Sponsor licence Applications and Using the Home Office Sponsor Licence Priority Service
If you need a sponsor licence to recruit overseas workers, the likelihood is that you need your sponsor licence fast. That way you can recruit staff quickly and get their employment start date agreed. Some businesses assume the Home Office will take months to decide a sponsor licence application. The decision turnaround time isn’t as bleak as that. It is normally a matter of weeks, but weeks can be too long to wait for a key recruit.
In this article our immigration solicitors take a look at what you can do to speed up the sponsor licence application process and the availability of the Home Office pre-licence priority service.
UK Online and London Based Immigration Solicitors and Sponsorship Licence Lawyers
For sponsor licence advice call the London immigration lawyers at OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.
Fast tracking sponsor licences
The Home Office has introduced a fast track sponsor licence application process and issued guidance on the use of the pre licence priority service. The main aim of the service is that you get your sponsor licence application quicker. The service does not guarantee a positive decision so it is still essential to properly prepare your sponsor licence application ,provide the best supporting paperwork, as well as appoint key personnel who meet the relevant criteria.
Accordingly, whilst the priority service fast tracks the application it doesn’t wave a magic wand and result in a poorly prepared sponsor licence application getting through the Home Office checking system.
Sponsorship Licence lawyers recommend that companies get early sponsor licence advice so the strengths and weaknesses of any existing HR policies are identified and any extra input can be arranged so the best sponsor licence application can be put together, to avoid a refusal.
The speed of the pre-licence priority service
Using the pre-licence priority service can cut your wait for the decision on your sponsor licence application from around about 8 weeks to 10 days.
There is a cost to this speed as the Home Office charges extra for use of their priority service, over and above the sponsor licence application fee. For some UK businesses the speed won't justify the additional cost but it is worth doing the calculation. For example, if you are a popular London restaurant unable to open for the full week as you lack a head chef, you are losing potential bookings and your turnover will suffer. To avoid losing custom the option of the pre licence priority service may actually be cost effective. Sponsorship Licence lawyers add the caveat that this approach only works if you put the time in to get the sponsor licence application right before it is submitted to the Home Office for approval.
Immigration solicitors warn that the Home Office priority 10 working day turnaround only starts when your business has supplied the application and all the supporting paperwork. That means if you provide incomplete documents, or there is a delay in priority fee payment, this can hold up the priority service.
Using the pre-licence priority service
Your business can only use the pre licence priority service if it is making its first sponsor licence application but to use the service you need to submit your first sponsor licence application, together with your supporting documents, before you can request use of the priority service. The sponsor licence application is submitted online and the paperwork can be emailed up to 5 days later, but it is best to send the documents straight away so you can then request use of the priority service.
To use the pre licence priority service you need to complete a priority request form and email it to the priority service team at the Home Office. They also need your sponsor licence application and documents sending to them.
Sponsorship Licence lawyers say that using the priority service isn’t as easy as perhaps it should be. That’s because:
- You can only submit the priority application after you have sent the substantive application. The priority request has to be made separately
- The priority application must be sent during the priority service operating times. These are 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. The service isn’t open on bank and public holidays
- If your sponsor licence application is actioned by being allocated to a Home Office official then you can't ask to use the priority service. You therefore need to be fast and quickly send the priority request off because allocation to a caseworker in the non-priority section does not indicate a speedy decision will be made, just that the Home Office official responsible for dealing with the application has been identified
- If the priority request is accepted you need to pay the priority Home Office fee within 72 hours. If you don’t then the application won't be treated as a priority and you will have to submit a fresh priority application
- If your priority request isn’t responded to then it means the Home Office are not allocating priority to your application. That may be because your case has already been allocated to a Home Office official or due to the Home Office quota for priority applications being met for the day of your application. There are only 30 priority applications allowed per day. If your application isn’t successful, as there are too many requests on a particular day, you can try again provided your sponsor licence application has not been allocated to a non-priority caseworker in the meantime
- The priority service fee isn’t refunded by the Home Office if they refuse your sponsor licence application
The cost of the priority licence application service
The Home Office requires a £500 fee to use the pre-licence priority service. This fee is on top of the Home Office sponsor licence application fee. The sponsor licence fee ranges from £536 to £1,476, depending on the size of your company.
Sponsorship Licence lawyers are asked whether the Home Office priority service is worth it. A few years ago, business immigration partner, Hans Sok Appadu, would have said no because of the quick turnaround time of non-priority cases as OTS Solicitors were achieving sponsor licences within days. The wait is now longer for non-priority cases, even where the application and all the supporting documents are perfect. Therefore, depending on your time pressures and the need to get overseas job applicants recruited and working for you on skilled worker visas, the £500 Home Office priority application fee may be money well spent to save you from weeks of waiting.
UK Online and London Based Immigration Solicitors and Sponsorship Licence Lawyers
For sponsor licence advice call the immigration lawyers at OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.