Sponsor licence revoked? You have a 60-day grace period to find new sponsorship — and you can recover unlawful fees from the ex-sponsor.

The 60-day clock — UKVI curtailment notice

When UKVI revokes, suspends, or accepts the surrender of your sponsor's licence, the Home Office writes to each affected worker with a curtailment notice. The notice shortens your leave to expire 60 calendar days from the date of the notice, giving you a grace period to find a new sponsor or otherwise regularise your immigration status. The 60 days is the entire window — it includes weekends and bank holidays.

• What the notice says. The curtailment notice tells you the new expiry date of your leave (60 days from the date of the notice), your options (find a new sponsor; switch to a different category; leave the UK), and the consequences of not acting (your leave ends, and remaining beyond it is overstaying with the usual consequences for re-entry bans and future visas). Read it twice. Photograph the front, back, and envelope.
• Week 1 — open the sponsor-search. Use the UKVI Register of Licensed Sponsors (gov.uk/government/publications/register-of-licensed-sponsors-workers). Filter by your occupation code (SOC 2020) and your region. Apply directly to vacancies that advertise Skilled Worker sponsorship. The DHSC sectoral pilots (see below) help with Health & Care Worker cases.
• Week 2 — pin down a Certificate of Sponsorship. A new sponsor assigns you a new CoS through the Sponsor Management System. Your offer letter and CoS number are what you need to submit the new in-time visa application. The CoS must be defined-CoS-or-defined-vacancy compliant; the new sponsor handles that side.
• Week 3 to 6 — submit the new visa application BEFORE your current leave expires. A new Skilled Worker visa application made before the curtailment date triggers Immigration Act 1971 s.3C leave (see next section) and you stay lawfully in the UK while the decision is made — even if it takes longer than the remaining 60 days.
• If you cannot find a sponsor in time. Consider whether you qualify to switch to another category (partner visa, dependent of a UK worker, Graduate visa if recent, etc.) before the 60-day expiry. If none of those apply, plan a voluntary departure before the curtailment date to avoid overstaying — the ex-sponsor is liable for recoverable fees regardless of whether you stay or leave.

Immigration Act 1971 s.3C — your status while UKVI decides

Immigration Act 1971 s.3C is the most important single rule for someone inside the 60-day grace period. It says: where a person who has limited leave to enter or remain in the UK applies before that leave expires for variation of the leave, and the leave expires before the application is decided, the leave is statutorily continued until the application is decided (and during any in-time administrative review or appeal).

• The application must be valid and in time. "In time" means submitted before the curtailment date on the UKVI notice — including the deadline at 23:59 on that date. "Valid" means using the correct online form for the route, paying the correct application fee and Immigration Health Surcharge, providing biometrics on schedule, and (for Skilled Worker) attaching a defined CoS issued by a licensed sponsor.
• You stay lawfully in the UK while UKVI decides. Your right to work continues during s.3C leave on the same conditions as your previous Skilled Worker leave — including the right to be sponsored by your NEW sponsor. Show the new sponsor your application submission confirmation and the right-to-work check guidance on gov.uk; the Home Office Employer Checking Service confirms s.3C status for sponsors who ask.
• Travel breaks s.3C leave. Leaving the UK during the application breaks s.3C — your status does not continue while you are abroad. Do not travel until the new visa is granted unless you have specific advice from an OISC-regulated adviser or solicitor.
• Refusal and in-time review. If the new application is refused, you usually have a 14-day window for administrative review (sometimes appeal, depending on the category). If you submit the review or appeal in time, s.3C leave continues through that process too. Out-of-time review does not preserve s.3C.
• The new CoS must be defined. For Skilled Worker, the new sponsor must issue a defined CoS (or a defined vacancy under the sponsorship rules). An undefined or incorrectly issued CoS will lead to refusal. The new sponsor — not you — is responsible for getting the CoS right; insist that they confirm in writing the CoS is defined and ready before you pay any application fee.

Recovering unlawful fees — Sponsor Guidance Part 3 §C9 + ERA 1996 s.13

Many sponsors charge workers — directly, via salary deductions, or via "clawback" clauses tied to length of service — for fees the sponsor is supposed to pay. Since 31 December 2024, the Workers and Temporary Workers Guidance for Sponsors, Part 3 (Sponsor Duties and Compliance), paragraph C9 makes the prohibition explicit and hard: a sponsor cannot pass any element of the CoS fee, the Immigration Skills Charge, or the sponsor- licence-application fee on to the worker. Doing so is a licence breach and (separately) an unlawful deduction from wages under Employment Rights Act 1996 s.13.

