UK Sponsor Licence: Immigration Advice for UK Businesses

The UK Government strictly regulates the immigration of migrant workers to the UK. As a part of its immigration system, it requires companies to have a sponsor licence before they can sponsor non-UK employees.

In this podcast Rebecca Hone and Monica Mastropasqua members of the immigration team at Clarkslegal discuss how to apply for a sponsor licence so you can sponsor foreign workers to come and work in the UK. While touching on some of the post-Brexit implications on the UK’s immigration system.

If you are interested in obtaining a Sponsor License, please contact our immigration lawyers for advice.

Transcript

Rebecca Hone 0:02

Hello and welcome to our podcast with general information on a UK worker sponsor licence. I’m Rebecca Hone, an Immigration Associate here at Clarkslegal. I’m joined by Monica 

Monica Mastropasqua 0:16

Hi everyone welcome to our podcast.

Rebecca Hone 0:19

Monica is a paralegal in our immigration team and she will be touching on some of the post-Brexit implications on the UK’s immigration system. 

As you may already know, the UK government has strict regulations regarding the immigration of migrant workers to the UK. This means that in most cases, businesses who are registered and trading in the UK must have a Worker Sponsor Licence in place before employing non-settled workers who do not hold a visa allowing them to work. For businesses it is essential to understand that not all migrant workers need sponsorship to work in the UK. This is because some may already have lawful status in the UK under another immigration category, which already allows them to work. However, for most migrant workers who want to come to the UK to work, they must be sponsored. This means they should have a job offer from a company with a Worker Sponsor Licence already in place.

Monica, could you expand more on what a Sponsor licence is and how to obtain it.

Monica Mastropasqua 1:36

Sure Rebecca, a sponsor licence is a formal permission granted by the Home Office, which allows a business to sponsor a migrant worker’s employment. A sponsor licence is valid for four years, during which time it can be revoked by the Home Office if the sponsor does not remain compliant with its sponsor duties. There is quite a lot of information and documents required in support of a licence application, with zero room for error or omission. Rebecca, could you please elaborate on the documents required in support of a sponsor licence application.

Rebecca Hone 2:18

Sure Monica. The documents required for a sponsor licence application vary depending on the type of business. Generally speaking there are four mandatory documents. Which will vary depending on the size of the business and the type of business.  For example, a start-up may need to show less documents, but may end up with more scrutiny at both the pre-licence appliance stage and the post-licence stage once the licence has been granted. In addition to the documents prescribed by the Home Office, checks will be conducted to verify that the organisation and its key personnel are honest, dependable and reliable. In addition to background checks on the company and the key personnel, the Home Office will make cross-checks with other government organisations, such as with HMRC. 

Monica, over to you to discuss why it is so important for UK businesses to have a Worker sponsor licence, even if at present they do not see the need to have one. 

Monica 3:34

So Brexit has led to a shortage of labour in the UK. The UK’s departure from the EU led to an increase in immigration from non-EU countries, but not enough to compensate for the loss of workers from neighbouring EU countries. The post-Brexit points based system has made it more difficult for those without qualifications to move to the UK to work. In addition to that, most EU countries were not familiar and are still not familiar with this kind of system and the costs and commitments involved with it. What has resulted is a new pool of sponsors entering the world of sponsorship, who prior to Brexit, did not need a sponsor licence to employ migrant workers as the majority of their workforce were EU nationals covered by free movement.

Rebecca 4:34

In addition to this, the Home Office sponsorship and visa application fees are onerous, leaving businesses hesitant to sponsor workers, in the fear that those sponsored workers might leave the company once they are in the UK and switch to a different sponsor. Which is something that we see happen quite often. We advise our clients on how to incorporate clawback clauses into their sponsored worker’s employment contracts, which reduces the likelihood of sponsored workers obtaining new sponsorship once in the UK. As these clauses stipulate that if they leave within a certain amount of time they will have to pay back all of the via fees outlaid by the sponsor. 

There is one last point I would like to touch on before finishing. The introduction of the Global Business Mobility, also known as GBM route now permits a non-sponsored individual to come to the UK on a UK Expansion Worker visa, for the sole purpose of setting up a UK branch of the overseas business which has not yet started trading in the UK. This relatively new business immigration category is encouraging overseas businesses to establish a UK presence which beforehand was very difficult to do.

Monica 6:02

Thank you everyone for listening to our sponsor licence podcast, which we hope you found to be informative. If you have any further questions, please get in touch with us and we will discuss this further.