Sponsor License and Sponsor Management System

Sponsor License and Sponsor Management System

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A sponsor license is required to employ individuals who are situated outside the UK by employers in the UK to work for them. This also includes citizens of the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland who arrived in the UK after 31 December 2020. The work involved could be unpaid like running a charity.

The sponsor license is not required for certain groups like Irish citizens, those with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme and those with indefinite leave to remain in the UK. However just having someone sponsoring you does not guarantee any success in the work visa application. There are other work visa requirements that the applicant needs to meet in order for his visa to be approved.

In order to apply for the license the employer needs to check their business is eligible and whether the job is suitable for sponsorship. The next step would be choosing the type of license required for the employee. This usually depends on what type of worker the employer wants to sponsor. Once you apply for the sponsor license the authorities as part of the process may visit your business to check it is suitable.

If your application has been successful you will be given a license rating. With this the employer will be able to issue certificates of sponsorship to the jobs that are suitable for sponsorship. The license will be valid for 4 years. However, you may lose your license if you do not meet your responsibilities as a sponsor.

When it comes to applying for a license as an employer, you need to make sure you do not have any unspent criminal convictions for immigration offences or certain other crimes, such as fraud or money laundering.?You cannot apply if you have had a sponsor license revoked in the last 12 months. Besides this, you are also required to have an appropriate system in place to monitor sponsored employees and people to manage sponsorship in your business.

The job being sponsored should have a suitable rate of pay and skill level and needs to meet the other criteria needed for their visa. There are different types of sponsor licenses. The license you need depends on whether the workers you want to fill your jobs are workers required for skilled or long-term employment or temporary workers required for specific types of temporary employment. A licence covering one or both types of worker can also be applied.

Once you are granted a sponsor license you also have certain responsibilities bestowed on you, which are required to be followed. These include checking that your foreign workers have the necessary skills, qualifications or professional accreditations to do their jobs, and keep copies of documents to prove this. Assigning certificates of sponsorship to workers when the job is suitable for sponsorship. Informing the UK authorities if your sponsored workers are not complying with the conditions of their visa. If in any case you fail to fulfil these, then the license may be downgraded, suspended or withdrawn.

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For the Sponsor license the employer needs to appoint people within their business to manage the sponsorship process when applying for a license. To manage this the main tool used is the sponsorship management system (SMS). This system is an online tool that allows you to administer your day-to-day sponsorship duties and activities, such as assigning certificates of sponsorship (CoS) and reporting changes to a migrant’s circumstances.

This system be used for managing your key personnel and licence details; creating, assigning and viewing CoS; ?applying for and assigning defined CoS; ?reporting activities relating to your sponsored workers and/or students; renewing your allocations and applying for additional CoS and so on.

There are certain roles created under this system and they are (i) authorizing officer – a senior and competent person responsible for the actions of staff and representatives who use the SMS; (ii) key contact – your main point of contact with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) and (iii) level 1 user – responsible for all day-to-day management of your license using the SMS. ?These roles can be filled by the same person or different people. Appointing an optional level 2 user is also permitted once you have your license. This is an SMS user with more restricted access than a level 1 user.

Further there are certain suitability checks that are required to carry out. The employer and the staff will be checked to make sure they’re suitable for these roles. The license will not be granted if anyone involved in sponsorship has an unspent criminal conviction for an offence listed in the guidance for sponsors, been fined by UKVI in the past 12 months been reported to UKVI, broken the law, been a key person at a sponsor that had its license revoked in the last 12 months, failed to pay VAT or other excise duty.

Besides the employer and its allocated staff must also be based in the UK most of the time, not be a contractor or consultant contracted for a specific project, not be subject to a bankruptcy restriction order or undertaking, or a debt relief restriction order or undertaking not have a history of non-compliance with sponsor requirements.

That at least one level 1 user must be your employee. Having additional level 1 or level 2 users who are employed by third-party organizations that provide you with HR services is also permitted. In addition to this you can also allocate any of the roles to a UK-based legal representative, apart from the authorizing officer role. This representative must be qualified to give immigration advice or services.

The license that is granted upon a successful application will have a type of rating. Having an A-rated license if your application is approved means full sponsor license. This lets you start assigning certificates of sponsorship. With this your business will be listed in the register of sponsors.

The A-rated license can be later downgraded to a B-rating if you do not continue to meet your sponsor responsibilities. As a result of this, you will not be able to issue new certificates of sponsorship until you’ve made improvements and upgraded back to an A-rating. However issuing certificates to workers you already employ who want to extend their permission to stay will be allowed.

If you are in a similar situation you can seek assistance from the ICS legal advisors to upgrade to an A-rating license. Note that you can only have 2 B-ratings in the 4 years that your license is valid. Otherwise you’ll lose your license if you still need to make improvements after your second action plan. The ICS legal Immigration advisors can also assist you to reapply for the license.

When assigning a certificate of sponsorship to a worker, the employer ?may need to check whether the worker needs an Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate. It is generally required if you’re sponsoring a worker on a Skilled Worker visa, a Senior or Specialist Worker visa (Global Business Mobility), a Graduate Trainee visa (Global Business Mobility), and so on. Get in touch with the ICS legal advisors to know more. The ICS legal advisors can also assist to check if the worker needs an ATAS certificate.

The Certificates of sponsorship must be assigned to each foreign worker that is employed. This is an electronic record, not a physical document. Each certificate has its own number which a worker can use to apply for a visa. When you assign the certificate to a worker, they must use it to apply for their visa within 3 months. They must not apply for their visa more than 3 months before the start date of the job listed on the certificate.

Once you are granted the sponsor license there are certain responsibilities that have to be followed. The employer is required to check that the foreign workers have the necessary skills, qualifications or professional accreditations to do their jobs, and retain the copies of documents showing this. The employer must only assign certificates of sponsorship to workers when the job is suitable for sponsorship and not otherwise. The employer must also inform the authorities if the sponsored workers are not complying with the conditions of their visa. Your license may be downgraded, suspended or withdrawn if you do not fulfil these responsibilities.

There should be HR systems in place that let the employer monitor the employees immigration status, keep copies of relevant documents for each employee, including passport and right to work information, track and record employees’ attendance, keep employee contact details up to date, report to UKVI if there is a problem,.

In addition, the employer must report any significant changes in their own circumstances within 20 working days. For instance, stopping of trading or becoming insolvent, making changes that affect your relationship with any overseas businesses that have sent workers to you, make any changes to a contract covering secondment workers or service suppliers. The authorities should also be updated about changing of the address or allocated roles.

To know how to register a change of circumstances use the sponsorship management system (SMS) you can consult the ICS legal advisors. Lastly if the employer wishes to sponsor individuals under 18 years suitable care arrangements for their travel to the UK, arrival in the UK, living arrangements in the UK have to be made and certain other procedures have to be followed. Contact ICS legal advisors to know more about the sponsor license process.