The procedure to recover. First, write a formal demand letter to the ex-sponsor itemising the deductions, citing Sponsor Guidance Part 3 §C9 and ERA 1996 s.13, and requesting repayment within 14 days. If they refuse or do not respond, open Acas Early Conciliation on the Acas portal (acas.org.uk). Since 1 December 2025 the EC period is 12 weeks under SI 2025/1153 (extending the previous 6-week window). If conciliation fails, Acas issues the EC certificate and you have until 3 months less 1 day from the act complained of (extended by the EC stop-the-clock period under ERA 1996 s.207B) to file an ET1 with the Employment Tribunal. The recovery is independent of your immigration position — you can pursue the ET1 from inside or outside the UK.

If exploitation is severe — Modern Slavery Act 2015 + the Helpline

Some sponsor revocations follow UKVI compliance visits that uncover the workers being treated as trapped labour — passport taken, wages withheld, accommodation tied to compliance, threats around immigration status, movement restricted. If any of those describe your situation, the route is the Modern Slavery Act 2015 rather than (or as well as) the employment tribunal.

• The offences — ss.1-4. Modern Slavery Act 2015 s.1 (slavery, servitude, and forced or compulsory labour), s.2 (human trafficking), s.3 (meaning of "exploitation"), and s.4 (committing an offence with intent to commit a s.2 trafficking offence) cover the conduct of sponsors who use immigration status as a tool of control. The standard does not require physical confinement; coercion by debt, by withholding documents, or by threats of deportation can amount to the offence.
• The Helpline — 08000 121 700, 24/7, free. The Modern Slavery Helpline is the route into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). With your consent the Helpline refers you for a 45-day reflection and recovery period, during which you are entitled to safe accommodation, subsistence, and specialist support — independent of your visa status. Indicators of trafficking trigger the "reasonable grounds" decision; full evidence triggers the "conclusive grounds" decision.
• The s.45 statutory defence. Modern Slavery Act 2015 s.45 gives victims of trafficking a defence to certain offences committed as a direct consequence of being trafficked or compelled. This matters if you were forced to lie on an application, work in breach of conditions, or commit financial offences under the sponsor's direction. ATLEU and JCWI run s.45 casework — call them.
• Passport seizure is a criminal offence. Identity Documents Act 2010 and Modern Slavery Act 2015 both criminalise the confiscation of your passport or BRP. The Home Office can replace lost documents at the sponsor's request, so reporting passport seizure does not strand you immigration-wise — it strands the sponsor.
• UKVI Sponsor Compliance Enforcement. Separate from the criminal route, UKVI's Sponsor Compliance Enforcement team takes reports of sponsor wrongdoing (unlawful fees, withholding pay, threats, false adverts) and uses them to open investigations and revoke licences. You can report anonymously at gov.uk/report-immigration-crime or by phone on 0300 123 7000.

Free specialist help — call before you do anything else

The lines and services below are free and run by the people who deal with sponsor-licence revocation and migrant worker exploitation every working day. Save the contacts to your phone before you close this page. Verified 15 May 2026.

NRPF reality — no Universal Credit, no Housing Benefit, no Council Tax Reduction

The hardest fact on this page: Skilled Worker and Health & Care Worker visas come with the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition. During the 60-day grace period — and during any subsequent s.3C leave — that condition does not lift. You cannot claim:

• Universal Credit (UC) — including the standard allowance, housing element, and any element for children or disability.
• Housing Benefit — including discretionary housing payments through the local authority.
• Council Tax Reduction / Council Tax Support — including means-tested council schemes.
• Most other listed public funds — Income Support, JSA, ESA, Pension Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Child Benefit, social housing allocation, homelessness duty accommodation — though some narrowly-defined exceptions exist (NHS treatment is not a public fund; emergency local authority assistance to a child in need under Children Act 1989 s.17 is also not).

