Essential Sponsor Licence Duties for Employers

Sponsor licences enable UK businesses to hire skilled workers from abroad, but they come with strict compliance requirements that companies must adhere to. These obligations are designed to ensure employers play a key role in preventing illegal work in the UK. As a sponsor licence holder, it’s essential to understand these rules, have the right resources, and actively work to keep your company compliant.

While managing your sponsor licence may not require daily oversight, depending on the number of sponsored employees, it also can’t be left unattended. You need to know how to properly manage the licence and take action when necessary to avoid any risk of non-compliance.

The Home Office can look into companies who think their employees have broken sponsor licence duties. Before giving out or renewing a sponsorship licence, or at any time during the four-year licence term, they can check to see if sponsors have the right HR systems in place to make sure compliance. Also, you can expect last-minute site checks. Everyone with a sponsor licence must always do what they’re supposed to do.

If the Home Office says that a sponsor licence holder hasn’t done what they’re supposed to, they can lower the rating of the licence or suspend or revoke it. This can put the jobs and immigration status of current foreign workers at risk.

If UKVI reduces your licence, you will have to pay them to create an action plan that lists the problems you need to fix to get your licence back to A-status. You might not be able to apply for a new licence for six months after they take away your licence. This means that it is much better to be proactive about meeting your sponsor tasks so that you don’t have to deal with sanctions from the Home Office.

Therefore, what must you do to make sure that you fulfil your support licence duties?

When do the Sponsor Licence Duties begin?

As a licensed sponsor, you have to follow the rules from the day you receive your licence until you give it up, it stops working, or they cancel it. Additionally, you will need to have done certain things before applying for the sponsor licence, as the qualifying requirements require organisations to show that they follow certain immigration rules.

Your duty to each sponsored worker begins as soon as you give them the Certificate of Sponsorship and stops when one of the following happens and you tell UKVI about it:

• when a worker leaves the UK, their entry clearance or licence ends or becomes invalid; or
• after the worker’s request for entry clearance or authorisation is denied and after all administrative review or appeal procedures have concluded; or
• if the worker is given permission to enter or to work for a different client,
• either the person gets paid or is given permission to keep working on a route without your help; or
• you tell the Home Office that you will no longer be supporting the worker from another country.

Sponsor Licence Duties

To get the benefits of job sponsorship and to be able to access the global talent market, sponsors must do the following:

If you want to support foreign workers, make sure they have the skills, experience, or professional qualifications to do the job you’re hiring for and keep records and copies of documents that prove this.

Give Certificates of sponsorship only to foreign workers for jobs that qualify for funding.

If your supported workers break any of the rules for their visa or sponsorship, you should let the Home Office know.

In real life, the sponsor licence duties can be expanded in the ways below:

Reporting duties: People who have a sponsor pass must send certain events or information to the Home Office through SMS within certain time frames.

Duties for keeping records: It is the job of sponsors to keep records for each person they help.

Follow the immigration rules: Always keep in mind the needs of the UK’s immigration regulations and the Worker and Temporary Worker Sponsor Guidance.

Compliance with UK laws: Holders of a sponsor licence must follow UK law in all situations, except when investigating visa issues.

Acting for the public good: All sponsors have a responsibility to act in a way that is in line with their core values and doesn’t hurt society as a whole. They can do this by not doing things that are bad for society.

You could have your licence downgraded, suspended, or taken away if the Home Office says you did not fulfil any of these sponsor licence duties.

How to fulfil your Sponsor Licence Duties?

Your obligation to fulfill these tasks will depend on the size of your company and how you use your sponsor licence, and will be proportional to the number of sponsored workers you employ.

Keeping records

Maintaining correct records for each sponsored worker is a big part of having a sponsor licence.

Appendix D of the Immigration Rules lists the papers you must keep and how long you must keep them.

In addition, you need to keep the papers you used to apply for a sponsor licence.

A licence holder must keep a copy or electronic copy of the following for all types of visas:

• The appropriate pages of the sponsored worker’s passport, such as the ones with their personal information, leave stamps, immigration status, and length of stay
• Biometric residence permit for the worker
• The National Insurance number of the worker
• The worker’s present and past contact information
• If it’s important, the worker’s declaration barring service check
• A list of the worker’s missed days
• The job contract of the worker
• Anything else that the type of worker’s visa needs as proof

You should also keep an up-to-date list of your sponsored workers’ contact information, as well as information about their pay rates (for example, payslips, bank transfers, employment contracts, and proof of allowances), and enough proof that the applicant and the job are a good fit.

Moreover, you need to keep all the necessary records until an officer looks at them, or for at least one year after an officer has looked at them (or for as long as the employee works for you if less than a year).

There are times when you need to keep some papers for longer in order to follow other laws or avoid a civil penalty for illegal employment.

Reporting & Monitoring of Sponsored Worker

In addition to keeping records, people who have a sponsor licence must tell the Home Office through the SMS Portal within 10 working days if any of the following things happen:

• A sponsored person doesn’t show up to work on their first day.
• The contract of a sponsored employee ends early.
• A sponsored worker isn’t at work for 10 days or more without permission. Sponsors need to make sure that all of their employees’ breaks are approved, such as when they are sick, on vacation, or studying abroad.
• There are big changes to a sponsored worker’s job contract, like when the worker is TUPEd to a different employer.

Companies should also keep an eye on their workers’ immigration status and let the Home Office know if they notice any changes. They should also report anyone they think is breaking the rules regarding their stay in the UK.

Reporting Changes in the Company

With more than 32,000 sponsor licence holders in the UK, the Home Office requires these groups to let them know about certain changes to the company or an employee in order to keep their records accurate and prevent immigration violations.

Report any changes in the size or recognition of the group you work for or with within 10 days. Within 20 business days, you must report the following changes:

• Changing the name of the organisation
• Takeover or sale of some or all of the company
• The business has stopped doing business.

Report these other changes:

Changing the Address of the Company

The Home Office needs to know if your business has changed. Unannounced site visits are still widespread, and immigration enforcement officers need up-to-date addresses to perform inspections.

As of November 2022, sponsors no longer need to tell the Home Office if a sponsored worker starts working before the date planned on their Certificate of Sponsorship, as long as the new start date is after their visa was accepted.

Change of Authorising Officer

Even if they aren’t doing the day-to-day visa work, UKVI sees the Authorising Officer as their main point of contact with your business. It is very important to always have an Authorising Officer in place. To make sure there is always someone to cover the job, you need to hire someone else if the current person quits, moves overseas, or goes on sabbatical or maternity leave. This is true even if it is only for a short time.

Opening or closing a Branch in the UK

An SMS doesn’t include information about stores in the UK. Because of this, it might be hard for employers to keep track of which places are on the licence. One of the best ways to keep the licence up to date is to maintain clear internal records. Also, update them every time a branch opens or closes.

Setting up or closing a branch, subsidiary, or linked company overseas

Unlike UK branches, you cannot see foreign branches and subsidiaries on the SMS. This makes it hard to determine which overseas businesses your licence covers. The best thing to do is to let UKVI know whenever a linked entity overseas opens or closes. No matter what, you need to tell the Home Office before you can try to move an employee from that foreign company to the UK. For companies or groups that open a lot of new branches or companies abroad, planning to send an update to UKVI every three months, or once a year if necessary, can help to make sure they follow the rules.

Other important changes to the business

Takeovers, mergers, TUPE transfers, and other big changes in a business need to be reported to UKVI, and they usually need to be done within 28 days of the change happening. These kinds of changes will usually have complicated effects on your support licence. For example, you might need to apply for a new licence within 28 days. We strongly advise that you get professional help with what you need to do as soon as possible to keep your licence up to date.

Following the immigration Rules and UK law

It is very important to remember that as a sponsor, one of your sponsor licence duties will be to avoid doing things that hurt the public interest. It is important for sponsors to hire people who are educated, registered, or have experience for the job there. You can’t assign a COS or support the worker if the job opening isn’t real.

To stop people from working illegally, you should keep records of each employee’s immigration situation and proof that they are qualified for the job. Make sure you follow UK job law and check that you paid the national minimum wage.

Applications for CoS and Licence Renewals

If a person has been given proof of sponsorship, the company must give it to the worker within three months.

Unrestricted certificates of sponsor that are given out every year expire at the end of each fiscal year. Organisations need to ask for a new licence every year, and they can start doing that on January 5.

Companies should only give out certificates for jobs that can be sponsored, and they should make sure that the people they hire have the right skills.

