Sponsor Licence Compliance

The sponsor will need to appoint people within their business to manage the sponsorship process when they apply for a Sponsor Licence.
The main tool they’ll use is the Sponsorship Management System (SMS).

The roles are as follows:

  1. Authorising Officer – a senior and competent person responsible for the actions of staff and representatives who use the SMS.
  2. Key Personnel – sponsor’s main point of contact with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI).
  3. Level 1 User – responsible for all day-to-day management of the Sponsor Licence using the SMS.

These roles can be filled by the same person or different people. The sponsor can also appoint an optional Level 2 User once they have a Sponsor Licence. This is an SMS user with more restricted access than a Level 1 User, for example, they cannot withdraw a Certificate of Sponsorship.

Suitability checks:

The sponsor and his/her staff will go through checks to make sure they are suitable for these roles. The sponsor may not get a Sponsor Licence if anyone involved in sponsorship has –

  1. An unspent criminal conviction for an offence listed in the guidance for sponsors.
  2. Been fined by UKVI in the past 12 months.
  3. Been reported to UKVI.
  4. Broken the law.
  5. Been a ‘key personnel’ at a sponsor that had its licence revoked in the last 12 months.
  6. Failed to pay VAT or other excise duty.

The sponsor and the allocated staff must also:

  1. Be based in the UK most of the time.
  2. Not be a contractor or consultant contracted for a specific project.
  3. Not be subject to a bankruptcy restriction order or undertaking, or a debt relief restriction order or undertaking.
  4. Not have a history of non-compliance with sponsor requirements.

HR contractors and agency staff:

  1. At least one level 1 user must be the sponsor’s employee.
  2. The sponsor can have additional level 1 or level 2 users who are employed by third-party organisations that provide them with HR services.
  3. A temporary member of staff supplied by an agency can be a level 2 user.

UK-based legal representatives:

  1. The sponsor can allocate any of the roles to a UK-based legal representative, apart from the authorising officer role.
  2. The sponsor’s representative must be qualified to give immigration advice or services.

Responsibilities of a sponsor:

The sponsor’s licence may be downgraded, suspended, or withdrawn if they do not fulfill these responsibilities. A sponsor must –

  • Check that the foreign workers have the necessary skills, qualifications, or professional accreditations to do their jobs and keep copies of documents showing this.
  • Only assign certificates of sponsorship to workers when the job is suitable for sponsorship.
  • Tell UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) if the sponsored workers are not complying with the conditions of their visa.