Two Simple Ways to Ensure You Maintain Your Tier 2 Sponsor Licence

Over the past few years, the Home Office has been clamping down hard on employers who it believes are not in compliance with the Sponsor Licence duties and responsibilities. This has led to the downgrading, suspension and even revocation of Sponsor Licences becoming increasingly common. There are however two steps that businesses can take to ensure they not only maintain their Sponsor Licence but also, crucially, their A-rating.

Step One – Know your responsibilities 

The first step in ensuring compliance with any government regulation is to fully understand what they consist of and how they apply to your business.  

If you hold a Sponsor Licence, you must ensure that:

• someone in your organisation is responsible for compliance, and they are sufficiently trained in the duties that fall on a licence holder and the consequences of non-compliance
• the immigration status of migrant workers is monitored and recorded
• contact details for migrant workers is kept up to date
• all migrant workers recruited have a legal right to work in the UK
• you report any immigration law violations to the Home Office immediately
• the Sponsor Management System is kept up-to-date 

Your organisation’s Human Resource (HR) systems must be sufficiently robust enough to cope with the level of compliance required.  It is also imperative that the person responsible for complying with Home Office regulations and policies keeps themselves up-to-date with any changes to Sponsor Licence holder’s duties and/or reporting obligations.

Step Two – Conduct a mock audit

In the majority of cases, Home Office officials are descending on Sponsor Licence holders unannounced, to assess their HR systems, processes, record keeping activities and files for foreign workers.

Don’t get caught out.  Ensure you have an independent immigration law expert conduct a detailed bi-annual mock audit to ensure your HR policies, procedures and record-keeping processes all meet the high standard set by the Home Office.

Concluding comments

Although these two actions may require an initial investment of time and money, they will pay dividends in two ways:

1. Your organisation will retain an A-rated Sponsor Licence, which means you can continue to recruit talented employees from outside the EEA; and
2. You will have the confidence that your HR policies and procedures are fully compliant with your Sponsor Licence duties, thus reducing stress and lost productive time trying to rectify Home Office concerns.

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