Sponsor Licence Support
SPONSOR LICENCE SUPPORT
If the Home Office visited your premises and sent you a letter stating you are non-compliant as a UK sponsor, it means the system you are using has failed.
It is now up to you to demonstrate to the Home Office that you have a system (paper-based or electronic) that is fully compliant
B-Rated (Tier 2 & 5) and Track 1 (Tier 4) is for light offences and Suspended (Tier 2 & 5) and Track 2 (Tier 4) is more serious breaches
NO POINT GUESSING HOW TO RESPOND, CALL THE EXPERTS TO HELP YOU
If your licence is revoked, you cannot apply again for 12 months and all Tier 2, 4 and 5 must cease working or studying for you
Since 2008 when the sponsor licence was first introduced by the Home Office, our firm has supported UK organisations in sponsor licence compliance
Ideally you want to avoid receiving such a letter as it is harder to defend your sponsor licence
Tier 2 & Tier 5 sponsors
Tier 2 and Tier 5 sponsor licence process if the Home Office deems the UK sponsor to be non-compliant
Home Office Visit
When the Home Office compliance officers visit you, they do not say much at all. They are probing away at your processes and will request evidence from you. If you already employ migrant workers, these workers are likely to be interviewed and we can tell you this, they will look for non-compliance in these areas:
- Doing the job as stated in their employment contract/job description
- Doing the job as stated in the resident labour market test if applicable
- Paid the salary as defined by the SOC code list and as stated in the resident labour market test and CoS
- Check to see if deductions are made from salary other than taxes and national insurance contributions
- Check and see if the job the Tier worker is doing is what the SoC code stipulates
- Verify where the Tier worker is working and that address is registered with the Home Office
- If Tier worker is on a job contract, they will verify if:
- CoS was ticked to confirm this;
- a B2B contract is in place and who directs and controls the Tier worker;
- CoS work dates matches the B2B contract period and if not, require evidence why CoS work date is greater than job contract expiry date
- Then we have the resident labour market test, if this was done to hire the Tier worker, they will invest the following;
- Where the jobs was posted
- Kept a copy of the job advert URL and screen grab of the job advert
- Did the job advert have the key information as stated in the Tier 2 and 5 policy guidance
- Who applied to the job and how each applicant was screened
- How each applicant was interviewed and rejected and where rejected, the reasons
- How you shortlisted suitable applicants for the role
- How you decided who was the best applicant and how you recorded all interview notes.
Did you know that the Home Office compliance officers can either book an appointment to come and inspect whether you are compliant or not or just turn up and expect you to have a compliant system in place.
When you registered as a Tier 2 or Tier 5 sponsor, you agreed to comply to these 5 key areas:
- Area 1: Monitoring immigration status and preventing illegal employment
- Area 2: Maintaining Worker contact details
- Area 3: Record keeping
- Area 4: Worker tracking and monitoring
- Area 5: General HR duties
Depending how you record your employees and business data will determine how likely you going to comply to the above 5 key areas. Some organisations use paper-based, some use software, some use a combination of both. It is recommended to use a system that date stamps actions which is critical if you are accused by the Home Office of not complying to the sponsor licence rules.
Home Office Visit
When the Home Office compliance officers visit you, they do not say much at all. They are probing away at your processes and will request evidence from you. If you already employ migrant workers, these workers are likely to be interviewed and they will look for non-compliance in these areas:
- Doing the job as stated in their employment contract/job description
- Doing the job as stated in the resident labour market test if applicable
- Paid the salary as defined by the SOC code list and as stated in the resident labour market test and CoS
- Check to see if deductions are made from salary other than taxes and national insurance contributions
- Check and see if the job the Tier worker is doing is what the SoC code stipulates
- Verify where the Tier worker is working and that addressed is registered with the Home Office
- If Tier worker is on a job contract, they will verify if
- CoS was ticked to confirm this;
- a B2b contract is in place and who directs and controls the Tier worker;
- CoS work dates matches the B2B contract period and if not, require evidence why CoS work dates is greater than job contract expiry date
- Then we have the resident labour market test, if this was done to hire the Tier worker, they will invest the following;
- Where the jobs was posted
- Kept a copy of the job advert URL and screen grab of the job advert
- Did the job advert have the key information as stated in the Tier 2 and 5 policy guidance
- Who applied to the job and how each applicant was screened
- How each applicant was interviewed and rejected and where rejected, the reasons
- How you shortlisted suitable applicants for the role
- How you decided who was the best fit and how you recorded all interview notes
The compliance officers will request evidence from you, if you fail to provide it or give excuses, this will not go done well. You are legally required by law to keep a comprehensive employee file on every employee and if you operate as a Head Office with multiple branches where employees work, you must have instant access to those branches employee files. If you can not demonstrate access to employees files, especially the ones on Tier 2 or tier 5, you are likely to fail your sponsor licence audit.
