Sponsor Licence Compliance
- Details
- Written by: Wembley Solicitors
All Home Office immigration sponsor licence holders are required to remain compliant with certain duties and responsibilities to retain their permission to hire overseas staff. If your business is reliant on the recruitment of workers from outside the UK, it is essential that it meets the responsibilities of a sponsor licence at all times. Failure to do so may result in your sponsorship licence being downgraded, suspended, or revoked. This, in turn, may prevent you from hiring overseas workers and having the leave of your current sponsored staff curtailed.
At Wembley Solicitors, we understand the commercial importance of retaining your sponsor licence. Our immigration Solicitors work with many businesses, schools, and universities in London, Middlesex, Wembley and surrounding areas to ensure their ongoing compliance with the Home Office's sponsor licence requirements. We partner with our valued clients to ensure that they remain compliant at all times. To achieve this, we carry out periodic mock audits to ensure that, if the Home Office were to carry out an announced or unannounced compliance visit, they would pass with flying colours.
Who we serve
Wembley Solicitors' immigration law team serves UK based businesses, multi-national organisations, and overseas businesses. We also support schools, universities and other educational establishments requiring sponsor licence and visa support. Many of our valued clients retain our services to ensure their continued compliance with the Home Office sponsor licence duties and responsibilities.
What we do
Wembley Solicitors' immigration law department handles all aspects of sponsor licence compliance, including:
- Providing guidance and support to ensure sponsor licence holders have the business systems and processes (e.g. record keeping) needed to meet the duties of a licence holder
- Carrying out mock compliance audits to ensure ongoing compliance
- Recommending changes to sponsorship processes and systems where needed to meet the compliance requirements
- Advising on the use of the Home Office Sponsorship Management System (SMS)
- Handling the downgrading, revocation, or suspension of a sponsor licence
- Handling sponsor licence renewal applications
No matter the location, scale or type of business, you can be assured that our immigration law Solicitors will safeguard your ongoing sponsor licence compliance. As a full-service law firm, we can also advise and represent you regarding any other legal matter including in the areas of litigation, commercial property, and criminal law.
Our immigration law ethos
Our immigration Solicitors are commercially savvy and experts in immigration law and will work closely with your business to provide a seamless service. We will take the time to get to know your business, its needs, and its people. In doing so, we become an extension of your organisation, providing immigration guidance and support when needed. This is especially important when it comes to ongoing sponsor licence compliance.
We also believe that it is important to be open, honest, and respectful with our valued clients about the status of their sponsor licence compliance. Where improvements are required, no matter how significant, we will explain the changes necessary and support you in putting these in place.
Sponsor licence compliance FAQs
Sponsor licence holders have a duty to:
- meet reporting duties
- meet record-keeping duties
- comply with immigration law
- comply with wider UK law
- behave and act in a manner that is conducive to the public good
Sponsor licence holders are required to inform the Home Office (UK Visas and Immigration – UKVI) of certain information or events within a set deadline, including (please note this list of reporting duties is not exhaustive):
Within 10 days, sponsor licence holders have a duty to report:
- if a sponsored worker has not started work
- if a sponsored worker is absent for more than 10 working days
- if there are significant changes to the sponsored worker's employment
Within 20 days, sponsor licence holders have a duty to report:
- changes to the sponsor licence holders company's name
- the sale of all or part of the sponsoring business
- merger or take over of the sponsoring business
- if the sponsoring business stops trading or becomes insolvent
- changes to the nature of the sponsoring business
All sponsor licence holders must meet a strict set of record-keeping duties in order to remain compliant. Sponsors are required to keep records of each sponsored worker's (this list is not exhaustive):
- Right to work in the UK
- Date of entry
- National insurance number (e.g. on a BRP, p60 or another tax document)
- contact details (UK residential address, personal email address, telephone number (mobile and/or landline). This must always be kept up to date.
- DBS checks
- Absences from work
- ATAS certificates
Document storage must meet the law in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations. Sponsor licence holders must be able to provide any document when requested to do so by the Home Office.
Wembley Solicitors specialises in sponsor licence compliance, including record keeping and reporting. We can advise your business on how to put in place the necessary systems and processes to ensure you meet these duties and can satisfy the Home Office of your compliance at all times.
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The information provided is for general informational purposes only and should not be taken as legal advice. While we make every effort to ensure accuracy, the law may change, and the information may not reflect the most current legal developments. No warranty is given regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information, and we do not accept liability in such cases. We recommend consulting with a qualified lawyer at Moeen & Co. Solicitors before making any decisions based on the information provided on this website.