Buying a business with sponsored workers? Check the visa steps first...

Written by Vishal Gautam from V Immigration Ltd

Most sponsored workers never think about their employer's sponsor licence. It sits in the background, doing nothing visible, until the business is sold. From that point their right to be in the UK rests on decisions they play no part in, and the buyer usually has 20 working days to get those decisions right.

So if you are buying a business, taking over a contract or merging with another company, and any of the staff coming across are sponsored, this belongs on the completion checklist rather than the to-do list for the week after.

What follows is based on the Home Office sponsor guidance (Part 3, version 08/26) and the right to work guidance in force in September 2026.

A sponsor licence does not transfer with the business

A licence belongs to the organisation that holds it. It cannot be handed over, and what happens next depends on how the deal is put together.

Sell a business as a going concern, or sell the controlling shares in it, and the Home Office treats that as a change in direct ownership. The existing licence is then revoked, or made dormant if the sponsored workers have moved onto another sponsor's licence. If the new owners want to carry on employing those workers and do not already hold the right licence, they have to apply for one.

The share sale is the one that surprises people. TUPE is often not triggered at all, because the employing company has not changed and the contracts stay exactly where they were. The sponsor guidance still treats the change in ownership as reportable, with consequences for the licence.

The 20 working day deadline

Where sponsored workers transfer to you under TUPE and you already hold the right licence, you are their sponsor from the date of the move. Every sponsor duty applies from that day, and you confirm through the sponsorship management system (SMS) that you are taking responsibility for them.

If you do not hold a licence for the route they are on, you have to apply for one, or apply to extend your existing licence to cover that route, within 20 working days of the move.

Miss that window, or apply and get refused, and the workers who transferred will have their permission cancelled, unless your existing licence already covers them. For them that means losing the right to work, then the right to stay, over a duty that was never theirs to discharge. For the business it means losing the staff the deal was built around, usually at the point you can least afford it.

The change itself also has to be reported through SMS within 20 working days, and the seller has to report it too.

Do the workers need new visas?

Usually not. There is no new visa application and no new Certificate of Sponsorship, as long as the new sponsor holds a valid licence on the right route, has confirmed it accepts responsibility for the worker, and the worker's duties stay the same.

That last condition is the one to watch after completion. Restructures follow takeovers, and moving a sponsored worker into a different role can trigger a reporting duty or, depending on the change, a fresh application. Check what the move would trigger before you make it.

Reporting on transferred workers is awkward early on, because they have no record on the new sponsor's SMS account. After a complete takeover, the Home Office can give the new sponsor limited access to the old licence so it can report on them. Otherwise the guidance says to email the Worker and Temporary Worker Reporting mailbox, giving the previous sponsor's details along with the worker's.

Right to work checks run on a different clock

Right to work checks are a separate regime, and they cover everyone who transfers, sponsored or not.

Under the current guidance, checks carried out by the seller count as though the buyer had carried them out. The catch is that you inherit them whether they were done properly or not. If the seller got them wrong, and someone who started work on or after 29 February 2008 turns out to have no right to work, the penalty is the buyer's: up to £60,000 per worker.

So the Home Office advises buyers to redo the checks on transferring staff, and allows 60 calendar days from the date of transfer to do it. Follow-up checks get no such grace period, so anyone with time-limited permission needs a date in the diary from the start.

So there are two deadlines, counted two different ways: 20 working days for the licence and 60 calendar days for the checks. Both are worth writing down somewhere you will see them.

An updated version of the right to work guidance comes into force on 1 October 2026. Check the current version on GOV.UK rather than relying on a timescale you read somewhere, including here.

What to do if you are the buyer

Ask the seller early whether anyone is sponsored, and on which route.

Check whether you already hold a licence covering that route.

If you do not, start the licence application before completion. The 20 working day clock runs from the transfer, not from when you get round to it.

Get the seller's right to work records and actually read them, rather than assuming they are in order.

Diarise fresh right to work checks within 60 calendar days, plus follow-up dates for anyone whose permission is time-limited.

Confirm responsibility through SMS and report the change within 20 working days.

Leave sponsored workers' duties alone until you have checked what changing them would trigger.

Get your record keeping up to sponsor guidance standard from day one, not from your first compliance visit.

Timing is what usually goes wrong

None of this is complicated once somebody owns it. What causes the trouble is when it gets picked up, because the licence work often starts after completion, by which time the 20 working days are already running. On the pre-completion list, alongside the rest of the employment work, it is a couple of hours of admin and a diary entry. Left until afterwards, it can end with you explaining to a member of your new staff why their permission has been cancelled.

This article is general information based on Home Office guidance. It is not legal or immigration advice. The guidance changes often, so check the current version on GOV.UK and get advice on your own circumstances.

Vishal Gautam is a director of V Immigration Ltd, a Birmingham-based immigration advice firm regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority.