For a Skilled Worker ILR application, ask the sponsor from your most recent permission to confirm two things clearly: it still requires you to work for it for the foreseeable future, and you are paid—and will continue to be paid for the foreseeable future—at least the salary required for your settlement case. The sponsor must also remain approved to sponsor Skilled Workers on the date the Home Office decides the application.
That is the rule-level core. A useful employer letter or email should then identify you, the sponsor, the job and the pay well enough for those statements to be checked against the Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS), payroll records and the application. There is no need to turn every detail seen in an online template into a supposed universal legal requirement.
Independent guidance, reviewed 23 August 2026: ILR Calculator UK is not the Home Office and this article is general information, not legal advice or a guarantee of an outcome. The application form tells each applicant which documents to upload. Check the rules in force for your application date and seek regulated advice if your sponsor, role or salary position is disputed or changing.
The three rule-critical checks
The GOV.UK Skilled Worker settlement overview tells applicants that they need a document from their employer confirming that they will continue to be needed for the job and will meet the salary requirements after settlement. The detailed legal test appears in Appendix Skilled Worker, SW 24.1 to SW 24.4.
| Check | What must be true | What the employer confirmation should do |
|---|---|---|
| Current sponsor | The sponsor in your most recent permission must still be approved to sponsor Skilled Workers on the decision date. | Identify the sponsoring legal entity clearly. A licence number is a useful cross-check where available. |
| Continuing need | The sponsor must still require you to work for it for the foreseeable future. | Say this directly rather than only confirming that you are employed on the letter date. |
| Continuing salary | You must be paid, and continue to be paid for the foreseeable future, at least the salary required by the applicable SW 24.3 row. | State the current gross pay and pay basis, then confirm future pay meets the applicable settlement requirement. |
These points work together. A letter that confirms only historic employment does not answer the continuing-need question. Payslips show what has been paid, but do not by themselves say what the sponsor will need or pay in the foreseeable future. A broad sentence such as “the employee meets all immigration requirements” is also weaker than factual confirmation of the role, continuing need and pay.
Rule requirements versus practical identifying details
SW 24.2 supplies the two substantive confirmations. It does not publish a universal employer-letter template or say that six identical fields must appear in every case. Still, a confirmation that cannot be matched to the worker, sponsor and job creates avoidable uncertainty.
Ask the sponsor to include the following practical details when they are accurate and relevant:
- the sponsor's full legal name and an address or verifiable business contact;
- your full name, ideally matching the name used in the application;
- your current job title and, where the sponsor has it, the occupation code connected with the sponsored role;
- the date your current employment or current sponsored role began;
- your current gross salary, whether it is annual or hourly, and contracted weekly hours where those affect the salary calculation;
- a factual explanation of any recent promotion, change of duties, hours, work location or pay;
- the name, position and contact details of the person giving the confirmation; and
- the date of the confirmation.
These details do not replace the two forward-looking statements. Their purpose is to make those statements specific and verifiable. Do not add a sponsor licence number, occupation code or employment date from memory: ask HR or the sponsor's immigration team to check its records.
How to request the sponsor letter from HR
1. Send the rule, not an internet template alone
Tell HR that the request is for Skilled Worker settlement and point them to SW 24.2. Explain that you need confirmation of both continuing need and continuing qualifying pay. A copied template can be a useful prompt, but the sponsor should confirm only facts it can verify and should use wording that reflects the real employment position.
2. Identify the right sponsoring entity
The employing brand, payroll company and licensed sponsor are not always named in exactly the same way. Ask HR to check the sponsor recorded for your most recent immigration permission. You can use the official register of licensed sponsors as a public planning check, but the rule asks whether the sponsor remains approved on the date of decision. If there has been a merger, transfer or licence change, do not guess which entity should write the confirmation.
3. Reconcile the job and salary before the letter is signed
Place the draft confirmation beside your most recent CoS details, current contract or role-change letter, payslips and matching bank credits. Check that the employer name, job, occupation code, working hours and pay tell one coherent story. A difference may be explainable, but it should not be left for a caseworker to discover without context.
4. Ask for a verifiable sender
The current Skilled Worker caseworker guidance says the sponsor should not assign a new CoS for this settlement confirmation. An email or letter is sufficient as long as it can be verified with the sponsor if necessary. That makes an identifiable sender, business contact details and a retained copy more useful than decorative formatting alone.
