chapter one
I had a job to live, and a sponsor to stay.
I had a job to live, and a sponsor to stay.
I graduated in 2022 with a post-study visa, a small flat in a city I'd only just learned how to live in, and a window that closed on its own whether or not anything happened inside it.
One clock counted the months I had left in the country. The other counted how long it might take to find a company willing to keep me here. The two clocks didn't know about each other. I did.
- Julyapplications, everywhere
- Augustthe HR calls, and the nos
- Septembergraduated · scripts and a database
- Octoberapplying only to licensed sponsors
- Novemberan offer, finally
- Decemberskilled worker visa, submitted
- Januarystudent visa expired
chapter two
Most rejections came on the HR call.
Most rejections came on the HR call.
Not for fit, not for skill, but for a question that should have been answered before the first click: does this company hold a sponsorship licence?
Weeks of effort, polished cover letters, two-stage interviews, all of it vanishing on the same invisible line, in different rooms.
chapter three
I found the list on gov.uk. Then I made it readable.
I found the list on gov.uk. Then I made it readable.
The register of licensed sponsors is public, over a hundred thousand rows, with no search, no filters, no way to ask it a useful question.
I wrote a script to load it into a database, then a cron job to keep it in sync every twenty-four hours, then a change-tracker, because a freshly licensed sponsor is the one most likely to actually sponsor.
chapter four
For the person writing the application, not the one reading it.
For the person writing the application, not the one reading it.
Sponsor Finder isn't built for recruiters or HR teams. It's built for the people who are doing the applying: the graduates, the career-switchers, the partners and parents, the ones doing the maths on the kitchen table before bed about how many weeks are left.
We draw one short path between the person who has to leave if nothing changes, and the company that's allowed, today, to let them stay. Five steps. On the right.
chapter five
Three years later. Free, for whoever needs it.
Three years later. Free, for whoever needs it.
In 2025 I turned the scripts into a product so nobody else has to write them. The UK register first, then the Netherland. More countries are on the way.
There's no paywall, no upsell, no premium tier waiting at the next click. If the data exists in a public register, Sponsor Finder treats it as something you already own.