Appointing Key Personnel

Another thing sponsors have to do is hire certain key people. These people will be in charge of managing your sponsor licence and making sure the company is doing what it needs to do.

These jobs can be given to one person or several people, and in some situations, outside advisers can be hired. When a company is small and only has a few sponsored workers, the HR manager usually takes on all of the important personnel duties. When a company is large and employs many workers, different HR team members usually handle different tasks.

Authorising Officer

You have to name an Authorising Officer when you apply for a support licence. As long as your licence is still valid, you must always have an Authorising Officer in place.

The person who can hire foreign workers should be the most senior employee and be called the “authorising officer.” In the end, they are in charge of the advertising licence.

When your company contacts UKVI, the AO will be the first and main person they talk to. They will get emails about changes to their responsibilities as sponsors, like when they need to update their Certificates of Sponsorship or the licence itself. Also, they have to permit most changes or updates to your licence, like telling UKVI about a new store. They do this by signing the application sheet that is made every time you use the Sponsorship Management System (SMS) to make a change.

If they are not appointed as a Level 1 User, the Authorising Officer will not be able to automatically receive the SMS to do any of the practical tasks related to sponsoring migrant workers.

Users at Level 1 and Level 2

Through the online Sponsorship Management System, Level 1 and 2 users do the day-to-day tasks that a sponsor licence holder needs to do.

Most of the time, your Level 1 User(s) will be the person(s) who do your daily legal work. They can access the SMS, where they control all of your licence’s features:

• Regular sponsorship tasks include giving out Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS), reporting migrant activity and changes in circumstances, asking for CoS, and applying for and giving out limited CoS.
• Looking at details about your licence
• Let UKVI know about changes to your business.
• You can apply to renew your licence and keep track of its progress.

At all times, the ability to access the SMS and perform these tasks requires at least one Level 1 User. At the initial stage of the licensing process, a single Level 1 individual is required. This individual must be employed by the business. Users can be added at any moment, whether they are employees or external users. If you want your firm to run smoothly and everyone is held accountable, UKVI says you should keep the number of employees to a minimum.

You can also add level 2 users, who will have limited access to the system, to your team. Giving COS and reporting migratory activities are their only options. They are unable to access your firm records or view anything on your general licence. 

Once you have your licence, you can add as many Level 2 Users as you need.

Key Contact

Your primary point of contact with UKVI regarding the licence is also their primary point of contact with you. They are responsible for communicating with the Home Office. Their contact information will be used by the Home Office to enquire about your sponsor licence application, the documents you submitted, or the payment.

Designate a key contact when applying for a licence and maintain that designation throughout the duration of your licence.

A legal representative, an official, or an employee of the company situated in the UK can serve as your key contact.

For your key friend to get the SMS, you must grant them access as a Level 1 or Level 2 user. No other means of accessing the SMS will be available to them. 

Key Personnel Guidance

A lot of sponsors don’t follow the rules because of problems with the key people. We’ve listed some common risk factors below. In general, though, sponsors should keep an eye on key personnel appointments and licence management action on a regular basis.

Important conditions for hiring the right people

Employers should also know that people who are hired as key staff will be checked to make sure they meet certain requirements. If there are problems with the suitability of the key people you want to hire, the company could face legal action.

When you make a support application, the Home Office will check that all key staff do not pose a threat to immigration control. Besides that:

• They need to live in the UK. 

Key employees must live and work in the UK for the duration of the time they hold one of the licence jobs. So, even if your UK business is a branch or subsidiary of a company in another country and your HR department is not in the UK, you still need to hire people from the UK to hold sponsor licences.

• They can’t have been convicted of a crime or broken visa rules. 

When you apply for a licence, UKVI will check to see if any Authorising Officers, Key Contacts, or Level 1 Users have any outstanding criminal convictions. They can do this at any time during the length of your licence. Also, they can’t be limited in any way by bankruptcy or debt relief. If someone has failed to carry out their sponsorship tasks in the past or been convicted of immigration crimes, fraud, money laundering, or not paying VAT, their licence could be at risk. The application for a licence can be turned down if any of the key staff have worked for a sponsor group whose licence has been revoked in the past year.

• UK-based workers 

You need to have at least one Level 1 User who is a permanent worker.

