Does Your Business Qualify for a Sponsorship Licence?

Posted onSeptember 26, 2023

As Sponsorship Licence lawyers we are often told by highly successful businesses that they will not qualify for a sponsor licence. Sometimes they think that they will not qualify as they are a start-up with a low turnover or sometimes it is because they operate in a highly niche sector of the UK economy.

Most UK businesses qualify for a UK sponsor licence in that they are eligible to make an application to the Home Office. Whether they will be successful or not depends on their preparatory work and the quality of their application.

In this blog, our immigration solicitors look at the eligibility criteria to apply for a sponsor licence and how the Home Office assess sponsor licence applications.

UK Online and London-Based Immigration Solicitors and Sponsorship Licence Lawyers

For sponsor licence application and management advice call OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.

Does your business need a sponsor licence?

If you want to recruit staff from overseas then the likelihood is that you need a sponsor licence. Without a sponsor licence you have limited access to global talent. If your competitors have a sponsor licence, they could be ahead of the game (and you) as your business may need a sponsor licence to be able to recruit the staff you need to operate, to fulfil contracts or to meet your expansion plans.

Without a sponsor licence, your business can only employ non-British workers if they have settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme or indefinite leave to remain or if they are in the UK on a time-limited visa that allows them to take up employment without requiring a sponsoring employer. These types of visas include the family visa, the spouse visa, the dependant visa, the graduate visa or the student visa. These visa holders may not have the specialist skills your business requires or their visa conditions may not allow them to work for your company on a full-time basis.

Why does a business need a sponsor licence and what does it cover?

Most companies think they only need a sponsor licence if they want to recruit staff from overseas on a skilled worker visa. That is not correct. Most of the work visa routes require a visa applicant to have employment with a company that holds a sponsor licence.

For example, your business needs a sponsor licence to sponsor workers on the following visas:

The health and care worker visa
The scale-up visa
The global business mobility visa route including the senior or specialist worker visa or the UK expansion worker visa
Temporary worker visas

The sponsor licence must authorise your company to sponsor the specific visa applicant your business needs to recruit. In other words, you cannot sponsor a new employee under the global business mobility visa route if you only hold a sponsor licence to sponsor skilled worker visa applicants. Our Sponsorship Licence lawyers can help you work out what type of sponsor licence your business needs or we can apply to extend your sponsor licence to cover an additional route.

Qualifying for a sponsor licence to sponsor skilled worker visa holders

The most popular type of sponsor licence is the licence to sponsor skilled worker visa holders. The qualifying threshold criteria for a UK business applying for a sponsor licence is set low but a company applying for a sponsor licence must understand the rules, follow them to the letter and provide the correct evidence in support of its licence application.

Sponsorship Licence lawyers say that most businesses who have their sponsor licence rejected or refused are unsuccessful because they did not take specialist immigration legal advice or put the right amount of preparation work in before submitting their application or they did not appreciate the importance of following the rules.

To qualify for a sponsor licence to sponsor skilled worker visa holders your business needs to have a lawful trading presence in the UK and have genuine vacancies. The business must also be able to demonstrate that it can meet its sponsor licence reporting and recording duties by having acceptable systems and procedures in place. The immigration rules say that most applications for a sponsor licence to sponsor skilled worker visa applicants must be supported by at least 4 pieces of evidence. The paperwork needed depends on the size and nature of your business. For example, if your business is a franchise or start-up the rules are different.

The choice of key personnel and the impact on your sponsor licence application

As part of your sponsor licence application, your business needs to name some key personnel. These are the people responsible for managing the sponsor licence. It is tempting to name anyone just to get the application submitted but businesses need to choose their key personnel with care. If they do not do so their application could be refused. For example, if a person allocated as key personnel has a relevant past conviction.

The key personnel roles that need to be nominated as part of the licence application process are:

Authorising Officer – the person responsible for the licence and with overall responsibility for ensuring that reporting and recording duties are met
Key Contact – the person who is the main point of contact between the business and the Home Office. In a small company, this could be the same person as the authorising officer or a business may prefer a Sponsorship Licence lawyer to act as their key contact
Level 1 User – the person responsible for the sponsor licence day-to-day management. Once the sponsor licence has been granted a Sponsorship Licence lawyer can be appointed as a level one user to help a business manage the sponsor licence and comply with its duties

The Home Office assessment of your sponsor licence application

With some applications, the Home Office will carry out a pre-licence visit to check that your company has the systems and procedures in place to comply with sponsor licence reporting and recording duties and is a genuine business with real vacancies (current or planned) that are suitable for skilled worker visa applicants. During the 4-year licence, Home Office officials can carry out further announced or unannounced visits.

Sponsorship duties include using the sponsor management system to report on matters such as sponsored workers’ absences, if a sponsored worker leaves your employment or if the company moves address. There are many other reporting requirements and that is why companies often choose to use a Sponsorship Licence lawyer to provide a professional sponsor licence management service to ease the admin burden. At OTS Solicitors we offer this service on a fixed monthly retainer.

UK Online and London-Based Immigration Solicitors and Sponsorship Licence Lawyers

For sponsor licence application and management advice call OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.

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