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on January 4, 2023
A dental surgery approached Cranbrook Legal for assistance in obtaining a sponsor licence in order to cover the shortage of workers available to them from within the United Kingdom. The practice had recently experienced a surge in new patients and required a dentist to keep up with demand.
Our team advised the client on how we could project-manage the whole process, from the sponsor licence to the Skilled Worker visa. The client explained that she was previously unaware of the sponsor licence and had only recently come across this process.
Following a review of the company’s documents, we assisted the authorising officer with the business plan for the sponsor licence application. We prepared the online application form and legal representations explaining why the company should be awarded with a sponsor licence. We advised the authorising officer on how the application should be submitted, and the timelines for a decision.
The authorising officer opted against applying for the priority service; however, it only took six weeks for a decision to be made.
One concern the client had was that the worker she had identified was already in the United Kingdom and working for her on a part-time basis. She was therefore unsure whether she would be required to advertise the job for which she was hiring. She was advised by our team that as the worker was already in a form of employment with her, she would just need to demonstrate this through payslips and bank statements.
We were then in a position to finalise the application. We prepared the online visa application together with our legal representations. After the client reviewed and confirmed that she was happy, we prepared the application and handed over to her to submit the application to the Home Office.
The company mentioned that they may wish to sponsor other workers from outside the UK, and asked if we could train them on how to use the SMS portal so that they could ensure they complied with their duties as a sponsor.
We arranged a call with the authorising officer who would be managing the licence, during which we provided them with a full tour of the SMS portal, and explained how they could use the portal to ensure compliance with their responsibilities as a sponsor. This was particularly helpful to the authorising officer, who had no previous experience in using the SMS portal, but was now confident enough to use the SMS portal without further assistance.
Following submission of the client’s sponsor licence application, the Home Office approved it after seven weeks.
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