B-Rated
Think of this as a yellow card in sport, it is a warning of an offence and if you do it again we give you a red card which is a revoked sponsor licence. B-Rated if for lighter offences and if you get in the future a second B-Rating, then your sponsor licence is likely to get revoked unless you can demonstrate the compliance officer visiting you got it wrong.
In most cases you are given 90 days to put your non-compliance in order within your Sponsorship Management System (SMS) and you have to pay the Home Office a fee to revisit you to verify if you corrected the areas as stipulated in the compliance officer report. Failure to pay this fee, your sponsor licence will be revoked.
Note: You cannot sponsor new Tier workers or extend Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) whilst you are B-Rated.
Suspended Licence
Think of this as a red card in sport, it is a sending off for more serious offence but you can appeal the decision. You must do so within 20 working days of the Home Office letter or your sponsor licence is cancelled. You cannot sponsor any Tier workers whilst you are suspended. If the Home office accepts your evidence that they got it wrong, your sponsor licence will be returned to A-Rated.
Note: You cannot sponsor new Tier workers or extend Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) whilst you your sponsor licence is suspended.
Need help to get compliant check this page out or contact our lawyer today
Tier 4 sponsor
Tier 4 sponsor licence process if the Home Office deems UK sponsor to be non-compliant
Tier 4 sponsors are treated differently to Tier 2 or Tier 5 sponsors because an Educational Oversight body will make an assessment of the Training Institute and any other properties students will study in before allowing a Tier 4 sponsor licence to be approved. If the training institute does not maintain their Educational Oversight for all their sites, throughout the duration of their Tier 4 licence, the sponsor licence is likely to be revoked.
These sponsor have an obligation to keep track of all students they issue CASs (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies).
To learn more about Tier 4 click here.
Did you know the Home Office compliance officers can either book an appointment to come and inspect if you are complying to holding a sponsor licence or just turn up and will expect you to have a compliant system in place.
Home Office Visit
When the Home Office compliance officers visit you, they do not say much at all. They are probing away at your processes and will request evidence from you. They will look at these key areas:
- Record keeping
- Reporting duties
- CAS compliance
- Care arrangements fro children
The key to staying compliant, when it comes to students, is following the rules:
The Home Office will look at all your processes and decide, based on the rules, if you have failed any of them.
Take action
When should I take action if the Home Office contact us?
THIS WILL DEPEND IF YOU HOLD A TIER 2/5 OR TIER 4 SPONSOR LICENCE
Tier 2 / Tier 5 - B-rated
If the Home Office contacts your organisation and you receive a letter stating the Home Office has B-Rated your sponsor licence, the letter will normally advise you when you must undertake an 'Action Plan'. This is for less serious sponsor licence offences. You would be required to login into your Sponsorship Management System (SMS), pay the revisit fee and when the Home Office compliance officer(s) visits you again, they would expect all issues to be addressed and either tighten up or introduced new processes. You will have to pay the Home Office a revisit fee. A fee must be paid to the Home Office for this action plan.
Tier 2 / Tier 5 - Suspended licence
If the Home Office contacts your organisation and you receive a letter stating the Home Office has suspended your sponsor licence, the letter will normally advise you when you must respond by. Suspended letter is for more serious offences and if you do not take action, your sponsor licence will be revoked.
If the sponsor licence is less of an offence, the letter will state B-Rated
If the Home Office sends you a letter threatening to revoke your sponsor licence, the letter will normally allow you 20 working days to respond to the reasons why they wish to revoke your sponsor licence and the opportunity to provide evidence.
If you do receive such a letter, you should get advice, you can either call us and explain your issues or attach the Home Office letter to our 'request a call back' form, then we will have had some time to digest your sponsor licence issues, before we consult with you in more detail.
Tier 4 Compliance Track 1
If the Home Office contacts your training institute and you receive a letter stating they have issued you a letter stating sponsor licence under Compliance Track 1, the letter will normally advise the training institute of an action plan to fix the minor non-compliance issues. This is for less serious sponsor licence offences.
You are given 20 working days to submit your responses and evidence and if the Home Office agrees with you, you carry on as normal. During compliance track 1 you can still assign CASs.
Tier 4 Compliance Track 2
If the Home Office contacts your training institute and you receive a letter stating they have issued you a letter stating sponsor licence under Compliance Track 2, the letter will normally advise the training institute of an action plan to fix these serious non-compliance issues. This is for more serious sponsor licence offences.
