UK Sponsor Licence Legitimacy Checker
Score your job offer against 10 known fraud and risk signals. Takes about 2 minutes.
This tool does not access the Home Office register directly. Always verify on gov.uk before accepting any offer.
Common Mistakes Nigerians Make with Sponsor Licences
Paying a “processing fee” to a middleman in Nigeria
It is illegal for anyone to charge you for a Certificate of Sponsorship or to “arrange” UK sponsorship for a fee. This is either fraud or modern slavery facilitation. No legitimate employer charges workers for visa sponsorship.
Not checking the sponsor register before accepting the offer
The Home Office register is public, free, and takes 60 seconds to search. Many Nigerians accept offers, resign from Nigerian jobs, and pay solicitors before doing this one check.
Assuming care home offers are always legitimate
The health and care sector has the highest concentration of fraudulent sponsorship offers targeting Nigerians. The Home Office has revoked hundreds of care sector licences. Check the register independently, not just the recruiter’s word.
Ignoring a very recently registered company
A company incorporated months ago with no filed accounts, no website, and a residential address as their registered office is a risk pattern. Established employers with real operations look very different on Companies House.
How the Sponsor Licence Legitimacy Checker Works
The tool scores your job offer against 10 known risk indicators drawn from Home Office enforcement patterns, immigration fraud cases, and modern slavery reporting in the UK care and hospitality sectors. Each question targets a specific signal that distinguishes legitimate offers from fraudulent or non-compliant ones.
Questions marked as bad answers contribute higher risk weight to the score. The final number is a risk score between 0 and 100. A low score means fewer warning signs; a high score means you should do more verification before proceeding with the offer.
How to Check the Home Office Register of Licensed Sponsors
The register is published at gov.uk. Search “register of licensed sponsors workers” to find the current downloadable spreadsheet. It lists every company currently holding a sponsor licence for workers. The file is updated regularly.
Search for your employer’s exact registered company name (not a trading name). If they are not listed, they cannot legally issue a Certificate of Sponsorship for a Skilled Worker visa. An unlicensed employer claiming they can sponsor you is either misinformed or deliberately misleading you.
Table of Truth: Offer Signals and What They Mean
| Signal | Risk level | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| Employer not on Home Office register | Critical | Cannot legally sponsor. Offer is invalid. |
| Fee requested for CoS or sponsorship | Critical | Illegal. Fraud or modern slavery indicator. |
| Offer without interview | High | Unusual for legitimate employment. Verify carefully. |
| Offer via WhatsApp only, no letter | High | Legitimate employers produce formal written offers. |
| Salary well below £38,700, no ISL explanation | High | Points threshold not met. CoS will likely fail. |
| Third-party agent with no clear role | Medium | Middlemen who charge fees are a known fraud pattern. |
| Company registered very recently with no accounts | Medium | Shell company risk. Check Companies House history. |
| Job role does not match applicant’s background | Medium | Mismatched CoS can lead to visa refusal. |
| No verifiable online presence | Low/Med | Not definitive but worth investigating before proceeding. |
| Business type inconsistent with role | Low/Med | E.g. a logistics company offering a nursing position. |
Why Sponsor Licence Fraud Targets Nigerians
The Nigerian diaspora in the UK is large, well-networked, and actively helping friends and family japa. This creates informal recruitment channels that fraudsters exploit. An offer circulating in a WhatsApp group carries social proof even when it should not. The sense of community trust makes people less likely to do independent verification.
The care sector in particular has been heavily targeted. Between 2022 and 2024, the Home Office revoked hundreds of care sector sponsor licences, many of which had been used to bring overseas workers who were then placed in poor conditions or charged for their own sponsorship. The workers lost their visa status when the licence was revoked.
What the Certificate of Sponsorship Actually Is
The CoS is not a physical document. It is a unique reference number (14 characters) assigned to your specific job offer by your employer through the Home Office sponsorship management system. The number links to a record that includes your name, the job title, the SOC code, the salary, and the employer’s details.
You use this number when submitting your Skilled Worker visa application. If any detail on the CoS does not match your application or documents, the visa will be refused. You cannot transfer a CoS from one employer to another. Each employer and each job role requires a new CoS.
Realistic Scenarios
Scenario 1: Single professional, care sector offer
Tunde receives a WhatsApp message from a relative in the UK forwarding a job offer from “Sunrise Care Home Ltd.” The offer promises a Care Worker role with sponsorship at £11.50 per hour. He pays ₦500,000 to a “visa agent” who says they will process the CoS. Red flags present: informal channel, fee paid, salary calculation works out to approximately £23,920 per year (well below £38,700 for most care roles not on the Immigration Salary List). He should check the register before paying anything. If the company does not appear, or if the salary does not qualify for any known pathway, this is fraud.
Scenario 2: Applicant with a formal tech offer
Amaka applies through LinkedIn for a software developer role at a mid-size company. She goes through three rounds of interviews over two weeks. She receives a formal offer letter on company letterhead showing £52,000 per year. She searches the register and the company appears as A-rated. Her risk score on this tool would be very low. She still verifies the Companies House entry and confirms the registered address matches the office address before accepting.
Scenario 3: Ambiguous offer through a recruitment agency
Emeka is offered an engineering role through a UK recruitment agency. The agency is the one on all communications. The actual end employer is named in the offer letter but Emeka cannot find that specific company name on the register. He can find a related company name. This ambiguity is a warning sign. He contacts the agency directly to ask for the exact registered company name used for sponsorship and then verifies that name against the register. The discrepancy turns out to be a trading name versus a legal name. Once confirmed, his concern is resolved but the extra check was necessary.
