In this post we discuss the usefulness of the home office's tier 2 sponsor list and if there is any way to accurately find UK employers that are open to sponsorship.
Imagine that you were able to open the home office’s tier 2 sponsor list and instantly find the names of UK graduate employers that are desperate to recruit international students. It would make your chances of applying to right vacancy a whole lot easier don’t you think?
Unfortunately the reality is that even though the list has the names of employers that hold both the tier 2 and tier 5 sponsorship license, the majority of international students still end up applying to vacancies with employers that they are ineligible for.
So what exactly is happening? Is it a completely useless document and a waste of time?
In this article we will explore the usefulness of the tier 2 sponsor list and whether there is a way for both international students and experienced skilled migrants to use it to find employers with the right vacancies.
Problems with the home office’s sponsor list
The fact is that there a quite a few issues with the sponsor list when looking for employers that are willing to sponsor your work visa
No distinction between employers
Even though the list has the names of over 29,000 UK employers that hold a sponsorship license, the problem is that it doesn’t give any information about what industry they operate in.
The only information it states about the employer is their name, the area in the UK where they are based, the type sponsorship license they hold and the sub tier sponsorship.
This means that if your education or experience is within the finance industry for example, without knowing the name of the employer before searching the list, it is impossible to know if the industry that particular company operates is relevant to you.
The only way to know for sure would be to research the names of every company on the list to find out if they are a company in your area of interest and let’s be honest, who has time for that?
Knowing if the license they hold is still valid
Another major issue with the list is that it is impossible to know whether the license stated for an individual employer is still valid.
Let’s say that for the last 3 years an employer that you know of on the list has a tier 2 sponsorship license. However 3 months before you find their name on the list and apply to their vacancy, they decide that they will no longer use the license and have ceased recruiting candidates from outside the European Union.
How are you to know that the particular employer still holds a valid license at the time of applying to their vacancy?
Even though the tier 2 sponsor list is updated regularly, unless each of the 29,000 employers inform the home office immediately that they are no longer using the license stated, you could potentially apply to a job that you are ineligible for.
So with all these issues with the sponsorship list, is there a way for you to use it to accurately find employers with valid licenses?
In a short answer, yes there is!
How to use the tier 2 sponsorship list to find UK employers with valid licenses
Over the past few years advising international students about employment in the UK it is still astonishing at how many don’t think they have to have a planned approach or strategy to find a job.
How do we avoid all of these issues with the tier 2 sponsor list then?
Given the problems that I have highlighted there are 2 simple things you need to have in your strategy to make it easy to use:
A way to find out the names of the employers and their sector of business before you search on the list
A way to guarantee that even though the employer is present on the sponsor list they still hold a license which is up to date and valid
The magical answer is not quite as complicated as you may think. You simply, make a list of employers in your industry before you search the tier 2 sponsor list, and then double check after that their license is still valid. That’s it.
Whatever method you are currently using needs to have these two actions somewhere in the process or you will fail at the first hurdle of finding a vacancy you can apply to.
There are many companies that claim that they can get you an interview with an employer sponsor but once you give your control and ability to find your own jobs away, you lose all your power of choice.
If you want to have that power of choice and have the potential to find your ideal company to work for, we have developed a proven method of using the tier 2 sponsor list which I teach you for free. Find out how this one international student found a sponsored graduate job within 2 weeks
For more information regarding Tier 2 General Sponsorship and if you're from an IT background do contact us and submit you CV at consult@mavisas.co.uk.
Thanks for reading
Mason