How to become a licenced sponsor in the UK: A complete guide to maintaining your licence

While many think their responsibilities end when they become a licenced sponsor, this is far from the truth. Being a sponsor is a continuous responsibility and you need to do due diligence in your sponsorship duties.

One of the most important requirements you need to meet after becoming a sponsor is maintaining your sponsor licence. It’s a mandatory obligation you need to meet to continue sponsoring employees.

That said, there aren’t a lot of resources to educate sponsors on how to maintain their sponsor licence. And it can quickly become a tedious and stressful task if you don’t have the right guidance.

So here’s your complete guide to maintaining your sponsor licence.

What are the duties a sponsor must follow to maintain a sponsor licence?

As a sponsor, you have several responsibilities you need to fulfil to stay compliant with Home Office guidelines.

These include:

Keeping records of each employee’s passport or Biometric Residence Permit and contact details either in the form of an electronic copy or photocopy. This must be readily available if the Home Office requests it
Reporting changes to the circumstances of your business or your sponsored employees within the predetermined time limit outlined by the Home Office
Issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to only the candidates who meet all the eligibility requirements
Not engaging in any activities that may harm the greater good of the society
Not committing any immigration and money laundering-related offences

Failure to meet any of the above-mentioned responsibilities may result in financial penalties, a reduced allocation of CoS, and/or the licence being revoked/suspended/downgraded.

UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) officials may also visit your business unannounced to conduct an audit to check your processes if you’re found to be in breach of compliance responsibilities.

How can you maintain your sponsor licence?

When you’re applying for your sponsor licence, you need to appoint an authorising officer to be responsible for the sponsor licences as well as to manage the overall sponsorship programme.

In addition to the authorising officer, you need to appoint a Level 1 user to carry out day-to-day sponsorship activities through the Home Office Sponsorship Management System (SMS) on your behalf.

The Level 1 user in conjunction with the authorising officer takes on the majority of the responsibility of maintaining your sponsor licence and managing your sponsorship activities.

For the most part, ensuring compliance with your sponsorship duties and following Home Office guidelines on how to carry out sponsorship activities through the SMS is adequate to retain your sponsor licence.

In addition to the main sponsorship responsibilities, you need to meet the following requirements to retain your sponsor licence:

Manage the status of your sponsor licence
Assign a CoS to selected candidates through the SMS
Keep track of visa expiry
Conduct right-to-work checks
Track the location of employees during work hours
Implement a system that keeps a record of employee attendance

When implementing compliance processes, there are a few aspects you might want to keep in mind as an employer, such as:

The UKVI doesn’t engage in how the compliance process is carried out as long as the employer adheres to it
You have the flexibility to implement compliance processes that suit the existing policies of the HR

Nation.better can assist with the compliance process

Maintaining a sponsor licence is a stressful and time-consuming task, especially when you have to focus on other aspects of being an employer.

This is where our team of experts at Nation.better can help you. We’ll support you in managing and tracking your sponsorship activities and ensuring that you’re meeting all the requirements to retain your sponsor licence.

We enable this for you through our digital compliance platform, which can help you onboard and manage sponsored employees, manage your sponsor licence, and more. Get in touch with us if you’d like to discuss your sponsorship needs.

How to become a licenced sponsor in the UK: A complete guide to maintaining your licence