5. Check the final document against your application answers
Before uploading, compare the confirmation with every employment and salary answer in the form. If the form asks for additional documents based on your circumstances, provide those separately. Do not assume that a sponsor letter replaces payslips, bank evidence, travel records or another item shown on your personal application checklist.
For the wider qualifying-period, absence and route checks, use the site's Skilled Worker ILR calculator and checklist as a planning aid, then return to the current official rules before submitting.
An adaptable sponsor confirmation structure
The sponsor can use its own style. The following is a factual structure to discuss with HR, not an official Home Office form and not wording that guarantees acceptance.
Subject: Skilled Worker settlement employment confirmation for [applicant's full name]
[Legal sponsor name] confirms that [full name] is employed as [current job title] in the sponsored role associated with [occupation code, if confirmed by sponsor records]. Their current gross pay is [amount and pay basis] for [contracted hours or working pattern, where relevant].
We continue to require [name] to work for us in this role for the foreseeable future.
[Name] is currently paid, and will be paid for the foreseeable future, at least the salary required for their Skilled Worker settlement application under the applicable provisions of Appendix Skilled Worker.
[Explain any relevant change of role, duties, hours or pay with accurate effective dates.]
Signed or sent by: [authorised person's name, position and verifiable contact details]
Date: [date]
The actual pay figure is valuable because it can be checked against the submitted evidence. The sponsor should not state that a threshold is met unless it has checked the correct settlement rule for the worker's circumstances. Equally, the applicant should not edit a signed employer document or supply an invented licence, salary or occupation code.
Do not reduce the salary check to one headline number
SW 24.3 contains different rows. The applicable general threshold and going rate can depend on the role, occupation table, Immigration Salary List position, healthcare or education provisions, when the worker first entered the route, and certain Tier 2 history. SW 24.4 also controls how salary is assessed and contains particular treatment for some permitted absences from work.
The sponsor confirmation should therefore state the actual current pay and the basis on which it is paid. The applicant and sponsor can then check the applicable rule instead of copying a number from an older letter. If salary is hourly, hours vary, an allowance is being counted, pay has been reduced, or the worker recently returned from an eligible absence, the underlying calculation needs a separate, current review.
Use a short reconciliation table before submission:
| Record | Check against the sponsor confirmation |
|---|---|
| Most recent CoS or sponsor record | Sponsor entity, sponsored job, occupation code and recorded salary. |
| Current contract or variation letter | Current title, duties, hours, work location and effective dates. |
| Payslips | Gross basic pay, frequency, deductions, variable components and recent changes. |
| Bank statements | Whether the net credits correspond to the payslips relied on. |
| Application answers | The same employer, job, hours and pay position, with any difference explained. |
How to handle changes and awkward cases
Promotion, pay rise or new occupation code
A change should be described, not hidden. Ask the sponsor to identify the current role and pay, and to explain the effective date of a relevant change. The fact that the present details differ from an older CoS does not tell you by itself whether the settlement requirement is met or whether earlier sponsor reporting was correct. Check the current records and get route-specific advice where the change is material.
Maternity, parental, sick or other leave affecting pay
Do not ask HR to pretend that reduced payslips never existed. Ask it to state the leave dates, the current employment position, and the salary on return where that is the relevant fact. SW 24.4 refers to specific absence circumstances; not every pay reduction receives the same treatment. Keep the leave approval and payroll explanation with the evidence.
Fixed-term work, notice, redundancy or an uncertain role
The sponsor must give an honest statement about foreseeable need. If the role is ending, under consultation or dependent on an event that has not occurred, a permanent-sounding sentence may conflict with the real record. This is not a drafting problem that can safely be solved by stronger adjectives. Check the effect on eligibility before paying or submitting.
Merger, TUPE transfer or licence problem
The sponsor in the most recent permission and its approval at the decision date matter. A corporate change can make the legal entity difficult to identify even when the day-to-day job looks unchanged. Ask the sponsor's authorised immigration contact to confirm the sponsorship history and current status. A public register search is useful, but it cannot replace a case-specific check where the licence or employing entity has changed.
Absences from the UK
SW 24.2 is about continuing work and salary; it does not turn a list of every trip into a universal element of the same confirmation. The application may require separate continuous-residence evidence, and an employer can confirm business travel or approved leave that it genuinely knows about. Keep that task distinct: the employer confirms facts, while the applicant remains responsible for a complete travel history and the applicable absence rule.
