There is no right of appeal against the refusal of an application for a sponsor licence. However, if your sponsor licence application is refused, you may be able to challenge the refusal decision by submitting Error Correction request. You can do so if you think the criteria for such application are met in your case: simple caseworking error has occurred or piece of evidence was not considered.
The pre-licence error correction process does not offer a full reconsideration of a decision to refuse a licence application. Home Office will not consider any additional evidence which was not available at the time of application.
If your skilled worker sponsor licence is refused you need to promptly and carefully consider the reasons for refusal to asses if to proceed with error correction request. You are likely to need an immigration lawyer to assist you with assessment of your case.
You may also apply for sponsor licence again – but only after the appropriate ‘cooling-off period’, if applicable, has ended.
Error correction request after sponsor licence refusal
You can ask us to review the decision through the ‘Error correction request’ process, if you believe there has been a simple caseworking error. If you believe the refusal decision is the result of either:
• a caseworker error – for example, if we have incorrectly applied a cooling-off period and you send evidence to us to show that this is the case
• evidence sent as part of your application not being considered by us – for example, if we have not considered a specific piece of information and you send evidence to show this was received by us you can send an ‘Error correction request form’.
14 calendar days deadline to submit error request and 28 working days for Home Office to review
The Error correction request must be sent within 14 calendar days from the date of the sponsor licence refusal decision letter. Specified form has to be completed and emailed to Home Office error correction team ErrorCorrectionTeam@homeoffice.gov.uk
Home Office aim to reply to you within 28 working days of the receipt of your error correction request form. However, as usual the actual timeline is not guaranteed by Home Office.
Outcome of Error Correction request
If Home Office establish that a simple caseworker error has occurred, or a piece of information sent at the time of application has not been considered, they will write to you inviting you to send a new online sponsor licence application.
You will need to pay application fee again but, on receipt of your application, Home Office will refund this. Sending a new application is not a guarantee that a licence will be granted.
If Home Office maintain their original decision to refuse your licence application, they will write to tell you. The cooling-off period will continue to apply from the date of the original refusal decision.
A refusal decision will not be reviewed a second time under this process.
Cooling-off period following refusal, withdrawal, revocation, surrender, civil penalty or conviction
If your application for a sponsor licence is refused, you will not normally be able to make a successful further application until a specified period of time has elapsed since the refusal. This is known as the ‘cooling-off period’. The duration of ‘cooling off period’ varies between 6 months, 12 months, 24 months or in some cases even longer.
Before you reapply, you must ensure that the reasons we refused (or would have refused) your previous application, or revoked (or would have revoked) your previous licence, no longer apply. The fact that the cooling-off period has expired does not mean we will grant your application – you must fully meet the requirements set out in this guidance.
If your sponsor licence application was refused (or would have been refused had you not withdrawn it) because of any of the below listed reasons there is NO cooling off period which means you can reapply immediately after refusal.
• your application was sent by a representative
• you did not provide documents or information we requested by a specific deadline for reasons outside your control
• you applied to be licensed on the Scaleup route and your application was refused solely because you do not meet the definition of a ‘qualifying Scale-up sponsor’.