How to change a guest to a member to allow shared permissions in a team/network?

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How to change a guest to a member to allow shared permissions in a team/network?

Katie Williams 20

I have created a team in Microsoft Teams with around 80 guests. I would like other 'guests' to have permission to schedule meetings and share resources in the team however we are from different NHS organisations. Is there a way to change someone to a 'member' or give them permission for these things as a guest? Thanks

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Anonymous

Hi @Katie Williams,

Thank you for reaching out and posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Regarding your question about changing a guest to a member to allow shared permissions in a team:

I want to confirm that if the guest is from a different organization, they cannot be directly converted to a “member” in Microsoft Teams. Membership is limited to users within your own Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) tenant.

However, you do have a few options to grant additional permissions:

Alternative Approach: If collaboration requires full member capabilities, consider creating accounts for these users in your tenant (as members) and assigning appropriate licenses. This is common in cross-organization projects.
Use Microsoft Entra B2B Collaboration: This feature allows external users to access resources in your organization with more flexibility than standard guest access. You can invite external users as B2B guests and configure conditional access, permissions, and policies to meet your collaboration needs. Learn more here: Microsoft Entra B2B Collaboration.

For more information you could refer to this article :B2B guest user properties - Microsoft Entra External ID | Microsoft Learn

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I really appreciate your patience, and I’m here to help. Looking forward to your response! 

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Anonymous

2026-01-07T14:53:07.8366667+00:00

Hi @Katie Williams,
I hope you're doing well. I just wanted to follow up and see if you’ve had a chance to review my previous reply. If possible, it would be incredibly helpful if you could share a bit more detailed update of the issue. Thank you so much for your cooperation we truly appreciate your time and effort. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Katie Williams 20 Reputation points

2026-01-07T15:00:04.0433333+00:00

Hi there, thank you for your feedback. Sadly because myself and the other members are all from different NHS trusts in the UK we are not able to share permissions in this way. Members would need to be from the same organisation as the 'owner' of the group and this isn't the case for our network. I have contacted my trust IT department and if the other members are external to our trust their membership to the group cannot be changed, they would remain as guests and as I understand, can therefore not have permission to schedule meetings for the team. If there are any other work arounds so that a couple of people in the team could be 'members' even if from another organisation I'd be appreciate of the feedback! Thanks
Anonymous

2026-01-08T14:31:27.6+00:00
Hi @Katie Williams,

Thank you for your follow-up and for clarifying the situation.

Unfortunately, there is no native way in Microsoft Teams to convert guests from other organizations into members within your tenant without additional configuration. The only viable workaround is through Microsoft Entra B2B Collaboration.

With B2B, you can invite external users and configure them as External Members instead of Guests. Here’s the difference:

External Member

A user from another organization who is invited into your tenant but assigned the Member role.

They have almost the same permissions as internal users, including:

Full access to Teams features

Ability to schedule meetings (if they have an Exchange mailbox in your tenant and a license)

Create and manage Teams, channels, and apps

This typically requires assigning a Microsoft 365 license in your tenant.

Guest

Limited permissions

Cannot schedule meetings (because they do not have a mailbox in your tenant)

Restricted directory access

So, if scheduling meetings and full collaboration is essential, the recommended approach is to configure these users as External Members via B2B and assign appropriate licenses.

Thank you for your understanding, and we’re here to help whenever you need us.