On 27 April 2026, the Home Office updated its Worker and Temporary Worker guidance confirming that the number of post-licence priority request slots has increased from 100 to a minimum of 120 per day.
Sponsors have a duty to report certain changes of circumstances to their organisation and sponsored workers on the Sponsor Management System (SMS). Failure to comply with this duty can lead to the suspension or revocation of a sponsor licence.
The standard processing time for these changes is 18 weeks. Using priority service reduces the processing time to five working days, for an additional fee of £350. Priority service requests must be submitted via email between 7am – 5pm Monday to Friday. Due to high demand for priority service and a limited number of spots, requests must be received promptly at 7am.
Currently, sponsors on the Worker and Temporary Worker routes (except GBM UK Expansion worker route, GBM Service Supplier route and GBM Secondment Worker route) can use this priority service for the following requests:
- additional certificate of sponsorship (CoS) allocation
- annual certificate of sponsorship (CoS) allocation
- add a new level 1 user
- change level 1 user
- replace the authorising officer (AO)
- amend the authorising officer (AO)
- replace the key contact (KC)
- amend the key contact (KC)
- add a representative
- amend your organisation details – moved to new premises
Although a modest increase, the increase in slots from 100 to 120 is therefore good news for sponsors and should increase access to the priority service.
If you need assistance with post-licence priority requests or managing your sponsor licence obligations, please contact our Business Immigration team.