The duties in outline
A sponsor licence is a licence with conditions. The conditions are set out in the Home Office’s sponsor guidance, which runs to hundreds of pages and changes every few months. They fall into four groups: keeping records, checking right to work, reporting changes, and being a business the Home Office can trust. A licence may be downgraded, suspended or withdrawn if they are not met.
Records you must keep
You must check that each sponsored worker has the skills, qualifications or professional accreditations the job needs, and keep copies of the documents that show it. You must keep copies of the right to work checks you have made, the documents you hold for each sponsored worker, a record of their attendance, and their current contact details. The guidance sets how long each must be kept, and the safest course is to keep everything for the length of the sponsorship and at least a year after it ends.
You need HR systems that let you monitor workers’ immigration status, record attendance and contact details, and report a problem, such as a worker who stops coming to work.
What you must report, and by when
| Event | Deadline |
|---|---|
| A sponsored worker is not complying with the conditions of their visa | Report to the Home Office |
| Most changes to a worker’s circumstances: not starting, leaving, absence, a change of job or salary | Within 10 working days |
| A significant change in your business: stopping trading, insolvency, a change in the nature of the business, a merger or take-over | Within 20 working days |
| A change to your details, such as your address or your key personnel | Through the sponsorship management system |
A request to register a change of circumstances can take up to 18 weeks. The priority service, which costs £350, gets it done within five working days.
Other duties
You must make sure the jobs you sponsor are suitable and genuine, assign certificates only for those jobs, and comply with UK employment law for the jobs you offer. If you sponsor anyone under 18, you must make sure they have suitable care arrangements for their travel, arrival and living arrangements, get a letter of parental consent, and obtain a Disclosure and Barring Service check where one is needed. You will lose the licence if you do not. Children under 16 can be sponsored only on the Creative Worker and Government Authorised Exchange routes.
What a compliance visit looks for
The Home Office can visit a sponsor without notice. Inspectors ask to see the users of the sponsorship management system, examine the files of a sample of sponsored workers, and talk to managers and workers. They compare what the records say with what the people tell them. Gaps and inconsistencies are the usual cause of trouble: a salary that is not the one on the certificate, a job description that no longer matches the work, a worker who turned out not to be working.
If your duties are not met
The Home Office may downgrade, suspend or revoke a licence. A downgraded licence cannot assign new certificates, though it can still support extensions for workers already employed. A suspended one stops all sponsorship while the Home Office investigates. A revoked licence ends the sponsorship, and the Home Office will usually curtail the leave of every worker the sponsor employs. See suspension, downgrade and revocation and right to work checks.
How we help
We audit your files against the certificate and what is actually happening, put right gaps before the Home Office finds them, set up routines and prepare you for a visit.
