Candidates Resource (DW)

Displaced Workers

Candidates Resource (DW)

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The revocation of a sponsor's licence can be a worrying and distressing time for workers. Below are some helpful steps and contacts to help get you through the worry and back to work again

UKVI Notification and Letter

If you have received a letter from UKVI telling you that your employer has had their Sponsor Licence revoked, then first of all our sympathies for finding yourself in this difficult and worrying situation.

UKVI will normally wait about two calendar months, after revoking the sponsor’s licence, before notifying each sponsored worker. Therefore, the 60-day period will start from the date on the Home Office (UKVI) letter informing you that your visa is being cancelled, not from the date your sponsor loses their licence.

You can continue to work, as per the conditions attached to your visa, until the 60-day period has expired.

If you remain in the UK beyond the 60-days, without finding a new sponsor, or making an application on an alternative route that you may be qualified for, then you risk being detained and removed from the UK, with any visa application made within the next 10 years being unlikely to be approved.

Know your rights

Your rights as a worker are protected by UK law.
To help you understand these rights, the following resource will cover items such as:

National Minimum Wage, deductions and payslips
Hours of work and annual leave
Health and Safety responsibilities
Terms and conditions
What to look out for
Who to contact for advice and assistance

Available in 23 languages

Worker Rights Leaflet

Scotlands Migration Service

Scotland’s Migration Service, funded by Scottish Government, provides information and advice to employers seeking to hire or retain international workers. This includes free one-to-one appointments with a qualified immigration lawyer. Please see Scotland's Migration Service for Employers and Investors | Scotland.org. International workers can also access information and advice from the service at Move to Scotland | Scotland.org.

Note that the service operates across two separate websites. Information for employers is available at https://migrationservice.scotland.org. Information for migrants is on www.scotland.org/move-to-scotland.

Sources of Support, Advice and Guidance

You could approach a sponsor-matching agency, some of whom specialise in helping displaced workers find a new sponsor. You can search online to find one, or approach one of those listed below, but please be aware that we are not recommending or endorsing their activities, you need to be confident that what they are offering meets your own, personal requirements.

Osborne & Allan specialise in international recruitment within the health and social care sector, supporting candidates who have been displaced and find themselves in a difficult situation to gain employment with a reputable UK employer with no costs to the candidate. They can be contacted by email at emma@osborneallan.co.uk or hello@osborneallan.co.uk, or by phone at 07841017452 and/or 01592 859999.

Lifted Talent is a free service that helps displaced international care workers find new jobs in the UK.We connect you with employers who are ready to sponsor and support international care workers. We also take care of the hard parts — the paperwork, the compliance, and the admin — to make the process faster and stress-free for both you and the employer. We’re here to help you start your next chapter.

To get started, just visit our website, download the Lifted Talent app, and complete your profile. We’ll use that to match you with the best job opportunities — and help you show your strengths to employers. We only work with ethical, trusted care companies, and we never charge any fees to care workers. In fact, we won’t work with any organisation that does. We’ve been officially commissioned by government bodies to support international care workers, and we used to be care providers ourselves, so we understand your journey. We’re here to guide you every step of the way.

Find a Job in Care Work with Lifted Network Support

At Borderless they believe in a world where borders are no longer barriers. Their technology platform streamlines every stage of immigration, sponsorship and compliance for UK employers and international care workers: from sponsor-licence applications and candidate vetting to one-click visa processing and ongoing audit-ready record-keeping, all supported by their in-house immigration specialists.
To meet the urgent needs of care staff whose original sponsors can no longer employ them, they have created a dedicated Displaced-Worker Pool. This live database instantly pairs pre-verified migrant care workers already in the UK with ethical providers that have open vacancies, allowing both sides to connect within hours and complete the entire recruitment process in days.
Interested workers can register for free, and employers can explore the pool at Borderless Website or email will@getborderless.co.uk to see how Borderless can keep your workforce and their futures secure.

Work Rights Centre (WoRC) is a charity that has been created to help migrants and disadvantaged Britons access employment justice and improve their social mobility. Access information on your rights, support and guidance by visiting their website via this link.

The Worker Support Centre (WSC) provides vital support to isolated and marginalised workers across Scotland, including those working in the social care sector in Perth and Kinross. Their services include free individual and collective support for workplace related problems such as intimidation, inflexible rotas, and wage theft. The WSC operates in multiple languages, including Ukrainian, Russian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Kurdish Kurmanji, Shona, Ndebele, Kazakh, Italian, French, Spanish, and English, and can arrange interpretation services to ensure accessibility for all workers. If you’re experiencing issues and would like to share these confidentially to explore your options, or come together with other workers who are experiencing similar problems, get in touch via email – support@workersupportcentre.org.uk or WhatsApp +44 7449 911206.

There are other sources of advice and support, such as:

Trade union support

If you are a member of a trade union, then they may be able to offer support. 

Many care workers are members of UNISON, who do offer advice and support to migrant workers.

GMB Scotland also offer trade union support to care workers. Find out more on their website.

If you are a member of a different union then they may also be able to provide assistance.

Most unions will also provide free legal advice to their members, so if you are a union member it would definitely be worth approaching your union representative.

Police Scotland

If you are feeling unsafe, or at risk, then you can contact Police Scotland, who have a dedicated team dealing with issues of modern slavery and human trafficking. If you feel you have been trafficked, or you are being exploited, please report this to Police Scotland on 101. In an emergency always dial 999.

You can also use the Police Scotland online Contact Form, or contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Your call will be treated in confidence. You can also report via the Modern Slavery helpline on 08000 121 700 or on the Modern Slavery helpline website.

Unseen (Anti-slavery Charity)

Unseen is a UK charity with its head office in Bristol. They provide safe houses and support in the community for survivors of trafficking and modern slavery. They also run the UK Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline and work with individuals, communities, businesses, governments, other charities and statutory agencies to stamp out slavery for good.

Unseen has many resources, in many languages, that can be downloaded from their website at https://www.unseenuk.org/

Unseen has also created an app, available in Apple and Android formats, that has information in 27 languages and provides lots of great advice concerning identifying and reporting modern slavery. https://www.unseenuk.org/about-modern-slavery/download-the-app/

The UK Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline is provided by Unseen on 08000 121 700.

Other organisations

Other organisations that may be able to offer support and guidance are Citizens Advice Scotland or Scotland’s Migration Service.

Job vacancies

Care providers in Scotland will use various online recruitment sites to advertise vacancies for care workers. 

One of the most popular is myjobScotland, where roles can be filtered for location and other factors to meet your needs. 

Other sites to try include Indeed and Google, which can be asked to display ‘care worker jobs near me’.  One could also try a direct approach to care providers, whether locally or further afield, who have a sponsor licence. 

The Ethical Recruiters List is one place to look for potential employers, or one could search the UKVI register of sponsor license holders.