Almost 2,000 high street businesses are licensed to sponsor foreign workers, despite changes to legislation. This comes after changes last summer which ended the overseas recruitment of care workers and raised the minimum salary for skilled workers to £41,700. All of these businesses are able to sponsor people to apply for visas, reports the BBC. But official guidance makes it clear firms must offer genuine jobs that meet skill and salary rules, and only sponsor workers for eligible roles. Sixty businesses on the register that had been fined for employing illegal workers between April 2024 and December 2025.