180 of the 251 UK councils on the Home Office Register of Licensed Sponsors have sponsored overseas workers in the last three years, issuing 3,303 Certificates of Sponsorship for Skilled Worker visas. The biggest sponsors are Derbyshire County Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, East Sussex County Council. Most of the volume goes to qualified social workers (SOC 2461), town planners (SOC 2452), civil engineers (SOC 2121), and environmental health officers (SOC 2483). These roles are hard to fill from the UK labour market, which is why councils recruit overseas.
Sponsorship clusters around a few shortage occupations the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has flagged for years. The ones that actually get sponsored:
The general Skilled Worker salary floor is £38,700 a year, or the going rate for the occupation if that’s higher. Immigration Salary List roles (social work included) qualify at a lower floor. That’s why entry-level council admin jobs basically never sponsor: the salary doesn’t meet the going rate.
Yes. County, city, district, and borough councils all hold Home Office sponsor licences and recruit from overseas for hard-to-fill roles: social workers, planners, environmental health officers, senior engineers. Any council with an active licence can issue a Certificate of Sponsorship for the Skilled Worker route.
The role has to be on the Home Office eligible occupations list and meet the salary threshold. In practice, sponsored council jobs are almost all in the shortage occupations listed above: social work, planning, engineering, environmental health, educational psychology, and senior IT or cyber security. Admin and entry-level posts rarely qualify because their salaries sit below the Skilled Worker threshold.
Since April 2024 the general threshold is £38,700 a year, or the going rate for the occupation if that's higher. Immigration Salary List jobs and some eligible public-sector roles (social work being the obvious one) use lower thresholds. Check the current going rate for the occupation code before you apply.
Start with the councils listed above. Each links to its live job postings. For a wider search, use the jobs page with your occupation and filter for licensed sponsors. The full job description usually lives on the council's own careers portal, so read it there: check for explicit sponsorship wording, or a note saying 'we welcome applications from overseas candidates'.
Usually yes. If you’re in the UK on a visa, a Student visa (with an eligible job offer), or most other work visas, you can switch to a visa without leaving the country, as long as the council issues a valid . You can’t switch from a Visitor visa.
Data from the UK gov.uk Register of Licensed Sponsors, refreshed daily. Sponsorship eligibility depends on the specific role and the council’s current licence status.
Showing the top 10 of 251 councils tracked. Browse all councils →
A sponsor licence doesn’t mean every vacancy is open to overseas candidates. The job advert (or the council’s HR team) is the authoritative source. Check it before you apply, not this page.
Birmingham City Council, Kent County Council, Manchester City Council, and the larger London boroughs are usually near the top, mostly because of social-work recruitment. The top-10 grid above is sorted by Home Office sponsor ranking and refreshed daily against the official Register of Licensed Sponsors.