New Home Office Guidance for Sponsor Licence Holders With Sponsored Employees Working Remotely in the UK

Posted onApril 14, 2023

If your business has a sponsor licence and offers flexible employment to its sponsored and non-sponsored employees our immigration solicitors warn that your business needs to know about the updated Home Office guidance on reporting and recording duties for remote and hybrid sponsored workers.

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

For advice on sponsor licence management call the expert London immigration lawyers at OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.

Hybrid and remote working

Hybrid and remote working remains popular long after the end of lockdowns imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote working has many advantages for employers ( such as the reduced need for office space and lower electricity bills) and for the employee (for example, no commute time or travel to work costs). However, for firms who employ sponsored workers and non-sponsored staff, there has been a lack of clarity over whether sponsoring employers should be offering their skilled worker visa holders the same remote working opportunities as their non-sponsored contemporaries, and the businesses sponsor licence reporting duties for sponsored staff permitted to work remotely or engaged to work for their employer on a hybrid basis.

The new Home Office guidance

The Home Office has updated its guidance for sponsoring employers on their reporting duties where skilled worker visa holders and other sponsored staff work from home.

Sponsor licence reporting duties have included a requirement that key personnel must report if there is a change in the work location of a sponsoring employee. Sponsorship Licence lawyers imagine that when the reporting and recording duties were first drawn up by Home Office officials it was envisaged that sponsoring employers would need to report if sponsored staff moved to work from a new business location because of the firm’s expansion or the relocation of workers. The type of hybrid working that many employees now enjoy certainly was not envisaged by the writers of the immigration rule and original sponsor licence guidance.

Reporting rules were relaxed by the Home Office during the pandemic so sponsoring employers did not need to report when workers were working from home. After lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions ceased, employers were left uncertain about the ongoing rules but loathe to treat sponsored staff differently to non-sponsored workers whilst also wary of not fully complying with their sponsor licence reporting and recording duties.

Working from home seems here to stay (or so it appears from the numbers of civil servants who have elected to continue to work from home) and so updated Home Office guidance has finally been published to clarify reporting rules when sponsored workers work from home.

The new reporting and recording duties for sponsoring employers with sponsored staff who work from home

The March 2023 Home Office guidance states that a sponsoring employer must let the Home Office know if a sponsored worker changes their location of employment from that stated on the worker’s certificate of sponsorship.

The definition of changing work location includes where a sponsoring employee is:

Working remotely from home on a permanent or full-time basis with no need or a limited need to go into the office or the workplace recorded on the certificate of sponsorship
Working in a hybrid working pattern
Working at a different work location, such as a branch office or shop or work venue that is different to that stated on the visa holder’s certificate of sponsorship

The Home Office’s definition of hybrid working for reporting and recording duties

It can be hard to distinguish what amounts to occasional flexibility in employment and hybrid working. To help sponsoring employers, the Home Office revised guidance defines a hybrid working pattern as:

‘’Where the worker will work remotely on a regular and planned basis from their home or another address, such as a work hub space, that is not a client site or an address listed on your licence, in addition to regularly attending one or more of your offices or branches, or a client site.”

This definition does NOT mean that your level one user or level two user needs to report on the sponsor management system whether each of your sponsored members of staff is working from home or is in the office or visiting a client’s premises daily or report if the working from home is ad-hoc. The rule change only applies to changes to sponsored workers’ regular working patterns.

Reviewing certificate of sponsorship records

At OTS Solicitors our Sponsorship Licence lawyers offer a sponsor licence management service for a fixed monthly retainer. Our management services and our sponsor licence auditing service means we appreciate just how easy it is for busy HR professionals to forget to update the Home Office online sponsor management system.

The new Home Office guidance on reporting and recording duties for remote and hybrid sponsored workers is a good reminder for companies to review whether the work locations and job descriptions of their sponsored staff continue to match what is stated on each sponsored worker’s certificate of sponsorship. For example, a skilled worker visa holder may have had a promotion with a new job title recorded on their HR file or in a new contract of employment or the worker may have moved to working from home on a full-time basis or to a hybrid working pattern.

It is important that this review is undertaken before a sponsor licence renewal application is submitted as discrepancies in work location may come up during the renewal application process and could even result in a refusal. Even if your firm does not need to apply to renew its sponsor licence for a few years a review of certificates of sponsorship information is best-working practice because it reduces the risk of errors being spotted if Home Office officials decide to conduct a mid-licence audit. Proactive sponsor licence management minimises the risk of a sponsor licence being suspended or an A rating being downgraded with the business then being subject to a case plan to get its A rating reinstated.

How can OTS Solicitors help

Our Sponsorship Licence lawyers recognise that it is difficult for key personnel to keep up to date with all the latest Home Office guidance, especially when you are an SME sponsoring 1 or 2 skilled worker visa holders or a multi-national company juggling thousands of sponsored employees and their administrative requirements, in addition to managing recruitment, staff grievances and claims.

At OTS Solicitors we provide:

Sponsor licence management services for a monthly retainer fee so your key personnel get the support they need
Training packages for businesses and key personnel to help you keep on top of sponsor licence changes
Pre-sponsor licence renewal audits and annual audits to ensure your company is complying with all its sponsor licence reporting and recording duties
Help with sponsor licence applications, renewals, suspensions and revocations
Guidance on any tricky sponsor licence and employment issues, such as whether your business can make a skilled worker visa holder redundant or advice on employment law and discrimination claims (immigration status is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act even though all sponsored employees have at least 1 protected characteristic of race or nationality)

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

For advice on sponsor licence management call the expert London immigration lawyers at OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.

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