Your Sponsor Lost Its Licence or Pulled the Offer: The Clock Starts Now

When a UK sponsor's licence is revoked, UK Visas and Immigration curtails the permission of the workers it sponsored and writes to each of them. The letter shortens your permission to stay and gives you a limited window to find a new licensed sponsor, switch to a different route you qualify for, or leave the UK. As published in Home Office sponsorship and curtailment guidance, that window is commonly 60 days counted from the date of the curtailment letter, and it is shorter when you have less than 60 days of permission left, because UKVI cannot extend your stay by curtailing it. The same mechanism applies when you stop being employed by your sponsor, whether the employer withdrew the offer before you started, made you redundant, or you resigned.

Two details decide everything that follows. The countdown usually runs from the date on the curtailment letter, so the weeks between your last working day and the letter arriving are not part of your window. And the letter is the authoritative figure for your case: if it names a different number of days or a specific date, that date governs. Canada and Australia handle the same event differently, and both are covered below. This article is general information. Read your own letter first, then have a regulated adviser confirm your case.

What the curtailment letter actually looks like

The letter comes from UK Visas and Immigration, usually by email to the address on your last application, and sometimes by post. People miss it because it lands in a spam folder or goes to an old address, and the clock runs anyway. Check both today if you have any reason to think your sponsor is in trouble. The letter typically names four things:

• The reason. Your sponsor's licence was revoked, or your sponsorship ended because you stopped working for them.
• The new expiry date of your permission. This is the number that matters. Write it on a calendar.
• What you can do inside the window. Apply for permission under another route, find a new licensed sponsor who assigns you a fresh Certificate of Sponsorship, or leave the UK.
• Whether you may work in the meantime. This depends on your circumstances and what the letter says. Do not assume.

Save a PDF copy in three places, because you will be quoting the date to prospective employers, to an adviser, and possibly to a landlord or bank running a right-to-work check. If no letter has arrived and you have heard your employer's licence is gone, you are still in a real position: your permission is liable to curtailment and the letter may be in transit. Start the search now instead of waiting for confirmation, and get your documents in order while you have time to do it calmly.

Why the countdown usually starts with the letter

Sponsors are required to report changes to UK Visas and Immigration through the sponsorship management system within a short reporting deadline. The Home Office sponsor guidance commonly publishes that deadline as 10 working days for reportable events such as a worker's employment ending. Treat it as a planning figure and check the current sponsor guidance on GOV.UK, because reporting deadlines are revised with the guidance. UKVI then processes the report and issues curtailment. That chain takes time, and the time it takes is not usually deducted from your window. Three consequences follow.

The gap is usable. If you were made redundant in March and the letter arrives in May, you have had those weeks plus the window in the letter. Spend them applying. The gap is not guaranteed, because a revocation of the whole licence can generate letters quickly, so plan as though the letter arrives next week. Silence is not safety. Nothing arriving does not mean nothing is happening. Employers sometimes fail to report, and a later correction can produce a curtailment letter months after the fact. If your sponsored employment has ended, treat your status as time-limited from that day.

Who this affects

• Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker visa holders in the UK whose employer lost its licence, went into administration, was bought, or made them redundant.
• People whose job offer was withdrawn after the Certificate of Sponsorship was assigned but before or shortly after they started work.
• Workers on Canadian employer-specific work permits who have been laid off or whose employer's LMIA-backed job disappeared.
• Holders of Australian employer-sponsored temporary visas who ceased employment with their sponsoring employer, and New Zealand Accredited Employer Work Visa holders whose employer's accreditation lapsed or whose role ended.
• Dependants, whose permission is tied to the main applicant's and is curtailed alongside it.

Anyone on a route with no employer link is unaffected by sponsor licence revocation in this way. The pressure described here belongs to employer-tied permissions.

The windows by country, as published

Every figure below is a planning figure taken from the named authority's published guidance. Rules change, and your own letter or visa grant notice overrides the general position. Confirm on the authority's own page first.

Two entries in that table deserve their real detail, because they are where readers most often act on a wrong assumption.

