Key immigration action points for HR in 2021

EEA/Swiss nationals, excluding Irish nationals (‘EEA nationals’) who want to work in the UK now need some form of visa permission, depending on when they arrived in the country. This change has massive implications for UK employers. Employers will need to ensure they understand how the rules affect their business, how their recruitment plans and budgets are impacted, and whether their staff have the correct status to allow them to continue working both in the UK and abroad.

With this in mind, we recommend the following key action points for the first half of 2021.

Current EEA employees and their family members who are in the UK must apply under the EU Settlement Scheme by 30 June 2021. If they fail to do this, they risk losing their right to live and work in the UK. This would cause disruption to their lives and your business and result in significant added cost to resolve the situation. We recommend ensuring your employees are aware of their eligibility for Pre-Settled or Settled Status particularly in the run up to the deadline and offering support for those who need it.

• Our webinar and Q&A on Brexit and the EU Settlement Scheme has further general information.

• Our article highlights some potential pitfalls to avoid with the EU Settlement Scheme, particularly when the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic are factored in.

• We also look at the EU Settlement Scheme deadlines and some of their implications here.

• Finally, we have prepared a simple scenario infographic of what employers need to consider if they are looking to hire an EEA national or family member of an EEA national following the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020. Download it here.

Need more detailed assistance?

Under the Brexit strand of our Immigration Solutions for HR, you can pick and mix from a range of options to help you navigate the EU Settlement Scheme including our handy FAQ guide, specific training sessions and advice surgeries for your EEA staff.

We are also able to assist individuals with EU Settlement Scheme and British citizenship applications.

Get in touch with a member of our Immigration Team to discuss putting together the right tools for your business.

It is important that you understand how the new visa rules under the Points-Based Immigration System affect your business, particularly if you want to continue to recruit EEA nationals.

The previous routes for sponsoring workers have been significantly reformed. For skilled workers, some requirements such as formal resident labour market testing have been removed, and the skill and salary thresholds have been lowered. See our overview article for further information about the main changes.

There are also new visa options such as the frontier worker permit which will assist European cross-border workers who travel to the UK regularly for work to continue to do so now free movement has ended.

In terms of new immigration options for employees, a new Graduate route is being launched from 1 July 2021. Read our article here for more details. We also cover amendments introduced in April 2021 to the Skilled Worker route.

The Home Office has been consulting sponsors about the design of an improved sponsorship system for workers, and it is expected that further engagement will take place later in 2021. For information on the Home Office’s initial sponsorship survey, see here.

Finally, the Migration Advisory Committee is currently seeking stakeholders’ views on the operation and effectiveness of the Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) immigration route, as well as a potential expansion of the immigration options for overseas businesses setting up a presence in the UK. The deadline for submitting responses to the MAC’s call for evidence is 15 June 2021. The MAC is due to report back to the government in October 2021. Find out more in our article here. 

Need more detailed assistance?

Our Immigration Law Academies are a one-stop-shop for learning about the new system. The course has been specially designed to give HR and in-house professionals a full overview of the business immigration areas, including the Points-Based Immigration System. Our next Academy is being held on 30 June and 1 July 2021. Find out more here.

We also offer bespoke training for businesses who want to train a larger team or just would prefer to tailor a course to their own specific needs. Please get in touch with one of our Immigration Team members to discuss further or to have a chat about what the rules could mean for your business.  

If you have not used the sponsorship system before, you may find you will now need to use it as employing nationals from the EEA and beyond will require a sponsor licence in some cases. It is important to consider applying for one now so that you are ready to use it when you need to recruit. Sponsor licence applications can take up to eight weeks to process so it pays to act in advance.

If you currently have a sponsor licence, you will need to ensure that it is up-to-date and accurately reflects your organisation’s current structure. You may need to make updates to the Home Office or ensure your HR processes are in good shape to meet your growing sponsor licence duties. In March 2021, the Home Office made important clarifications to the documentation that sponsors of workers must keep regarding their recruitment activity. We cover these in our article here.

Need more detailed assistance?

Our Immigration Team has a wealth of experience in advising on and assisting with sponsor licence applications and can help you with any queries if you are new to the process.

As part of our Immigration Solutions for HR, our Immigration Team can offer training, compliance guides and mock audits of your systems to identify any areas of risk, suggest improvements and prepare you for a real Home Office audit.

All UK employers have a responsibility to ensure that their employees have the right to work in the UK before they start work and throughout their employment. The end of free movement will necessitate changes to the right to work check system, however the Home Office has indicated that right to work checks will remain the same until 30 June 2021, due to the six month grace period that EEA nationals have to secure their status under the EU Settlement Scheme. The continuation of existing checks leaves employers open to unwittingly employing someone who does not or who may soon not have status which allows them to work in the UK.

In addition, on 30 April 2020 the Home Office introduced adjusted right to work checks to address the logistical problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic. These will only remain in place for a limited period of time, and employers need to know what to do when they end.  

• Our webinar and Q&A on right to work checks beyond 2020 (held in December 2020) outlines some of the main issues and how to address them.
• Current guidance on right to work checks for EEA nationals during the post-transition grace period from 1 January 2021 to 30 June 2021 is covered in our article here.
• The Home Office’s plans for ending adjusted right to work checks are discussed in our article here.
• Register for our webinar on Right to Work checks from 1 July 2021 (which will also cover adjusted checks) here.

Need more detailed assistance?

Our Immigration Solutions for HR provide a full overview of the requirements for right to work compliance. We offer training and e-learning courses on right to work checks to help upskill your team and a handbook which can be used as a learning tool.

In response to the specific issues raised by the grace period, we have developed a best practice guide and template advice to ensure you can manage the period to 30 June 2021 compliantly and in line with your employment law obligations. Our Immigration Team are on hand to share these with you.

We can also help to update your internal policies and recruitment documents to ensure they are ready for when the right to work system will change from 1 July 2021 onwards.

EEA nationals visiting the UK are now required to do so on the same basis as all other visitors. The allowed activities for visitors have been expanded, however the position is significantly restricted in comparison to free movement. EEA nationals and their employers will need to adjust to the new restrictions and ensure they are complied with.

Need more detailed assistance?

• See our Brexit Guide for International Employers, which covers business travel, frontier worker rights, employment permission and residence across 25 jurisdictions.

• Listen to our Post-Brexit immigration rules podcast where we discuss changes in immigration rules from both side of the channel.

Our Immigration Team can assess whether planned activities fall within those allowed for visitors, or whether work permission is required. We can also assist with making visa applications as appropriate.

The end of free movement not only affects EEA nationals who work in the UK. It has implications UK nationals who live in, commute to or may want to work on the continent.

If you have a workforce which spans Europe, it is important to factor in the new rules on visiting and working in Europe. UK nationals may now need a visa to work in Europe, which requires local visa support and additional time and financial input.

At Lewis Silkin we can call upon an extensive network of local immigration lawyers via our Ius Laboris network to ensure you can obtain timely, clear and cost effective advice and support for your global moves.

Need more detailed assistance?

• See our podcast on post-Brexit immigration rules on both sides of the channel
• See this Ius Laboris webinar on seconding workers to EU member states

Please contact a member of our Immigration Team to obtain further details on how we can support you.