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on April 3, 2022
We were instructed by a leading restaurant in London, which was looking to employ a sous chef specialising in Mexican cuisine.
The restaurant had been struggling to find a chef who specialised in Mexican dishes, which are high in demand at the restaurant. The management decided to sponsor a chef from Mexico with prior experience of working in a similar role.
The restaurant had previously applied for the sponsor licence and sponsored a General Manager. After advertising the role, they identified a US national who was born in Mexico and later acquired US citizenship. The candidate had been working with different Mexican restaurants in the US and had several years of experience as a head chef.
The management of the restaurant instructed us to advise them in relation to the process of applying for the Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) and subsequently applying for entry clearance for the applicant.
We were informed that the client had previously studied in the UK and had a three-month period of overstaying.
We identified the relevant SOC code for the role and advised the sponsor that the role was on the shortage occupations list, which meant they were exempt from the Resident Labour Market Test (RLMT). We advised the client about the point-based system rules and listed the specified documents required in support of the application.
Our client provided us with the documents for us to review. Upon our review of the documents, it was revealed that the college where our client studied lost their Tier 4 sponsor licence for failing to meet the relevant standards.
The Home Office sent out a letter to curtail the leave of the students, but our client did not receive it. Devastated to hear the bad news, our client started looking for options; however, at the time the education providers were reluctant to sponsor any students whose leave was curtailed. Our client did not receive the curtailment letter but did receive a letter stating that he was considered an overstayer and was required to leave the country. He was shocked to receive the letter; however, he was not provided with any option other than leaving. Our client contacted the Home Office for voluntary departure and left the country.
We reassured the client that we would explain this to the Home Office in our representation letter. We requested further documents to demonstrate that the licence was revoked through no fault of our client.
We submitted the online application and the documentation, together with our cover letter.
Following a wait of approximately four weeks, our client was informed that he had been granted his visa. The employer was delighted with the fact that we followed up our good work with the sponsor licence to now deliver with their employee.
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