The immediate financial lifelines during the 60-day grace period are therefore:

• Continued work for the ex-sponsor until the licence revocation date — they remain liable to pay you until the relationship lawfully ends, and any post-revocation unpaid wages add to the ET1 recovery.
• New work for a new sponsor — as soon as a new CoS is assigned and you submit the variation application, your s.3C leave permits working for the new sponsor on the same conditions.
• Family and community support — not a public fund and not affected by NRPF. A family member transferring money to you is allowed.
• Charity assistance — food banks, hardship grants, and faith-community support are not public funds. The Trussell Trust, citizens advice, and your local authority's NRPF support team (where it exists) can point you to non-public-fund resources.
• NHS care continues — NHS GP and hospital care is not a public fund. You should continue to register with a GP and use the NHS during the grace period.

If the NRPF condition is causing destitution despite all of the above, Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides a narrow route to apply for the NRPF condition to be lifted (a "change of conditions" application via gov.uk/change-conditions-leave). Lifting is discretionary, slow, and rare on Skilled Worker; treat it as a last resort and get an OISC-regulated adviser involved.

Wallet card — screenshot this

The text below fits on one phone screen. Screenshot it now and save it where you can find it without unlocking the app — a printout in your pocket works too. If the curtailment notice or sponsor confrontation comes later, you will have the steps and the numbers in front of you without needing to search.

If your UK Skilled Worker sponsor's licence is revoked:
1. Read the UKVI curtailment notice carefully — note the 60-day
   grace period.
2. Start sponsor-search immediately. UKVI sponsor list at gov.uk.
3. If you find a new sponsor, the new CoS + visa application before
   expiry preserves your status via Immigration Act 1971 s.3C.
4. Recover unlawful fees from ex-sponsor (Sponsor Guidance Part 3 §C9
   from 31 Dec 2024) via Acas EC + ET1.
5. NRPF still applies — UC / Housing Benefit not available.
6. Free help: Work Rights Centre + JCWI 020 7553 7470 + ATLEU.
7. If exploitation: Modern Slavery Helpline 08000 121 700.

The UKVI sponsor list (gov.uk/government/publications/register-of-licensed-sponsors-workers) is the authoritative source for active sponsors. Filter by SOC occupation code and region. The Acas Early Conciliation notification is free, online, and starts the 12-week EC stop-the-clock under SI 2025/1153.

Right now — what to do this week

1. Photograph the UKVI curtailment notice front and back, AND the envelope it arrived in (date of issue and date of receipt are both evidence). Save copies to email or cloud storage outside your phone.
2. Count the 60 calendar days from the date on the curtailment notice. Mark the deadline on a calendar. Calendar days include weekends and bank holidays. Set a reminder for day 30 and day 50.
3. Open the UKVI sponsor list at gov.uk/government/publications/register-of-licensed-sponsors-workers and filter by your SOC 2020 occupation code. Apply to vacancies that advertise Skilled Worker sponsorship the same day.
4. Call Work Rights Centre via the online intake at workrightscentre.org for joint immigration and employment casework. If you are a care worker, also register with the DHSC regional sponsor-matching hub.
5. Call JCWI on 020 7553 7470 for immigration legal advice on the 60-day window and the s.3C variation strategy. Ask whether your case is in scope for legal aid.
6. List every fee, deduction, and clawback the ex-sponsor took or demanded — payslips, contract clauses, bank-statement entries. This is the foundation of your Acas EC + ET1 recovery under Sponsor Guidance Part 3 §C9 and ERA 1996 s.13.
7. If your sponsor took your passport, withheld wages, restricted your movement, or threatened your immigration status: call the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700 (free, 24/7) before doing anything else. They will assess for NRM referral and connect you to ATLEU for specialist legal support.
8. If life-threatening or detention: dial 999 or 112.

After the helpline call — the paid product

Work Rights Centre, JCWI, ATLEU, the Modern Slavery Helpline, and the DHSC sectoral support hubs are all free and should always come first. Once you have an immigration adviser on the new visa application, Commoner Law has a product specifically designed for the employment-side recovery from the ex-sponsor:

• UK Sponsor Wages Recovery Letter ($5) — formal demand letter to the ex-sponsor itemising every unlawful CoS, Immigration Skills Charge, sponsor-licence application fee, and other unlawful deduction, citing Sponsor Guidance Part 3 §C9 (in force 31 December 2024) and Employment Rights Act 1996 s.13. Sets a 14-day response window and plugs into the Acas Early Conciliation + ET1 timeline (3 months less 1 day under ERA 1996 s.207B, extended by the SI 2025/1153 12-week EC period since 1 December 2025).
• Contact Commoner Law — if a hotline number above no longer works, tell us so we can update this page.