Tabsle Of Contents
- How can you avoid your Sponsor Licence suspension
- Demonstrate that you are complying with your sponsor duties
- Be rigorous in selecting the key personnel
- Keep yourself updated
- Maintain a robust HR system
- Keep your SMS information up to date
- Cooperate with UKVI’s compliance visits
- Conduct mock audits
- Take legal advice
- Summary
UKVI may suspend your sponsor licence while it makes further enquiries if it believes that your organisation is in breach of your sponsor duties and/or poses a threat to the UK’s immigration control, or is engaging in actions and/or behaviours not conducive to the public good.
Until your sponsor licence remain suspended, you will not be able to assign any CoS (Certificate of Sponsorship) to migrant workers. During this period, you must continue to comply with all sponsor duties and any other requirements.
If your licence is suspended, it is suspended in all immigration routes in which your organisation is licensed, and your organisation’s entry from the public version of the register of sponsors will also be removed during the suspension period.
Workers being sponsored at the time of your sponsor licence suspension, and those with valid permission to enter or permission to stay, will not be affected, unless UKVI decides to revoke your licence.
How can you avoid your Sponsor Licence suspension?
If you hold a Home Office-approved sponsor licence, you must meet your sponsorship duties throughout the life of the licence. Failing to do so can lead to your licence being suspended, downgraded, or revoked. The consequences of these results can be serious and impact your ability to sponsor migrant workers significantly. Therefore, you should take all measures to avoid sponsor licence suspension.
You can take the following steps to reduce the risk of your sponsor licence suspension
1. Demonstrate that you are complying with your sponsor duties
You should always be prepared to explain how you are complying with sponsor duties and obligations, including how your organisation:
• is maintaining accurate employee records.
• is and has carried out right to work checks.
• is monitoring sponsored workers.
• is reporting relevant changes in the organisation or employees through the SMS (Sponsor Management System).
• is maintaining documents as required by the Home Office.
• is monitoring the sponsored workers’ visa expiry dates.
2. Be rigorous in selecting the key personnel
You must be rigorous in choosing individuals for the required sponsor roles, such as:
• Authorising Officer.
• Key Contact.
• Level 1 User.
• Level 2 User.
These key individuals should understand your organisation, be trustworthy, and be capable of doing their responsibilities.
Therefore, you are required to select key personnel in your organisation carefully. If you select people who are not up to the job, then you may need to arrange to provide them with additional training.
3. Keep yourself updated
Many UK employers have their licence suspended because they assume that the UK’s immigration rules and the Home Office guidance remain the same. But they don’t. That’s why key personnel appointed who are responsible for carrying out activities to comply with sponsor duties need regular training by specialist lawyers, or the time to navigate the complex and changing immigration rules and the Home Office guidance.
4. Maintain a robust HR system
You are not necessarily required to have an enormous HR department. However, you should have a clear system covering:
- Recruitment
- Right to work
- Sponsorship
- Payroll
- Attendance
- Absence
- Immigration status
- Reporting
- Record keeping
Importantly, the HR system should actually work, and staff should know who is responsible for each task.
5. Keep your SMS information up to date
The UKVI needs to know about any relevant change (s) to your organisation, including
• Change in its address
• Change in its key personnel
• Change in its business structure
• Changes affecting the ability of your organisation to meet sponsor duties
• Change in sponsored worker’s circumstances, for example, if a sponsored worker leaves the company, does not start the job, or is absent from work without permission
The key personnel (Authorising Officer, Key Contact and Level 1 users) should also understand their responsibilities.
6. Cooperate with UKVI’s compliance visits
The Home Office can conduct announced or unannounced compliance checks.
If a UKVI officer visits your organisation, you should:
• cooperate during the inspection;
• provide them with requested documents;
• allow them access to relevant premises;
• provide them access to sponsored workers where appropriate;
• answer all questions honestly; and
• provide them with information within the required timeframe.
You should not obstruct or mislead a compliance officer.
7. Conduct mock audits
No organisation likes to be audited, as there is always a risk of certain unexpected things being found. However, mock audits help you significantly in highlighting issues before the UKVI’s personnel make a compliance visit. Through a mock audit, you can undertake a full review of all documentation and supporting HR paperwork against the Home Office standards and requirements. Such audits help you identify lacking records in content as UKVI requires, or where information is not kept up to date. Mock interviews with staff in your organisation who are most likely to be interviewed by UKVI can also be quite useful.
These audits of SMS management and HR systems can help you ensure that if there is a Home Office audit, you have significantly reduced the risk of your sponsor licence being suspended.
8. Take legal advice
You should not wait until after a UKVI compliance visit or after they have made a decision to suspend your licence. You should take sponsor licence legal advice when you apply for a licence, to maintain your licence, avoid licence suspension, and even after any suspension. An immigration solicitor can check your current compliance, ensure sponsored workers are doing the correct jobs, check salary compliance, advise you on reporting duties, review your HR and record-keeping systems, help you prepare for a Home Office compliance visit, respond to Home Office concerns, advise you before major business changes take place, and help you create a long-term compliance system.
Even at a late stage, Immigration Solicitors can help you retain your sponsor licence through appropriate action.
Summary
The best way to avoid sponsor licence suspension is not simply to prepare for a Home Office compliance visit. Instead, you should have a compliant sponsorship system operating every day.
Sponsor licence compliance means you offer genuine jobs to the sponsored workers, hire eligible workers, pay them the correct salary, maintain employees’ proper records, report relevant changes in time, have an effective HR system, and always cooperate with UKVI.
A UK business with a sponsor licence can have a written Sponsor Licence Compliance Policy setting out who is responsible for right-to-work checks, attendance monitoring, payroll, SMS reporting, record keeping and Home Office compliance visits.
To achieve this objective and avoid licence suspension, you are highly recommended to seek the help of an expert immigration solicitor.
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