Canada: the permit stays valid, the work authorisation does not transfer

An employer-specific (closed) work permit names an employer, and often an occupation and location. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada treats that permit as valid until the date printed on it even after the job ends, and you generally remain in Canada with temporary resident status until that date. The permit authorises work only for the employer named on it, so starting work for a different employer on the strength of the old permit is unauthorised work. Your realistic paths, all IRCC processes you should confirm on IRCC's own pages:

• A new employer-specific work permit, normally supported by a new Labour Market Impact Assessment from the new employer, unless the job falls under an LMIA-exempt category.
• An open work permit if you qualify, including the open work permit for vulnerable workers, which exists for people experiencing abuse or at risk of abuse in the job. IRCC publishes the eligibility criteria and the evidence expected.
• A spousal open work permit, if your partner holds status that supports one.
• A change of status, for example to a study permit or visitor status, to stay lawfully while you sort out the next step.

There is also a public policy that has at times allowed applicants who have applied for a new work permit to begin working before the decision. Whether it is open, and on what terms, changes, so check the IRCC page on the day you apply. The discipline in Canada is to keep your status valid: working without authorisation, or letting status lapse, creates problems that outlast the job loss.

Australia: the day counter

Australia's employer-sponsored temporary visas carry a condition about ceasing employment. Since the reforms to the sponsored work visa programme, the Department of Home Affairs has published a period during which a visa holder may remain in Australia after ceasing work with the sponsoring employer, expressed as a maximum number of consecutive days per cessation and a maximum total across the life of the visa. Treat the widely cited planning figures, up to 180 consecutive days per cessation and a total not exceeding 365 days across the life of the visa, as a planning range only. Read the current condition as published by the Department of Home Affairs and the conditions printed on your own grant notice, because both the day counts and the work conditions attached to the period have been revised since the reforms and your grant notice governs your case.

The period comes with limits on what work you may do while you look, and its purpose is to let you find a new approved sponsor who lodges a nomination, or apply for another visa you qualify for.

What you need before you start looking

Assemble this in the first 48 hours. Every hour spent hunting documents later is an hour off your window.

1. The curtailment letter or your grant notice, with the date highlighted.
2. Your passport and current visa or permit, plus your biometric residence permit or digital status share code if your country uses one.
3. A dated employment record: contract, start date, last working day, payslips, and any redundancy or termination letter. A new sponsor's HR team will want to see the shape of the previous sponsorship.
4. Your occupation code and salary history as they appeared on the original sponsorship. A new sponsor has to match a role to an eligible occupation and pay at or above the applicable threshold, and starting from your existing code saves days.
5. Qualification and English evidence you already used, so you do not repeat a test you have passed. If your English certificate is close to expiry, price a retest now.
6. Your dependants' documents, because their permission moves with yours.

If you have never had to prove any of this quickly before, assume the qualification and police-check pieces take longest to replace and start those first.

What a new sponsor has to do inside your window

This is where hopeful conversations die. A friendly employer who wants you is not enough. In the UK the employer must already hold a valid sponsor licence covering the right route, or obtain one, and then:

• Assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to you for a specific role, with an occupation code and a salary that meets the applicable threshold for that code and for the route.
• Meet the going rate for the occupation code and the general salary floor for the route, both of which the Home Office publishes in the Immigration Rules and revises. The published figures move, sometimes sharply, so check the current rate for your code on GOV.UK on the day the offer is made. Do not accept a verbal assurance that the salary "should be fine".
• Pay the sponsorship costs, which for the employer include the Immigration Skills Charge where it applies. These are employer costs by rule, and an employer asking you to reimburse them is a warning sign covered below.

Then you file the application, pay the fee and the Immigration Health Surcharge, and give biometrics. A priority service, where available, shortens the decision time for an extra fee published by the Home Office. Availability of that service is suspended and restored from time to time, so confirm it is open before you build a plan around it. A company that already holds a licence and has assigned certificates before can move in days. A company that has never sponsored anyone has to apply for a licence first, and that process has its own decision time, its own fee and its own document checks. Inside a 60 day window, an unlicensed employer is a long shot unless they start immediately and pay for priority handling where it is offered.

So target licensed employers first. Our guide to reading the UK register of licensed sponsors explains how to check a company's rating and the routes its licence covers, which tells you in one minute whether an employer is a live option or a three month project. If a genuinely keen employer has never sponsored, how to persuade an employer who has never sponsored has the brief to hand them, and be honest with yourself about whether their timeline fits your date.

