Most people look for companies that sponsor work visas by searching job boards for the word sponsorship. There is a better way, at least for two countries: the government publishes the list. Every employer licensed to sponsor, downloadable, free, and almost nobody uses it.
That list is a better prospect list than any job board, including ours, because it tells you who can sponsor rather than who happened to mention it in an advert.
The two registers worth your afternoon
| Country | What is published | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Register of licensed sponsors, downloadable | If a company is not on it, they cannot sponsor you, whatever they have told you. This is also how you check an offer is real. |
| Netherlands | IND public register of recognised sponsors, updated monthly | Held 12,883 organisations as of 1 July 2026. A recognised sponsor can apply for a residence permit for an employee, which is the step you cannot take yourself. |
Use them in the direction people do not think of. Rather than finding a job and then asking whether the employer sponsors, start from the register, filter it to your sector and region, and apply to those companies directly whether or not they are currently advertising. You are approaching employers who have already done the paperwork once and know how it works.
We keep a working copy of the UK side at registered UK visa sponsors if you would rather not wrangle a government spreadsheet.
Where no register exists, work backwards from the shortage list
Most countries do not publish a sponsor list. Germany, Austria, Poland and Lithuania all have shortage occupation lists instead, and those are almost as useful if you read them the right way.
A shortage list tells you which occupations the state has already accepted cannot be filled locally. That means two things for your search:
- The employers are in those sectors. If the list names welders, metalworking machine operators and international freight drivers, the sponsoring employers are fabrication shops, engineering firms and haulage companies. Go to them directly.
- The hard step is already waived. On a shortage occupation the employer usually skips the labour market test, which is the part that makes sponsoring an outsider feel like work. You are a much cheaper hire than they assume.
So the pitch to an employer is not “will you sponsor me”. It is “my occupation is on the shortage list, so you do not need a labour market test”. That is a different conversation and it lands differently.
What actually works, in order
- Check the register first where one exists. Ten minutes, and it eliminates every fake offer at once.
- Find your occupation code and check it against the destination’s shortage list. This decides how easy you are to hire.
- Target employers who have sponsored before. A company on the register has a licence and a process. A company that has never done it has to be persuaded to start.
- Apply to sectors, not adverts. Many sponsoring employers never write “visa sponsorship available”, because they are advertising locally and would sponsor for the right candidate.
- Lead with the thing that costs them least. Your occupation being listed, your qualification already recognised, your language already tested. Every one of those removes a reason to say no.
The filter that matters more than any of this
In every legitimate route the employer pays the sponsorship costs. A UK certificate of sponsorship costs the employer. A Dutch recognised sponsor carries the obligation. So if anyone asks you to pay for a job offer or a sponsorship certificate, you have found a fraud, not an opportunity.
This is the single most common way people lose money in this field, and it concentrates in care work, agriculture and driving, where the motivation to leave is strongest. An agency paid by the employer is doing a normal job. An agency asking you for four figures is selling something it does not have. Our guide to what visa sponsorship is goes through the rest of the warning signs.
The register is your defence here too. If a company offering to sponsor you for the UK is not on the licensed sponsor list, the conversation is over, and you can establish that in under a minute.
Where to look next
Country by country: the UK Skilled Worker visa, the Netherlands thresholds, Lithuania’s shortage list and Austria’s, or compare 15 European countries side by side.
And when you want vacancies that are already tied to sponsoring employers rather than to agents, browse shortage jobs with visa sponsorship on our board.
Last checked September 2026. Both registers are maintained by the governments concerned and change constantly: the IND updates monthly. Always check the live register rather than a copy.