• A paid worker or job holder most of the time 

The Company Secretary, Directors, and owners of the company are all people who hold office. Your most important employee can’t be: 

• A person who doesn’t live in the UK
• A contractor or expert hired for a certain project who is subject to a bankruptcy order or undertaking
• Subject to an order or undertaking for debt relief
• Not allowed by law to be a Company Director.

Getting in place key employees who have left

UKVI can choose to downgrade your licence, charge you to upgrade it again, or even take away your licence if one of your key employees leaves and you don’t hire someone else to fill the job or if the person doesn’t meet the requirements.

Update your Contact Info

You have to give contact information for all Key Personnel when you apply for your licence and again if their information changes. The address you give for each of your key employees must be either

• Your main address
• A branch or main office that comes with your licence
• The business address of your agent

If your business moves, you need to make sure that the contact information for your key employees is up to date, as well as the licence address.

Protect your email and passwords

Any email addresses you give to Key Personnel must be private, safe, and only able to be accessed by the person who is named. The log-in information you send to each of your Level 1 Users is also unique to that person and can’t be used by or seen by anyone else.

UKVI can take away a licence if they find that either of these rules has been broken, and we are hearing more and more about situations where this has happened.

Be Ready for Compliance Visits

Compliance is always a concern. The Home Office can do both planned and unplanned site inspections of sponsor licence holders, before or during the licence’s validity time, and they can do this at random or if they have a good reason to think something is going on.

If someone from the Home Office comes to your property to do an inspection, you have to work with them and let any of their agents into any areas you control. You also have to give them access to HR data and paperwork about employees. 

The Home Office may check the information you give them on your sponsor licence application to make sure it is correct and complete. You need to make sure that the files and documents mentioned in Appendix D of the sponsor guidance are easy to get to. The Home Office may also check with HMRC to make sure that you are paying your workers fairly. As part of their job to make sure you don’t work illegally, the Home Office may also check the immigration status of other foreign employees you have.

Breaching Sponsor Licence Duties: Action by the Home Office

Before giving out or renewing a sponsorship licence, or at any time during the four-year licence period, the Home Office can check to see if a company has enough HR systems in place to make sure compliance. Also, site checks can happen at the last minute, and everyone with a sponsor licence is expected to always do what they’re supposed to do.

If the Home Office says that a sponsor licence holder hasn’t done what they’re supposed to, the organization’s licence rating could go down, or the licence could be suspended or revoked. This could put the jobs and immigration status of current foreign workers at risk.

Licence Downgraded

If there are only small violations, the Home Office may decide to lower the licence from an A-rating to a B-rating. You won’t be able to give any CoS to new supported workers while your licence is downgraded. In order to fix the break and get your A-rating back, you will also have to follow an action plan. This plan will cost you money too.

Suspended Licence

If you are accused of more serious violations, the Home Office can take away your licence while they look into the matter further. When you are suspended from twirling, you will be sent a letter. You will have to reply to the letter by either agreeing with the accusations or questioning the reasons for the suspension. The Home Office will then decide whether to lift the ban if they are sure that the violations have been fixed or to make the punishment worse by revoking the visa if the problems are still not fixed.

Revocation of Licence

The worst punishment for licence users is having their licence taken away. If your sponsor licence is taken away, you can’t hire foreign workers anymore. For six months, you might not be able to apply for a new licence again. This is called a “cooling off period.”

If they take away your licence, you will not be able to support migrant workers. Anyone you sponsor in the UK will have their visa cut down to 60 days, or the amount of time left on their visa if that is less than 60 days. Within this time frame, they must either find another way to get permission to stay in the UK (for example, by getting a new job with a new sponsor) or leave the UK.

Need Help From Professionals?

If you don’t do what you’re supposed to with your licence, the Home Office could take action, such as suspending or revoke the licence, and this could affect your sponsored workers’ visas.

Our tips on how to stay in line with the rules and make the Home Office happy? Do not fall for the “out of sight, out of mind” trick. If you forget to renew your pass, it could cause problems when the Home Office comes to your premises without warning. You can avoid issues, scrutiny, and penalties by following your sponsor’s instructions.

We advise and assist users of sponsor licences to ensure compliance as authorities in UK corporate immigration. Please contact us at 02033844389 if you seek clarification regarding the requirements of your sponsor licence and sponsor licence duties. 

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