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

Imagine you are a care worker from Kerala, eighteen months into a job at a care home in Leeds. You moved for better pay for the same hard work. Your daughter has started school here. Then one Monday the manager calls everyone into the staff room. The company has lost its sponsor licence.

That night you refresh your email at the kitchen table. How long do you have? Can you keep working? Does your family have to leave too?

This situation has rules, and the rules give you time.

The short answer: When a UK sponsor's licence is revoked, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) curtails the permission of the workers it sponsored and writes to each of them. As published in Home Office guidance, you commonly get 60 days from the date of the curtailment letter to find a new licensed sponsor, switch route, or leave. It is shorter if you have less than 60 days of permission left, because curtailing cannot extend your stay. The same applies if your offer was withdrawn, you were made redundant, or you resigned.

Two details that decide everything

The countdown usually runs from the date on the letter, not your last working day. The weeks in between are extra time.

And your letter is the authority. If it names a different date, that date wins.

Canada and Australia work differently, covered below. Read your own letter first, then have a regulated adviser confirm your case.

What the curtailment letter looks like

It usually comes by email to the address on your last application, sometimes by post. People miss it in spam or at an old address, and the clock runs anyway. Check both today. The letter usually names:

• The reason. Licence revoked, or your sponsored job ended.
• The new expiry date of your permission. Put it on a calendar.
• What you can do. Apply under another route, get a new Certificate of Sponsorship from a licensed sponsor, or leave.
• Whether you may work meanwhile. Do not assume.

Save it as a PDF in three places. Employers, advisers, landlords and banks will all ask for the date.

No letter yet, but you heard the licence is gone? It may be on its way. Start searching now, while you can still do it calmly.

Why the countdown usually starts with the letter

Home Office sponsor guidance commonly gives sponsors 10 working days to report events such as a worker's job ending. Treat that as a planning figure and check GOV.UK. UKVI then processes the report and issues curtailment. That time is not usually taken from your window.

Think of a parking ticket that starts when the warden writes it, not when you parked. The minutes before are yours. But you cannot know when the warden will arrive.

• The gap is usable. Redundant in March, letter in May? Use those weeks.
• The gap is not guaranteed. When a whole licence goes, letters can come fast. Plan as if yours arrives next week.
• Silence is not safety. A late report can produce a letter months later. Treat your status as time-limited from the day your job ended.

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 offer was withdrawn after the Certificate of Sponsorship was assigned.
• Workers on Canadian employer-specific work permits who were laid off or whose LMIA-backed job disappeared.
• Holders of Australian employer-sponsored temporary visas who stopped working for their sponsor, and New Zealand Accredited Employer Work Visa holders whose employer lost accreditation or whose role ended.
• Dependants, whose permission is curtailed with the main applicant's.

The windows by country

Planning figures from each authority's published guidance. Your own letter or grant notice overrides them.

Canada: the permit stays valid, but it does not move with you

An employer-specific work permit names an employer. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) treats it as valid until its printed date even after the job ends, and you generally keep temporary resident status until then.

But it is like a key cut for one door. It still exists after you leave, but it opens no other door. Working for someone else on it is unauthorised work. Your paths, all to confirm with IRCC:

• A new employer-specific permit, normally backed by a new Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), unless the job is LMIA-exempt.
• An open work permit if you qualify, including the open work permit for vulnerable workers facing abuse or at risk of it.
• A spousal open work permit, if your partner's status supports one.
• A change of status, such as a study permit or visitor status, to stay lawfully while you plan.

A public policy has at times let people start work after applying for a new permit. Check IRCC on the day you apply. Above all, keep your status valid.

Australia: the day counter

Since the reforms to the sponsored work programme, the Department of Home Affairs has published a period you may stay after leaving your sponsor: a maximum of consecutive days per cessation and a maximum total over the life of the visa. The widely cited planning figures are up to 180 consecutive days per cessation and no more than 365 days in total. Treat them as a planning range and read your own grant notice, which governs your case. The period limits what work you may do. Its purpose is to let you find a new approved sponsor or apply for another visa.

What to gather in the first 48 hours

1. The curtailment letter or grant notice, date highlighted.
2. Your passport and current visa, plus your biometric residence permit or digital status share code.
3. A dated job record: contract, start date, last working day, payslips, any redundancy letter.
4. Your occupation code and salary history from the original sponsorship. Starting from your existing code saves a new sponsor days.
5. Qualification and English evidence you already used. If your English certificate is near expiry, price a retest now.
6. Your dependants' documents.

Qualification and police-check papers take longest to replace. Start there.

What a new sponsor must do inside your window

An employer who likes you is not enough. In the UK, the employer must hold a valid sponsor licence for the right route, or get one. Then it must:

• Assign you a Certificate of Sponsorship with an occupation code and salary that meet the threshold for that code and route.
• Meet the going rate and the general salary floor, both published by the Home Office and revised, sometimes sharply. Check the current rate for your code on GOV.UK on the day of the offer.
• Pay the sponsorship costs, including the Immigration Skills Charge where it applies. An employer asking you to repay them is a warning sign.

