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on January 28, 2023
An edtech (education technology) start-up founder with a majority shareholding requested the help of Cranbrook Legal with the process of securing a sponsor licence before the business started its operations.
The company’s goal was to transform the education sector through a unique online learning platform. Our client was leading the tech aspect of the business, while his co-founders from the UK were focusing on business development. The client wanted his company, which he was 25% shareholder in, to sponsor his employment in the UK.
The client was concerned that as a co-founder who would have a senior position within the company, he would need to be paid a salary of £159,000. Our team advised him that this was a requirement under the previous Tier 2 (General) work visa. However, under the Skilled Worker visa category, there was no such requirement, and he could be paid a salary of around £50,000 depending on his particular job role. The client explained that this was much more feasible and affordable.
Our team guided the client through the sponsor licence application process, demonstrating the company’s innovative business plan and the need for the applicant to be in the UK in order to develop and launch the product. We also helped them establish compliant HR systems.
Our experts in UK immigration law were confident that a strong application had been prepared and that the company would obtain a sponsor licence. Based on this, the company opted to apply for the Home Office’s priority service, which they were selected for by the department. A decision on the licence application was made after just seven days.
The company had intimated that after sponsoring our client, they may wish to sponsor other workers from outside the UK. They therefore asked if we could help them with the process of using the SMS portal, so that they could ensure their compliance with their duties as a sponsor.
We arranged a call with the authorising officer who would be managing the licence, during which, we gave them the benefit of a full tour of the SMS portal, and set out to them how they could use the portal to make sure of their constant compliance with their sponsor responsibilities. The authorising officer found this especially helpful, as they had no prior experience in using the SMS portal, but now felt sufficiently confident to use the SMS portal without further assistance.
We requested documents from the client to support his application for a Skilled Worker visa. He explained that he was having trouble accessing his bank statements, and that it would take some time before he would receive them.
We advised that in order to resolve this problem, the company could certify his maintenance, which would mean that the company would financially support him during his first few months of stay in the UK if he ran into financial difficulty. This, in turn, would mean that the client would not need to provide bank statements to meet the maintenance requirement for the Skilled Worker visa application.
This greatly helped our client, and he was able to swiftly provide us with all the documentation.
Following our submission of the client’s Skilled Worker visa application, he ultimately received a positive decision from the Home Office. He was therefore able to come to the UK to work for his edtech business.
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