If HR will not provide a complete confirmation
First, reduce the request to the official test. Send HR the GOV.UK overview, SW 24.2 and the caseworker guidance passage stating that a verifiable email or letter is sufficient. Ask whether an authorised sponsor contact can confirm the two required facts even if the organisation will not use your preferred template.
If HR will confirm only current employment but not foreseeable need, or only current pay but not future qualifying pay, do not silently treat a payslip or contract as an equivalent forward-looking statement. Ask for the reason, check whether the refusal reflects a real employment or sponsor issue, and keep the correspondence. Although a caseworker may seek more information, you should not submit a known gap on the assumption that the Home Office will repair it later.
Where the sponsor disputes the role, pay, licence position or continuing need, the issue is no longer just document formatting. Obtain advice from an appropriately regulated immigration adviser or solicitor before making an irreversible application decision.
What could change before you apply or receive a decision?
The letter records an employment position at a point in time, but SW 24.1 tests sponsor approval on the date of decision and SW 24.2 looks forward. Salary thresholds, occupation tables and transitional provisions can also change. A document prepared months in advance may remain factually accurate yet refer to an old salary framework or an entity whose licence position has changed.
Recheck the current Appendix Skilled Worker when you finalise the application, confirm that the sponsor's statement still describes the real role and pay, and tell the sponsor promptly if the application remains undecided when a material employment change occurs. The safest letter is not the one with the most template fields; it is the one that accurately addresses the current rule and can still be verified.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official Skilled Worker ILR sponsor letter template?
GOV.UK does not publish one universal sponsor-letter template for every Skilled Worker settlement case. The rule instead identifies the substance the sponsor must confirm: continuing need for your work and current and future salary at the applicable level. Your employer can use its own letter or email format. Include accurate identifying and employment details so the statement can be matched to your sponsor records, but do not present optional template wording as a guaranteed Home Office form.
Does my employer need to assign a new CoS for my ILR application?
No new CoS should be assigned just to provide the settlement confirmation. Current Home Office caseworker guidance says an email or letter is sufficient if it can be verified with the sponsor when necessary. Your application still needs to identify the sponsor and employment connected with your most recent permission accurately. If you have changed sponsor, legal employer or role and are unsure which record controls, resolve that history before relying on a generic letter.
Must the sponsor letter include my SOC code and licence number?
SW 24.2 does not list an occupation code and sponsor licence number as separate universal wording requirements. They are nevertheless useful identifiers when the sponsor has verified them, because they help connect the current role to the sponsorship record and applicable salary calculation. Never copy them from an old template or another employee's letter. If a code, legal entity or licence detail has changed, ask the authorised sponsor contact to explain the current position rather than hiding the difference.
Does the same letter need to list all my absences from the UK?
Not as a universal part of the SW 24.2 continuing-work and salary confirmation. Continuous residence is a separate requirement, and your application may ask for travel evidence based on your answers. An employer can usefully confirm business trips or approved leave that its records genuinely show, but it should not certify private travel it cannot verify or decide whether an absence legally counts. Keep your own complete travel ledger and follow the document checklist generated for your application.
What if my job title, salary or hours changed after my CoS was issued?
Ask the sponsor to state the current facts and explain the effective date of any material change. Reconcile the letter with the contract variation, payslips, bank credits and sponsor records before submitting. A difference from an older CoS is not automatically fatal, but it may affect the occupation or salary analysis and may have required sponsor action at the time. Do not assume a promotion or pay rise fixes every issue; check the rule applying to your actual history.
How recent should the employer confirmation be?
The public SW 24.2 wording does not set one universal number of days for every letter. The document should be current enough to describe the real role, foreseeable need and pay when you apply, and those facts must remain supportable while the application is decided. Recheck it if submission is delayed or if the job, hours, salary, employing entity or sponsor status changes. Follow any more specific instruction shown in your individual online application checklist.
What should I do if HR refuses to mention “foreseeable future”?
Show HR the official SW 24.2 requirement and ask whether an authorised sponsor contact can confirm the substance in the organisation's own words. A current-employment reference alone answers a different question. If the refusal reflects planned redundancy, fixed-term work, a salary concern or a licence issue, do not try to solve it by editing the document yourself. Keep the response and obtain regulated, case-specific advice before submitting an application with a known gap.
