Skip to main content

Sponsoring Workers

It is critical for your HR team to understand how the sponsorship system works and the many sponsorship duties your business is signed up to by holding a sponsor licence.

If the Home Office finds non-compliance at an audit, you can lose your sponsor licence and therefore, your ability to sponsor workers from outside the UK. The end of free movement for EEA nationals means that many EEA nationals now require sponsorship. This places even greater emphasis on the importance of being compliant to keep your sponsor licence. 

We offer services and tools designed to ensure that you understand the immigration routes for sponsoring workers, your sponsor duties, how your systems should work to minimise the risk of non-compliance, and what you can do to successfully survive an unexpected (or expected) Home Office audit.

Our solutions for sponsor compliance include:

  • Toolkits – a Sponsor Compliance Guide which provides an overview of your duties, suggestions and templates to help you meet them – all in a reader-friendly, concise format
  • Training – practical, in-depth sessions delivered by our expert immigration lawyers and tailored to the structure of your workforce and business, with lots of opportunity for you to get your questions answered

Onsite and virtual support 

Members of our sponsor compliance unit are able to carry out a mock audit of your HR and recruitment processes, either at your offices or remotely. We spot check your personnel files to look behind the systems in place and see where they may fall down. You will be given a detailed report after the visit with helpful recommendations.

To download our Sponsoring Worker Guidance brochure, click here.

 

Related items

Checklist

Sponsorship Compliance Guide 2023

01 September 2023

This Sponsorship Compliance Guide is a useful reference for you and your colleagues to guide you through your duties as a sponsor licence holder.

Key considerations for clawing back immigration fees from employees

12 April 2023

Businesses increasingly look to protect their investment in sponsored workers with “clawback” agreements, seeking to recoup immigration fees from the employee if employment terminates. With sponsorship on the rise post-Brexit, businesses are asking questions about how to create an effective clawback agreement.

Working from home desk

Survey raises question on whether sponsors may be missing reporting duties

09 June 2020

We recently conducted an employer survey which revealed that only 10% of respondents had made reports on sponsored workers’ conditions changing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

UK Visa

Immigration bill barring EU nationals accused of hypocrisy: Naomi Hanrahan-Soar comments for HR Magazine

22 May 2020

In this article for HR Magazine, Naomi Hanrahan-Soar comments on how the government’s immigration bill can be seen as hypocritical for its proposal to end ‘unskilled’ immigration in December, ignoring the fact that many low-earning key workers are EU nationals.

Home Office expands shortage occupation list as part of Immigration Rule changes

11 September 2019

The Home Office laid a new Statement of Immigration Rules (HC 2631) on 9 September, immediately before Parliament was prorogued.

Record keeping guidance for Points-Based System sponsors updated

13 August 2019

The Home Office has made significant updates to Appendix D to the guidance for Points-Based System sponsors, which sets out sponsors’ record keeping duties.

Financial Services

Hospitality industry welcomes post-Brexit salary threshold review

10 July 2019

On 24 June, the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the £30,000 minimum salary threshold it proposed for sponsoring skilled workers in the post-Brexit immigration system, which is due to be rolled out from 1 January 2021. This move has been welcomed by the hospitality industry as an opportunity to ensure it can sponsor medium skilled workers from 2021 without having to pay substantially above market rates.

Joanna Hunt comments for Lexis Nexis: Spring Statement 2019: PHD-level jobs to be exempt from Tier 2 visa cap

18 March 2019

Joanna Hunt has commented in an article for Lexis Nexis which discusses Philip Hammond's recent announcement that PHD-level occupations will be exempt from the Tier 2 (General) visa cap from Autumn 2019.

Back To Top