay against the CoS salary and the hourly threshold, right-to-work expiry, reportable changes and personnel-file gaps — and assembles a Home Office compliance-visit pack in one click. The aim is simple: you see a problem before a data-match does.
See your sponsor licence risk before the Home Office does.
Book a 20-minute demo and we'll walk through the control tower on your own service — salary monitoring, reporting prompts and the one-click compliance pack. No slides.
Where these figures come from
This page covers fast-moving immigration policy. Every figure on it is drawn from the sources below, and we re-check them at each milestone — the date at the top of the page tells you when they were last verified.