Car washes and vape shops can still sponsor skilled foreign workers despite visa changes

More than 1,900 small high street businesses including mini-marts, vape shops and car washes are licensed to sponsor foreign workers under a specialist scheme intended for high-earning individuals despite visa rules being tightened, BBC Verify has found.

The Home Office scheme allows registered employers to recruit workers from overseas who meet a certain skill level. The rules were tightened in July 2025 to restrict the scheme mostly to graduate-level employees who would be earning at least £41,700.

But a year on from the rule change, BBC Verify has found more than 1,500 grocery and convenience stores, 150 taxi operators, 100 barber shops, and dozens of car washes and vape shops are still on the register and able to sponsor people to apply for visas.

More than 100 of those businesses were added to the skilled worker sponsorship list after the rules were tightened. Being on the register does not mean applications for individual visas would be approved.

Health Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Thursday the government will "make sure that the rules are being properly enforced because we cannot have employers getting round the rules or finding different ways to deviate".

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ordered an urgent review into the presence of vape shops, barbers and car washes on the skilled worker sponsor register two months ago, following concerns over the "potential misuse of the system". The Home Office said at the time that any businesses seeking to abuse the system would have their licences revoked.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We have raised the skilled worker threshold and over 100 occupations are now ineligible for new skilled worker visas."

It is understood some of the companies that joined the register after the rules changed may have applied before they took effect. Some companies may have also remained on the register because they were approved before July 2025 or are sponsoring workers who were already in the UK.