Action Plan
The Action Plan can be issued for Compliance Track 1 and Compliance Track 2. A fee must be paid to the Home Office for this action plan. An 'Action Plan' details what must be changed.
During this action plan the training institute CAS allocation could be set to zero and the Home Office expects all students to be kept informed about the progress of the action plan.
You are given 20 working days to submit your responses and evidence and if the Home Office agrees with you, you carry on as normal. During compliance track 2 you cannot assign CASs unless the Home Office makes the training institute a legacy sponsor.
If your sponsor licence is B-Rated, Suspended, Compliance Track 1, or Compliance Track 2, you should obtain legal advice because if you are caught again being non-compliant, the Home Office can simply revoke your sponsor licence. You can call our compliance specialist lawyer who can guide you or you can send us the Home Office letter
and request a call back to discuss.
Revoked sponsor licence
What does it mean if our Tier 2/5 sponsor licence is revoked?
We have two parts to cover when it comes to a revoked sponsor licence, we have the UK organisation sponsoring non-EEA nationals and the impact on the organisation, then we have the non-EEA nationals, what are their options.
UK Organisations
A revoked sponsor licence means if your organisation sponsors Tier 2 or Tier 5 non-EEA nationals, it means you can no longer sponsor migrant workers under either Tier. It does not stop you employing non-EEA nationals who can legally work in the UK who are not reliant on a Tier 2 or 5 sponsorship.
The moment you receive your revoked letter, your Tier 2 and Tier 5 workers must cease working for you, but if they carry on working without a new visa and you are caught, you can receive a civil penalty of £20,000 per illegal worker and face 5 years in prison.
It will be very difficult to ask your Tier workers to stop working as like all other people, they will have commitments such as rent and bills to pay, family members, limited time to find a new sponsor or switch into a new visa category as you give these workers little time to react.
Tier 2 and Tier 5 Workers
Some visas do not permit switching, but if the worker is on a Tier 2 General, Tier 2 Minister of Religion or Tier 2 Sportsperson, they can switch whereas Tier 2 Intra-company Transfer restrictions are in place.
The Tier workers employment ceases on the day you receive the revoked letter, the Home Office will write to the Tier 2 workers with a curtailment letter and this letter could arrive in weeks or months after your sponsor licence is revoked. These workers will be desperate to source another UK sponsor or switch into a new visa route so we strongly recommend you follow this program to help your affected workers and help you to avoid being taken to an employment tribunal because if your business caused the workers to lose their jobs, nothing stopping them to contact ACAS and complain and demand compensation especially if they paid for the following:
- Certificate of Sponsorship
- Immigration Skills Charge
- Visa application for 3 or 5 years (Tier 2 only)*
- Immigration Health Surcharge*
- Any other fees you might have charged for the job
The above amounts to a lot of money especially if the worker has family members*
because if the Tier worker visa is cancelled and if these family members are on PBS Dependant visas, their visas will also be curtailed.
We then have Tier 4 students, same process as Tier 2 and Tier 5. If their training institute sponsor licence is revoked,
Guidance 1
When you receive your 'Suspended Letter', you should immediately obtain legal advice from our firm, we will explain how you can challenge the Home Office letter.
Guidance 2
Sit down with the Tier 2 and Tier 5 workers and explain the issues you have with the Home Office suspended letter and be honest with them and explain the issues you are facing. Explain to the workers they are an integral part of your business and you cannot afford to lose their services hence why you have contacted Global 4 Immigration a specialist in sponsor licence compliance.
Guidance 3
Explain to each tier worker that the decision of our response letter to the Home Office could be:
Reinstate our A-Rated status - panic over or
Revoked sponsor licence - this means we can no longer sponsor you.
During the period of suspended sponsor licence, the Tier workers need a PLAN B. This is where we can help. We consult each Tier worker and ascertain their immigration background. We find out if they are able or not to switch into a new visa route or able to find a new sponsor. Naturally we do not want them to move to a new sponsor, but at least it allows each Tier worker to get prepared just in case your sponsor licence is revoked.
Guidance 4
Home Office makes a decision on your sponsor licence:
- Accept your responses and you are reinstated to A-Rated - Tier workers carry on as normal
- Sponsor licence revoked - your Tier workers must stop their jobs immediately. The Tier workers can contact us based on our previous advice and agree action plan which will be to:
- Switch visa route if permitted
- Apply to a new Tier sponsor if permitted
- Make preparations to leave the UK for good
- Leave the UK and apply to enter under a new visa route
If your sponsor licence is revoked, this means you cannot apply again for another sponsor licence for 12 months. You can call our compliance specialist lawyer who can guide you or you can request a 12 MONTH ACTION PLAN
to getting your sponsor licence back.