The deadline in your letter is real and dated, and so are the costs sitting behind it. The Home Office publishes its application fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge rates, and both are revised periodically, so a switch made after a revision can cost more than the same switch made before it. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Department of Home Affairs likewise publish fee schedules that are reviewed on their own cycles. Look up the current figure for your exact route before you budget, because published fee tables change more often than most applicants expect. That is a published calendar sitting on top of the calendar in your letter.

If you want to know which routes you actually qualify for before you spend your window on the wrong one, the free eligibility quiz takes your occupation, qualification, experience and English level and returns the routes that fit, including the ones that need no employer at all. If you want the whole sequence written down for your case, with the route named, the occupation code checked and the fallbacks priced, that is what the NextMigrate personal migration roadmap is for: $499, originally $999, started with a $99 deposit with the balance settled afterwards.

The routes that do not need a new sponsor

Before you spend the entire window on employer outreach, check whether a switch inside the country is open to you. Depending on your circumstances and the route rules, options that exist for some people include:

• A dependant route, if your partner holds permission that supports dependants. Check what work that permission allows before you rely on it.
• A student route, if you have an offer from a licensed education provider and can meet the funds test. It buys time and can lead somewhere, and it carries real cost and work limits.
• A talent or endorsement route, where your field has one. These need no employer, and they need evidence you may not be able to assemble in 60 days unless you already have it.
• A partner or family route, if your relationship meets the published requirements and you can evidence it.

Switching inside the country is not always permitted from every route, and some switches require you to leave and apply from outside. That is a rule to confirm for your exact permission type before you build a plan on it.

When this does not work

Say the honest version out loud, because a plan built on hope wastes the window.

• Your remaining permission is very short. If you had six weeks left before the curtailment letter, you do not get 60 days on top. The letter cannot extend you.
• Your occupation is no longer eligible, or the salary threshold moved above what employers in your field pay. A role that was sponsorable when you arrived may not be sponsorable now.
• No licensed employer in your area hires your occupation. Six weeks of applications into a market with three licensed employers is a low-probability plan.
• A new licence cannot be granted in time. An employer starting a licence application inside your last three weeks is unlikely to save you.

When those are true, leave before your permission expires and apply again from outside. Departing on time keeps your immigration history clean. Overstaying can trigger a re-entry ban, it has to be declared on every future application to every country that asks, and it turns a bad month into a decade of explaining. Our guide on declaring a previous visa refusal explains how honestly disclosed history is handled and why concealment is the part that ends applications. A worker who leaves on the last day of the window and applies from home with a new Certificate of Sponsorship three months later is in a far better position than one who stayed two months too long.

Common mistakes

Waiting for the letter before starting. The search should begin the day your employment ends or the day you hear the licence is gone.

Counting from the wrong date. Your window runs from the date on the letter unless the letter says otherwise, and it ends on the date the letter names. Not 60 days from your last payslip.

Assuming you can work while you look. Whether you may work depends on your route, your circumstances and what the letter says. Working without permission is a serious matter that affects future applications.

Taking a job that pays below the threshold. A sponsor can assign a certificate for a role that does not meet the going rate, and the application then gets refused, and your window is gone. Check the occupation code and salary against the Home Office published rates for that code before you accept.

Paying anyone for the sponsorship. In the UK the sponsor licence fee and the Immigration Skills Charge are employer costs. An employer or agent asking you to fund them, or asking for a fee to "secure" a Certificate of Sponsorship, is doing something you should not be part of.

Letting dependants drift. Their permission is curtailed with yours, so handle their applications on the same timetable.

Forgetting your landlord and your bank. A curtailed permission changes what a right-to-rent or employment check returns. Tell the people who need to know before an automated check tells them first.

The scams that appear around a revoked licence

A room full of workers with a 60 day deadline is a target, and the approach looks like help.

