Visa Sponsorship Jobs UK: How Tech Workers Find Them

To find visa sponsorship jobs in UK tech, don’t start with job boards. Start with the official list of employers who are allowed to sponsor you. The Home Office publishes a register of every organisation licensed to sponsor workers. Using our own count of the Skilled Worker entries in the version dated 27 October 2026, 122,356 distinct organisations can currently sponsor a Skilled Worker visa. Your job search is about finding the ones that hire for your role at a salary that meets the visa rules.

Here is a practical, evidence-based way to do that.

Step 1: Use the official register of licensed sponsors

GOV.UK publishes the Register of licensed sponsors: workers as a downloadable CSV, updated regularly. Each row shows an organisation’s name, town or city, county, licence type and rating, and the route it can sponsor. For a tech job you want the “Skilled Worker” route.

How to use it:

1. Download the CSV from the GOV.UK publication page.
2. Open it in a spreadsheet and filter the Route column to “Skilled Worker”.
3. Filter Town/City to where you want to work.
4. Search the names of companies you are interested in.

Our step-by-step guide on checking whether a UK employer can sponsor you covers the tricky parts, such as trading names that differ from legal names.

Where the sponsors are

Here are Skilled Worker sponsors by town or city in the 27 October 2026 register. We counted distinct organisation names with an exact match on the Town/City field, so firms that list a borough or district instead will be missed.

Town/City	Licensed Skilled Worker sponsors
London	35,296
Birmingham	2,945
Manchester	2,748
Glasgow	1,293
Bristol	1,233
Edinburgh	1,111
Leeds	1,039
Nottingham	1,004
Reading	874
Cambridge	812
Milton Keynes	802
Liverpool	706

London dominates, but Reading, Cambridge and Milton Keynes each have more than 800 sponsors, which is a lot for towns of their size. If you are flexible on location, searching sponsors outside London widens your options considerably.

Finding tech employers in the register

The register does not record industry. As a rough signal, 2,148 Skilled Worker sponsors have “software” or “technolog” (as in technology or technologies) in their name. That is only a fraction of the tech employers on the list. Banks, retailers, consultancies and public bodies hire many developers and engineers too, so search for the employers you actually want to work for.

Important: being on the register means an employer can sponsor. It does not mean it is hiring, or that it will sponsor every role. Always confirm in the advert or with the recruiter.

Step 2: Check the salary bar before you apply

This step filters out most dead ends. For a Skilled Worker visa, GOV.UK says the job usually has to pay the higher of £41,700 a year or the going rate for its occupation code. For common tech codes, the going rate is the real threshold:

Occupation code	Going rate	New entrant rate (70%)
2131 IT project managers	£58,200	£40,700
2132 IT managers	£55,000	£38,500
2133 IT business analysts, architects, systems designers	£54,900	£38,400
2134 Programmers and software developers	£54,700	£38,300
2139 IT professionals n.e.c. (incl. DevOps)	£52,300	£36,600
2135 Cyber security professionals	£48,500	£34,000
2137 IT network professionals	£45,600	£33,400

The new entrant rate applies if, for example, you are under 26, or in the UK on a Student or Graduate visa (or were recently). It is 70% of the going rate with a floor of £33,400, and a total stay cap of 4 years. Graduates should read our guide on switching from a Graduate visa to Skilled Worker.

If an advert says “visa sponsorship available” but pays below the going rate for the role, the numbers may not work. For market pay comparisons, see our breakdown of DevOps and cloud salaries against the thresholds.

Step 3: Search smarter on job boards

Once you have a target list of sponsors and a salary floor, job boards become far more useful:

• Search by employer name from your shortlist, not only by “visa sponsorship”. Many sponsors never write that phrase in their adverts.
• Use phrases recruiters actually write, such as “visa sponsorship”, “sponsorship available” or “Skilled Worker visa”, alongside your job title.
• Read the salary first. Filter out roles below your going rate before you spend time applying.
• Check company careers pages directly. Not every role reaches the big job boards.
• Ask early. In a first call, ask whether the role can be sponsored and which occupation code it would use. It saves weeks for both sides.

Step 4: Understand what sponsorship costs the employer

Knowing the employer’s side helps you in conversations. For each Skilled Worker, the sponsor pays:

• a £525 certificate of sponsorship fee, and
• the immigration skills charge: £1,320 for the first 12 months plus £660 for each extra 6 months for medium or large sponsors, or £480 and £240 for small or charitable sponsors.

For a large company sponsoring someone for 5 years, the skills charge alone is £6,600. That is why some employers save sponsorship for hard-to-fill or senior roles. It helps to say upfront whether you are applying from abroad or are already in the UK, because that changes which type of certificate of sponsorship the employer needs.

Step 5: Avoid fake “sponsorship” offers

GOV.UK states that a sponsor’s licence may be revoked if it asks the sponsored worker to pay the certificate fee or “any costs linked to your application”. Warning signs include:

• being asked to pay for a certificate of sponsorship or a “sponsorship fee”;
• an employer that isn’t on the register for the Skilled Worker route;
• a salary that is well below the going rate for the job described;
• pressure to pay quickly, or to pay a third party “agent”.

Your own costs are your visa fee and the immigration health surcharge. Our Skilled Worker visa fees guide sets out exactly what those are.

Thinking long term

If you are looking for a sponsored job as a route to settling in the UK, remember that you need to stay with a licensed sponsor and keep meeting the salary rules throughout. Read our Skilled Worker ILR guide and the update on proposed earned settlement changes before you plan your timeline.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find visa sponsorship jobs in the UK?

Start with the Home Office register of licensed sponsors on GOV.UK, filter it to the Skilled Worker route and your city, then check those employers' careers pages and job adverts for roles that meet the Skilled Worker salary rules for your occupation code.

How many UK companies can sponsor a Skilled Worker visa?

In our count of the Home Office register dated 27 October 2026, 122,356 distinct organisation names were licensed for the Skilled Worker route. Being on the register means an employer can sponsor, not that it is hiring or will sponsor every role.

Is there an official GOV.UK list of visa sponsorship jobs?

GOV.UK publishes a list of licensed sponsor organisations, not a list of vacancies. You need to match employers on the register with their own job adverts.

Do I have to pay an employer to sponsor my visa?

No. For the Skilled Worker route, GOV.UK says the employer must pay the certificate of sponsorship fee and the immigration skills charge itself, and its licence may be revoked if it asks the worker to pay these or any costs linked to its application.

What salary does a sponsored tech job need to pay?

Usually the higher of £41,700 or the going rate for the occupation code, for example £54,700 for programmers and software developers (code 2134). New entrants may qualify at 70% of the going rate, with a £33,400 minimum.