The Home Office (Sponsor Compliance Unit) reserves the right to inspect your organisation anytime even without prior information about their visit. An organisation is committed to adhere to certain administrative duties designed to ensure the prevention of illegal working.

Fundamentally, compliance with the duties ensures comprehensive and up to date records are maintained by sponsors that must be made available to the Home Office for inspection at any time.

The Home Office uses the licence application process to evaluate the employer’s ability to meet these sponsor duties.

​

The following areas will be covered during the compliance officer’s visit:

• Recruitment process - HR exercise – (copy of adverts, CVs received, interview call letters, interview notes, justification for job offer and reasons for rejection)

• Record Keeping

• Migrant tracking & Monitoring

• Reporting

• Genuine vacancy Test

• General sponsor duties

 

The duties of the sponsor, as prescribed in the Home Office’s Sponsor Guidance, are as follows:

Record Keeping

Sponsors must keep records relating to their sponsored workers and their right to work in the UK documentation, NI number as well as the history of and up-to-date contact details.

The employer must retain copies of documents as specified in Appendix D, such as:
Migrants' copy of employment contract, passport, BRP, P45, previous employment reference, CVs, certificates, proof of address, contact details.

The sponsor must also keep records of sponsored workers’ contact details, both retaining past contact details and having a system in place to identify and update any changes in contact information.

Employment contracts should also be retained for all sponsored workers. Employers should note that the Home Office may review the terms of the contract to ensure they are consistent with the details on the Certificate of Sponsorship assigned in relation to salary and job role.

Right to work checks in a systematic way ensure that the employer does not breach the prevention of illegal working, by conducting document checks as advised by the Home Office and ensuring those workers with time-limited permission are subject to follow-up checks to verify continued right to work.

Failure to meet the right to work requirements can result in a financial penalty being imposed by the civil penalty team followed by enforcement action.

 

Reporting & Monitoring

The employer must have a robust system in place to track and monitor sponsored employees, reporting within ten working days if the sponsored individual fails to start work when expected, 10 days of consecutive unauthorised absence, work / project completed early, contract terminated earlier than expected e.g., resignation, switch into another immigration category, for example, from the skilled worker visa to indefinite leave to remain (regardless that the Home Office should have a record of this fact), Sponsorship withdrawal, decrease of salary.

The sponsor also must notify the Home Office of any reasonable concerns or evidence that a sponsored worker is in breach of the conditions of their stay in the UK.

The sponsor must ensure all sponsored employee absences are authorised and recorded, including statutory sick leave, and unauthorised annual holidays, study leave and overseas travel. The employer should have in place and follow, an effective sickness absence procedure.

 

Genuine vacancy assessment

• Requires the jobholder to perform the specific duties and responsibilities for the job and meets all of the requirements of the tier and category

• Does not include dissimilar and/or lower skilled duties

 

Must consider if:

• The job description seems to be exaggerated to deliberately make it meet the requirements of the tier and category

• The job role does not exist and is being used to enable a migrant to come to or stay in the UK

• Advertisements are inappropriate for the job on offer and have been tailored to exclude resident workers from being recruited

 

HO guidance:

If a sponsored migrant is not undertaking the role for which he was sponsored and evidence suggests there was not a genuine vacancy for that particular role, the officer must recommend suspension. For example, where a sponsored migrant recruited as a ‘business development manager’ is actually found to be undertaking the duties of a care assistant, or if a migrant has been sponsored as a ‘marketing manager’ and the sponsor cannot demonstrate evidence to show the migrant has carried out appropriate duties such as those listed in the codes of practice for the SOC code stated on the migrant’s CoS

 

Notifying changes about circumstances to the Home Office

Any changes on sponsored worker’s circumstances must be reported to UKVI via the Sponsor Management System (SMS).

If the organisation has moved premises as a result of end of lease or bought own building, the change of company address must be notified to the Home Office within a specified time limit. Sponsor must send sign the submission sheet and send supporting documents to sponsor licensing unit. Should the Home Office wish to conduct an unannounced site inspection, they will need the correct information to attend the correct premises.

It is best practice to add all the UK branches in the SMS, sponsors are advised to keep separate records of any changes to the organisation.

We have extensive experience in handling all immigration matters. To discuss your Sponsor Licence compliance matter with one of our immigration Solicitors, please contact us on 01279 312185 or submit our enquiry form given below.

 

Pre-licensing compliance visit:

Where the Home Office finds an organisation’s Human Resource (HR) systems are not robust or inadequate to comply with the sponsor duties, they will refuse the licence on that basis.

Prior to the application submission, it is advisable to conduct an internal audit of the organisation’s existing HR systems to identify potential issues and breaches, so that it can be rectified, and corrective measures can be out in place prior to applying to the Home Office. It is equally important to check if the policies, practices and procedures at any physical addresses where the organisation’s sponsored migrant workers would carry out their employment duties, to ensure compliance.

We have extensive experience in handling all immigration matters. To discuss about your Sponsor Licence Duties & Compliance application with one of our immigration Solicitors, please contact us on 01279 312185 or submit our enquiry form given below.