Sponsor Licence Home Office Compliance Visits
Home Office visits to Sponsor Licence holders to check compliance are not uncommon.
The UK Government has increased its focus on on businesses who employ non-UK nationals. As such, all Sponsor Licence holders are vulnerable to Home Office inspection visits at any time. Premises visits have been consistently increasing in number, as the government works to identify and remove illegal workers and penalise Sponsor Licence holders who are not maintaining compliance with their duties.
A Y & J Solicitors is committed to helping Sponsor Licence holders to prepare and achieve full compliance. The repercussions of non-compliance are severe and include the risk of having your Sponsor Licence being downgraded, suspended, or revoked.
We understand how busy employers and HR directors are, and therefore, we actively assist companies to educate/train so that all HR policies and procedures related to Home Office compliance are up-to-date. This means that if immigration officials pay your organisation a ‘surprise’ visit, you will have nothing to fear and can be confident that your business will meet full compliance.
How Can I Avoid Non-Compliance Which Could Lead to A Sponsor Licence Downgrade, Suspension, and/or Revocation?
Obtaining a Sponsor Licence is a challenging and rewarding process which can open up opportunities for organisations to recruit talent from anywhere in the world. As a part of your application, you may have already met a Home Office compliance officer for a pre-licence visit. Once you hold your Sponsor Licence, you can expect to receive a Home Office compliance visit at any time – often without notice.
There is zero tolerance for non-compliance and illegal working. Non-compliance can result in a loss of critical skilled workers and an inability to hire skilled workers in the future. It can also damage your professional reputation. The courts are often reluctant to overturn Home Office revocations where there has been a clear breach of compliance. Judges are keen to reinforce the view that a Sponsor Licence is a privilege, not a right.
Avoiding these damaging effects requires extensive knowledge and experience with the rules and regulations related to a Sponsor Licence. A Y & J Solicitors have been working with SMEs, large companies and multi-nationals for nearly a decade and possess the resources and knowledge required to help our clients achieve full compliance.
What Are Common Reasons Businesses Fail Home Office’s Sponsor Licence Compliance Visits?
Many firms fail to meet Sponsor Licence compliance duties and responsibilities for the following reasons:
- Evidence that the Sponsor Licence holder is outsourcing migrant workers to a third party
- Failure to provide current and past contact details for all migrant workers
- Insufficient tracking of worker attendance, lack of documentation, poor record-keeping
- Not updating the status of migrant workers or providing accurate information as to the location they work
- Lack of evidence of conducting a Resident Labour Market Testing (RLMT) for positions filled by migrant workers, where it was a requirement
- Poor procedural support for the management of leave for migrant workers.
There are no exceptions for Sponsor Licence holders who are found to be non-compliant in one or more areas. Being unprepared for an audit is unacceptable, even if it is unannounced. This can put a great deal of stress on Sponsor Licence holders, especially smaller companies who do not have large HR departments.
Why Use A Y & J Solicitors to Advise You on Your Sponsor Licence Compliance?
A Y & J Solicitors provide full support to Sponsor Licence holders seeking Home Office inspection preparation. We will train/educate so that all of your business procedures and protocols meet the strict compliance guidelines. Our document and system review services will identify any areas of concern and provide clear solutions for establishing compliance quickly.
A Y & J Solicitors takes pride in a long-standing reputation for excellent customer services. Through independent reviews and constant client recommendations, we have grown a business of expertise and trust that is widely recognised.
We are experts in dealing with challenges that are present for Sponsor Licence holders, and we are pleased to work with our clients to achieve full compliance. Our immigration law experts provide individual service to each client and consistently exceed expectations. We are committed to give all possible efforts to help our Sponsor Licence holder clients have excellent systems, processes, and procedures, which achieve full compliance.
Any organisation that holds a UK Sponsor Licence can receive an unannounced visit from the Home Office at any time. The media often reports on curry houses and care homes being visited on a regular basis, but regardless of your market sector, you should always be prepared for an unannounced visit. We can assist you with this by running bi-annual mock audits of your HR systems.
Home Office Inspection visit will be focused to check that your organisation is complying fully with rules and regulations. The Home Office will inspect your records relating to migrant workers. Make sure you can present these as quickly as possible, as it can reflect negatively if you do not appear to know the location of relevant documents. It is vital that all Key Personnel can demonstrate that they are familiar with internal HR procedures.
It is quite possible that Home Office officials will want to talk to your sponsored workers. This provides them with an opportunity to directly ask sponsored migrants about specific employment details such as their current salary, duties, and responsibilities.
This should not present a problem if you / your Level 1 user have entered all relevant details of sponsored workers employment into the Sponsor Management System (SMS). Our immigration experts can take over Level 1 or Level 2 user role for you, assisting with the information required is kept up-to-date.
Success Story on Sponsor Licence Compliance Visit
Tier 2 Sponsor Licence Audit Conducted by A Y & J Solicitors Solves Noncompliance Challenges
A Central London based large multinational conglomerate company ‘OC’ instructed A Y & J Solicitors to conduct a Tier 2 Sponsor Licence Audit. ‘OC’ has many NON-EU sponsored workers including their Vice President and a Finance Director. This company has their headquarters overseas. Tier 2 Sponsor Overwhelmed by Sponsorship Duties The HR department overseas has…
Video on Sponsor Licence Compliance Visit
How to Protect Your Sponsor Licence
We are a specialised UK immigration law firm.
Before we start talking about how to protect Sponsor Licence let’s understand why do you need to protect Sponsor Licence.
Presuming you have a Sponsor Licence and NON-EU skilled sponsored work force, If the home office was to find you in breach of your sponsorship duties, home office Can initiate suspension/ revocation of your sponsor license. If revocation, you loose your sponsored workers and ability to sponsor any more skilled NON-EU staff. This can affect your entire business operation. In a worst case scenario, which I have seen first-hand, the businesses have had to close as a result of loosing key skilled staff.
It may cost a great deal of money in fines and replacing skilled staff.
In my experience, wherever I have visited to conduct Compliance Checks, I have found the majority of Sponsor Licence holders not fully compliant with their sponsorship duties.
Are you one of these? Do you want to make sure that you are fully compliant?
This is what we offer:
Number 1. We will provide readily available HR compliance templates for you to use immediately.
Number 2. We will visit your business, run through a proper compliance audit and advise as to how you become fully compliant as per the Home Office’s policy guidance.
Number 3. We will provide a written post visit compliance report.
Do you want to protect your Sponsor Licence?
Please contact us, we would be very happy to help you to protect your Sponsor Licence. Our contact details are at the bottom of this video and we are happy to help.
Thank you.
We at GNL has pleasure and privilege of having Yash Dubal , Senior Immigration Lawyer of A Y & J Solicitors at our office to discuss Sponsorship duties and have an open forums on multiple of questions we had on UKVI regulations on sponsoring and employing skilled migrant workers. We learnt great deal of critical aspects of Sponsorship responsibilities. We were able to clarify a long list of doubts/questions we had on regulations and sponsorship duties. Yash is very professional and he attended to every question we had regarding UKVI regulation with great detail and care. His attention to detail, focus, in-depth understanding of regulations and implications are without any parallels available in this industry. We feel privileged to have spent the day with him at our office and are looking forward to have future engagement with him. We recommend A Y & J Solicitors service to anyone who wish to sponsor skilled migrant workers in the UK.