All Articles: sponsor guidance

The High Court ruling in Prestwick Care Ltd & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 3193 (Admin) has upheld the Home Office’s decision to revoke the sponsor licence of a large care home operator in the North East. The judgment is a harsh reminder that,...

9th January 2024
BY Jack Freeland

When employers apply for and are granted a licence to sponsor workers, they make a pledge to accept all the duties of sponsorship, and the Home Office can take compliance action when they consider that a sponsor has failed to uphold their duties or otherwise poses a risk to immigration...

1st March 2023
BY Pip Hague

The Home Office has made several changes that businesses sponsoring overseas workers should be aware of.  Amendments have been made to the Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors part 2: sponsor a worker – general information (“general information guidance”) and the Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors: sponsor...

10th November 2022
BY Josie Laidman

Reading work visa sponsor guidance can be frustrating at the best of times, but particularly aggravating is paragraph S3.9: You must normally stop sponsoring the worker and inform us via your SMS account if the start date is delayed by more than 28 days after whichever is the latest of: the...

5th January 2022
BY Robert Houchill

The government has released details of its sponsorship “roadmap” for employers recruiting skilled workers from abroad. This follows on from the publication of its New Plan for Immigration back in March 2021. The new roadmap sets out the Home Office’s proposals for long-overdue “radical changes” to the sponsorship system, which...

2nd September 2021
BY Zeena Luchowa

The UK’s new immigration system is hurtling towards us at a rate of knots. As of 1 January 2021, newly arrived EU citizens coming to work in the UK are likely to need to be sponsored for a visa by their employer.  If you read the Home Office marketing blurb,...

20th November 2020
BY Nichola Carter

September and October are important and busy enrolment periods for Tier 4 student visa sponsors. Immigration compliance teams had enough to contend with this academic year with the introduction of passport eGates, which means having to find evidence of each student’s date of entry to the UK where they have...

16th October 2019
BY Esyllt Martin

The Home Office regularly updates the guidance documents that it issues to approved visa sponsors, and those thinking of becoming one, under Tiers 2, 4 and 5 of the Points Based System. Tier 4 covers sponsors of international students and Tiers 2 and 5 relate to those coming to the...

18th July 2019
BY Nichola Carter

The guidance that Tier 2 and 5 sponsors must follow was updated last week. The new version applies to sponsor licence applications made, and certificates of sponsorship assigned, on or after 18 July 2018. Some of the key changes are: Fees and refunds Application fees for sponsor licence applications and...

23rd July 2018
BY Pip Hague

Taking part in strike action can be stressful enough. But for migrant workers who are sponsored by their employer, striking has also had the potential to place their immigration status in the UK at risk. This is because the Home Office’s position has been that unpaid absence from work due...

23rd July 2018
BY Nichola Carter

In the High Court last month, Mrs Justice Moulder found that the Home Office had gathered partly unreliable intelligence in the course of an investigation into a college, breaching its right to peaceful enjoyment of its Tier 4 sponsor licence under Article 1 Protocol 1 of the European Convention on...

31st January 2018
BY Pip Hague
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