Then you apply, pay the fee and the Immigration Health Surcharge, and give biometrics. A priority service, where offered, speeds the decision for an extra published fee, but it is suspended from time to time.

The key point: a company that already holds a licence can move in days. One that has never sponsored must apply for a licence first. Inside a 60 day window, that is a long shot.

So target licensed employers. Our guide to reading the UK register of licensed sponsors tells you in one minute whether an employer is a live option. If a keen employer has never sponsored, how to persuade an employer who has never sponsored has the brief to give them.

Costs move too. The Home Office, IRCC and the Department of Home Affairs revise their fees on their own cycles, so a switch after a revision can cost more. Look up the current figure for your route before you budget.

The free eligibility check asks 6 questions (age, education, experience, English, target countries) and gives you a quick read on your options in 2 minutes.

Routes that do not need a new sponsor

Is there a door that needs no employer at all? Depending on your situation:

• A dependant route, if your partner's permission supports dependants.
• A student route, with an offer from a licensed provider and enough funds. It buys time, at real cost and with work limits.
• A talent or endorsement route, if your field has one and you already have the evidence.
• A partner or family route, if your relationship meets the rules.

Some switches are only possible from outside the country. Confirm this for your permission type.

When this will not work

• Your remaining permission is very short. Six weeks left does not become 60 days.
• Your occupation is no longer eligible, or the salary threshold has risen above what your field pays.
• No licensed employer near you hires your occupation.
• A new licence cannot be granted in time.

Then leave before your permission expires and apply again from outside. It hurts. It also protects your future. Overstaying can bring a re-entry ban and must be declared to every country that asks, for years.

Think of your immigration record like a credit score. One late departure follows you to every lender. Our guide on declaring a previous visa refusal explains why honesty matters. A worker who leaves on the last day and returns three months later with a new certificate is far better off than one who stayed two months too long.

Common mistakes

• Waiting for the letter. Start the day your job ends.
• Counting from the wrong date. Not 60 days from your last payslip. Use the date on the letter.
• Assuming you can work. Working without permission harms future applications.
• Taking a job below the threshold. The application is refused and your window is gone.
• Paying for sponsorship. The licence fee and Immigration Skills Charge are employer costs.
• Letting dependants drift. Their permission ends with yours.
• Forgetting your landlord and bank. Right-to-rent and work checks will change.

The scams that appear around a revoked licence

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

• Fees for a job offer or Certificate of Sponsorship. Selling a certificate is prohibited under Home Office sponsor guidance. Paying for one is how people in your position lose thousands and their status together.
• Payment to a personal account. Regulated firms invoice from a business account.
• Guaranteed visas. No adviser controls a decision.
• Unregistered advisers. In the UK, check the Immigration Advice Authority register or the solicitor and barrister regulators. In Australia, the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority register. In Canada, the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants register.
• New "sponsors" hiring exactly the workers just released. Some are real. Some are the same people under a new name. Check the register.

See our guides on verifying an overseas job offer and checking that a migration agent is licensed. If the old employer owes you wages, held your passport or charged recruitment fees, pursue that separately through the labour authority. Do not let it eat your window.

What to do, in order

Day 1. Read the letter. Calendar the expiry date, with reminders at halfway and 14 days out. Gather your documents.

Days 2 to 3. List licensed employers for your occupation and region. State your date plainly in each application.

Week 1. Ask a regulated adviser which switches are open to you.

Week 2 onward. Run the job search and any switch side by side.

At 14 days out. Decide. If nothing viable is moving, book the flight and leave inside the window.

Frequently asked questions

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

In the UK, Home Office guidance commonly gives 60 days from the date of the curtailment letter, or less if you have less permission left. Your letter names the actual date, and it governs.

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

Usually the letter. The weeks before it are extra time to search.

Can I work while I look for a new sponsor?

It depends on your route and your letter, so ask a regulated adviser. In Canada, an employer-specific permit does not cover a different employer.

What happens to my dependants?

Their permission is normally curtailed with yours. Plan their applications alongside yours.

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

Leaving inside the window keeps your record clean. Overstaying can bring a re-entry ban. If nothing is moving at 14 days out, book the flight.

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

The Certificate of Sponsorship can no longer be used. Recover any fees you are owed, keep all messages, and check whether the withdrawal was lawful. Your status at home is untouched, a far better place to restart from.

The bottom line

A revoked licence turns an open-ended life into a dated one. You did nothing wrong. What you control now is how you use the days. The real paths are few: a licensed employer who can move fast, a route you already qualify for, or a clean departure that protects every future application. The people who come through well read the letter on day one and stopped spending time on the paths that were never open.

Start with the free eligibility check, including routes that need no employer.

This article is general information, not legal advice. A licensed or registered adviser should confirm your case before you act.