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on December 24, 2024
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A prospect that provokes trepidation in many an employer in the UK, is the sponsor licence compliance visit.
Compliance visits are conducted by the Home Office to employers both before and after a sponsor licence is issued. They play a major role in ensuring businesses’ compliance with their sponsorship obligations.
Those obligations are many; after all, to obtain a sponsor licence in the first place, an organisation needs to fulfil certain eligibility criteria. Among those requirements is the implementation of appropriate systems for monitoring sponsored workers. Furthermore, an employer needs to have people in place to manage sponsorship in the business.
If you are reading this as an employer that is already a licensed sponsor, you are likely to regard your sponsor licence as a valuable – even indispensable – asset.
A sponsor licence can be a crucial tool for tapping into talent pools from overseas, thereby helping to power a business’s growth. You therefore won’t wish to put your own sponsor licence at risk.
A compliance check for a sponsor licence is a review that UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) – the division of the Home Office responsible for the country’s visa system – may carry out from time to time on an organisation that holds a sponsor licence.
The term “compliance check” is not necessarily synonymous with “compliance visit”.
Yes, an in-person visit to the sponsor’s premises is one method that may be used for compliance checks and reviews. However, compliance checks can also be conducted by other means, such as:
A Home Office sponsor licence compliance visit can be announced or unannounced. An unannounced visit is likelier to happen if:
There have previously been concerns about the organisation’s sponsorship compliance.
The following steps can help ensure a smooth and untroubled experience when your organisation is subject to a sponsor licence compliance visit:
1. Make sure you have the required documents on file for sponsored workers
Proactive and responsible recordkeeping is crucial for employers preparing for an audit visit. Appendix D of the UK Government’s sponsor guidance provides information on the documents you will need to keep.
You must correctly check that each sponsored worker of yours is legally entitled to work in the UK and to carry out the specific work for you. Furthermore, you must retain appropriate evidence of this check on file.
The basic documents that you should have ready include tax returns or utility bills. In addition, you should have copies of sponsored employees’ passports and visas, and employment contracts for sponsored workers.
You should also keep hold of current and past contact details for all non-UK nationals who have worked for your organisation. Records of employee attendance, too, and salary payment proofs, should be kept.
2. Establish HR sponsorship policies, and keep them up to date
Your staff should be left in no doubt about their obligations and duties. So, you should set up clear HR policies and procedures. You will also need to proactively keep these policies updated over time – for example, whenever the law is changed.
Moreover, it is crucial to make sure these HR policies are easily accessible to any employee of your organisation who will be dealing with sponsored workers.
Examples of HR sponsorship policies that you may come up with can include “Recordkeeping requirements for sponsored workers”, “How and when to issue Certificates of Sponsorship”, and “How to do a right-to-work check”. You may have your own ideas for relevant policies and procedures to help make your team’s sponsorship duties easier.
3. Prepare your internal compliance team for the visit
As we stated above, sponsor licence compliance visits aren’t always announced beforehand. So, your compliance team will need to be in a constant state of readiness. That will mean your personnel being available on the visit day, and clear about their roles and duties.
When you are forming your organisation’s compliance team, you should make sure cross-functional members – such as HR professionals, legal advisors, and managers – are included.
However, if you are a smaller business, you may not have multiple individuals to form a compliance team; instead, one person may have various responsibilities. So, if this is the case at your organisation, you need to ensure they are well-versed in their role and duties.
Historically, a sponsor licence in the UK was valid for four years. This four-year validity period still applies to employers that have a licence to sponsor Scale-up Workers or UK Expansion Workers. An employer is not permitted to apply for another licence to sponsor these types of workers. So, the renewal of any existing sponsor licence is no longer an option.
If your organisation does not sponsor UK Expansion Workers or Scale-up Workers, your sponsor licence will no longer expire. Instead, your sponsor licence will usually remain valid for as long as you continue to satisfy the eligibility requirements. This change to the sponsor licence validity terms was introduced for 6th April 2024 onwards. However, with the Home Office no longer having to process sponsor licence renewal applications, it is believed this may free up the department to perform compliance visits more frequently. So, if you are a licensed sponsor, it is crucial to remain vigilant to ensure you are always in compliance.
4. Arrange regular mock audits
A mock immigration audit, when carried out by professionals who possess in-depth knowledge and experience of UK immigration law and what Home Office caseworkers expect from licensed sponsors, can greatly help you identify potential issues as early as possible. You can then take steps to resolve any such problems ahead of the real UKVI compliance visit.
It may become apparent as a result of the mock audit, for example, that you do not have the right systems in place for checking “right to work” documents.
Alternatively, your organisation’s procedures for checking its compliance with sponsorship requirements may not be stringent enough, or you may not have informed the Home Office about certain significant events affecting your business or sponsored workers.
Whatever the exact situation, it can be greatly helpful to have that authoritative “outside eye” looking over your company’s systems.
Ideally, you should regularly arrange mock audits at your premises. This means that if – for example – there is a need to enrol your HR staff on additional sponsor licence compliance training, invest in a new computerised HR management system, or clamp down on late reporting, you will be able to do this sooner rather than later.
5. Seek out help and advice for any legal issues
A major benefit of having mock compliance visits regularly carried out at your business premises, is that the findings will enable you to identify where immediate adjustments may be needed. It is, of course, infinitely preferrable to discover any areas of non-compliance as a result of the mock audit, rather than the Home Office’s sponsor compliance visit.
It is perfectly understandable that at certain times, you may encounter issues of concern, and you might be unsure what to do. If so, please don’t hesitate to contact our award-winning experts in immigration law at Cranbrook Legal.
When you enquire to us, we can advise you on the actions to take. This can help you demonstrate your organisation is proactively discovering, reporting, and addressing any problems in relation to your immigration duties and compliance.
Following the compliance visit to your organisation’s premises, the Home Office official will put together a report and recommend a particular course of action about your sponsor licence.
If you already hold a sponsor licence when the compliance visit occurs, the official may recommend that your sponsor licence should be:
Employers that are successful with their sponsor licence application are typically granted an A-rated licence. This is also known as a “full” sponsor licence.
If, however, you are a licensed sponsor and a UKVI compliance officer determines at a later stage that you are no longer adhering to your sponsorship responsibilities, your A-rated sponsor licence may be downgraded to a B-rated one.
This would mean:
To learn more about any of our UK immigration services and expertise, including our mock immigration audits, please call 0208 215 0053 today. You are also welcome to fill in and submit our online contact form to request a free consultation.
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