Made Redundant Before Your ILR Application: What Skilled Worker Visa Holders Must Do Immediately

The 60-Day Grace Period: What It Is and What You Must Do

When a Skilled Worker visa is curtailed, which is what happens when your sponsoring employer withdraws their sponsorship, including following redundancy, the Home Office sends a 'curtailment letter' reducing the remaining leave on your visa to 60 days. This 60-day period is commonly referred to as the grace period.

What You Can Do During the 60 Days

During the 60-day grace period, you remain lawfully in the UK. You can: apply for a new Skilled Worker visa with a new sponsor; switch to a different eligible visa route (Graduate Visa if applicable, Global Talent, etc.); or make arrangements to leave the UK voluntarily. What you cannot do is allow the 60 days to expire without taking action, doing so means you become an overstayer, which carries serious consequences for all future UK immigration applications.

Curtailment Is Not Always Automatic

In practice, the Home Office does not always send a curtailment letter immediately when a sponsor withdraws sponsorship. The grace period technically runs from the date of curtailment , but applicants in this situation should not rely on delay in the curtailment process. The safer approach is to treat the day of redundancy as the start of the clock and act immediately.

Does Redundancy Break Your Continuous Residence for ILR?

This is the question most Skilled Worker visa holders in this situation ask first, and the answer is nuanced.

If Redundancy Occurs More Than 60 Days Before Your ILR Application Date

Where a gap in Skilled Worker sponsorship occurs more than 60 days before the planned ILR application date, there is a risk that continuous lawful residence has been interrupted. ILR requires five years of continuous lawful residence. A period of unlawful presence (i.e., remaining in the UK beyond the curtailed visa without a valid leave) will break the continuity clock. Even a single day of unlawful presence can, in principle, reset the five-year period.

If You Obtain a New Sponsor Within 60 Days

Where you obtain a new Certificate of Sponsorship and submit a new Skilled Worker visa application within the 60-day grace period, your leave continues under Section 3C while the new application is pending. Provided the new application is granted, your continuous residence is preserved. The key is to act within the 60-day window, not to use all 60 days.

The ILR Salary Requirement After Redundancy

ILR applications on the Skilled Worker route do not impose a salary requirement at the date of the ILR application itself, the salary requirement applies to the sponsoring employer throughout the qualifying five-year period. However, the applicant must have been meeting the applicable salary threshold throughout their period of sponsorship. If redundancy reveals that they were being paid below the threshold at any point, this will be an issue on the ILR application.

Finding a New Sponsor Within 60 Days: A Step-by-Step Guide

1. Notify your current (former) employer in writing that you require confirmation of your sponsorship withdrawal date for immigration purposes.

2. Begin an active job search immediately, targeting employers who already hold a Sponsor Licence in the 'Worker' category.

3. When a job offer is made, confirm that the employer holds a valid sponsor licence before accepting, check the Home Office's published register of licensed sponsors.

4. Ensure the salary offered meets the applicable Skilled Worker threshold for the relevant SOC code (minimum £41,700 or the going rate, whichever is higher).

5. Arrange for the new employer's Level 1 User to assign a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to you.

6. Submit your new Skilled Worker visa application before the 60-day grace period expires.

What If You Cannot Find a New Sponsor in Time?

Where no new sponsor can be found within 60 days, the options are: switching to a different visa route for which you currently qualify (this must also be done within the 60 days); leaving the UK voluntarily and applying for re-entry from abroad once a new sponsor is secured; or in exceptional circumstances, applying for leave outside the rules on human rights grounds where departure would cause disproportionate interference with established private and family life.

The ILR Employer Letter After Redundancy

If redundancy occurs after the five-year qualifying period has been completed but before the ILR application has been submitted, a specific issue arises: you cannot obtain an employer letter from your (former) employer confirming current ongoing employment, because the employment has ended. In this scenario, the ILR application must be accompanied by: a letter from the former employer confirming employment throughout the qualifying period and the date of termination; payslips and P60s covering the full five years; and a detailed explanation of the redundancy circumstances.

Where the redundancy followed the completion of five years' qualifying service, the Home Office has a degree of discretion in how it applies the employment evidence requirement, but specialist legal advice is essential in this scenario.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does voluntary redundancy affect ILR differently from compulsory redundancy?

The Home Office does not distinguish between voluntary and compulsory redundancy for immigration purposes. Both result in the withdrawal of sponsorship and the triggering of the curtailment process. The 60-day grace period applies in both cases.

Can I claim Universal Credit during the 60-day grace period?

Most Skilled Worker visa holders have a no recourse to public funds (NRPF) condition on their leave. This condition continues during the 60-day grace period. Claiming Universal Credit or most other public funds during this period would breach your visa conditions. Redundancy pay, which is a payment from your former employer and not a public fund, is not affected.

What happens to my dependants' visas if I am made redundant?

Dependants' Skilled Worker dependent visas are tied to the main applicant's sponsorship. When the main applicant's sponsorship is withdrawn, the dependants' leave is also curtailed, typically with the same 60-day period. All family members are affected simultaneously and the same urgency to find a new sponsor or switch routes applies.