• Upfront fees for a job offer or a Certificate of Sponsorship. Selling a Certificate of Sponsorship is prohibited under the Home Office sponsor guidance, and a sponsor found doing it risks its own licence. Paying for one is the most common way people in this exact situation lose thousands and their status together.
• Payment to a personal bank account. Regulated firms invoice from a business account with a registration number on the invoice.
• Guaranteed visa promises. No adviser controls a decision.
• Unregistered advisers. UK immigration advice is regulated: check an adviser against the Immigration Advice Authority register or the solicitor and barrister regulators. In Australia, check the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority register. In Canada, check the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants register. Verify the person on the regulator's own register, and treat a polished website as no evidence at all.
• "Sponsors" recruiting exactly the workers a revoked employer just released. Some are genuine competitors hiring quickly, and some are the same people behind a new company name. Check the new employer's entry on the register before you sign anything.

Our guides on verifying an overseas job offer and checking that a migration agent is licensed walk through the checks in order. Do them even when you are in a hurry. If the employer that lost its licence also owes you wages, held your passport, or charged you recruitment fees, that is a separate matter with its own remedies through the labour authority of that country. Pursue it in parallel and do not let it consume the window.

What to do next, in order

Day 1. Find the letter and read it. Write the expiry date on a calendar with reminders at the halfway point and at 14 days out. Assemble the document pack listed above and confirm your occupation code and last sponsored salary.

Day 2 to 3. Build a target list of employers already holding a licence for the right route, filtered to your occupation and region. Say your situation and your date plainly in the application, because a licensed employer with an open role can move fast when they know the timeline.

Week 1. Get a regulated adviser to confirm which in-country switches are open to you. It stops you spending five weeks on a route you cannot use.

Week 2 onward. Run the employer search and the switch application in parallel.

At 14 days out. Decide. If nothing viable is in flight, book the flight and leave inside the window. Then apply from outside with a clean record.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do I have if my sponsor's licence is revoked?

In the UK, the window as published in Home Office curtailment guidance is commonly 60 days from the date of the curtailment letter, and shorter when you have less permission left, because curtailment cannot extend your stay. Treat 60 days as a planning figure and verify the current position. Your letter names the actual date and it governs. Confirm the current position on GOV.UK.

Does the clock start on my last day at work or when the letter arrives?

Usually the letter. Sponsors report the change to UKVI within their published reporting deadline, UKVI then issues curtailment, and the new expiry date runs from that letter. The weeks in between are extra time you should be using to search.

Can I work while I look for a new sponsor?

That depends on your route, your circumstances and what your letter says, so confirm with a regulated adviser before you accept any work. In Canada, an employer-specific permit does not authorise work for a different employer, and IRCC publishes the routes to a new permit or an open work permit.

What happens to my dependants?

Their permission is normally curtailed alongside the main applicant's, on the same timetable. Plan their applications at the same time as yours and do not leave them to the last fortnight.

Is it better to leave before the deadline or stay and keep trying?

Leaving inside the window keeps your immigration history clean and leaves every future application open. Overstaying can trigger a re-entry ban and has to be declared for years afterwards. If nothing viable is in flight at the 14 day mark, book the flight.

My job offer was withdrawn before I even travelled. What now?

The Certificate of Sponsorship becomes unusable and any permission granted on it is liable to curtailment. Recover any fees you are entitled to, keep the correspondence, and check whether the withdrawal was handled lawfully under the employment law of that country. Your status at home is intact, which is a far better position to restart from.

Can a new employer take me on without a sponsor licence?

Not into a sponsored role. They would have to apply for a licence first, which carries its own decision time, fee and document checks. Inside a short window, target employers who already hold a licence for the right route.

The bottom line

A revoked licence or a withdrawn offer converts an open-ended life into a dated one. The window is usually short, and the viable paths inside it are few: a licensed employer who can assign a certificate quickly, a switch to a route you already qualify for, or a clean departure that protects everything you apply for later. The people who come out of this well read the letter on day one, checked which of the three was genuinely open, and stopped spending time on the other two.

Start with the free eligibility quiz to see which routes fit your occupation and experience, including the ones that need no employer. If you want the sequence written out for your case, naming the route, the occupation code, the order and the dates, the NextMigrate personal migration roadmap is $499, originally $999, started with a $99 deposit with the balance settled afterwards. See pricing for what is included. This article is general information, and a licensed or registered adviser should confirm your case before you act.