Sponsor Licence Suspension

You need to act quickly if your company’s sponsor licence is at risk of suspension. Our Immigration Solicitors can help your business if it has received a suspension notice or if you think it is at risk of receiving one.

Contact OTS Solicitors for sponsor licence suspension legal advice.

Sponsor licence suspension

The suspension of your sponsor licence will have a significant impact on your business. The main point is that the company won't be able to recruit any new overseas workers on Skilled Worker Visas or other sponsored Work Visa routes, as its ability to assign new certificates of sponsorship will be suspended.

If the business is in a sector with a UK skills shortage with limited options for UK recruitment, the suspension of the company sponsor licence may be costly and challenging, especially if the company has contractual obligations that it won't be able to meet without the recruitment of additional workers on Skilled Worker Visas to meet the contractual deadlines. Furthermore, if any sponsored employees or settled workers leave the business to take up other jobs in the UK or return home, the company will not be able to replace them with new sponsored employees while its license is suspended.

Home Office power to suspend a sponsor licence

The Home Office has the power under the immigration rules to suspend a licence if it believes:

1. The company has not complied with its obligations as a sponsor, or
2. The business poses a threat to immigration control.

The Home Office does not require proof of criminal, deliberate, or negligent activity. Suspicion of licence non-compliance is sufficient to warrant investigation and suspension.

Non-compliance triggering a sponsor licence suspension

Any failure to comply with sponsor licence duties can result in a licence suspension while the Home Office enforcement team investigates.

Sponsor licence duties include:

1. Right to work checks.
2. Record keeping.
3. Reporting sponsored workers.
4. Reporting organisational matters.

The record-keeping requirements are contained in Appendix D of the Home Office Workers and Temporary Workers: Guidance for Sponsors.

Something as simple as poor record-keeping can result in suspension even if the staff member was unaware of their error and its significance.

The sponsor licence suspension process

The Home Office sponsor licence suspension process often starts with:

1. A Home Office announced compliance visit, or
2. An unannounced Home Office audit, or
3. Whistleblowing triggering a Home Office investigation, or
4. Other government agencies highlighting issues with the company, such as HMRC.
5. Investigations into individual visa holders revealing breaches of visa conditions.

Once the Home Office decides to suspend a licence, it will issue a suspension notice. Further Home Office investigations and off-site or on-site compliance visits may follow the notice.

The sponsor licence suspension notice

The suspension notice must explain why the Home Office decided to suspend the licence and the deadline by which the company must respond to the allegations. The deadline is usually 20 working days.

The Home Office will assess the response to the suspension notice and decide whether to:

1. Ask for additional information or evidence.
2. End the suspension.
3. Downgrade the sponsor licence to a B rating and issue an action plan.
4. Revoke the sponsor licence.

It's vital to cooperate with the Home Office investigation post suspension and to respond fully to the suspension notice within the required timeframe. A Sponsorship Licence Lawyer can advise on the response content and evidence that will help the company either get its licence reinstated or downgraded, rather than the ultimate sanction of sponsor licence revocation.

As well as cooperating with the Home Office investigation, companies also need to consider the impact of the continued Home Office investigation and the sponsor licence suspension on:

1. New sponsored recruits who have not been assigned a certificate of sponsorship – their recruitment will be put on hold.
2. Current sponsored employees who need to apply to extend their Skilled Worker Visa – they will be unable to obtain a visa extension whilst the licence is suspended.
3. The plans to recruit additional sponsored workers on Skilled Worker Visas.
4. If the sponsor licence suspension is a reportable matter under any contracts with business customers, or if any interested buyers for the company need to be informed.
5. The company’s reputation and whether any specific action can be taken to limit the reputational damage.

Avoiding sponsor licence suspension

Companies often think it is hard to justify spending money or time on preventive measures, but sponsor licence compliance is cheaper than hiring Sponsorship Licence Lawyers to sort out a suspension notice or asking Employment Lawyers to advise on the ramifications of licence revocation.

Immigration Solicitors recommend that companies either hire sufficient staff to meet the business's licence reporting and recording duties, or fully or partially outsource compliance to a specialist Sponsor Licence Management Service to reduce the risk of licence suspension.

Sponsor licence at risk of suspension

A company may know from internal audits that it hasn’t kept up with licence reporting and recording duties and is therefore at risk. Alternatively, the Home Office may have conducted a compliance audit and indicated that the company's licence is at risk. If your business is in either situation, it is best to act quickly and proactively to reduce the risk of licence suspension.

It is easier to remedy the situation whilst the licence is at risk than to wait until it is suspended or revoked. Whilst it is possible to challenge a sponsor licence suspension, UK Immigration Lawyers believe it is better to avoid the suspension in the first place.

Ignoring the risk of suspension is always a bad idea, as it is likely to lead to the sponsor licence being revoked. The revocation of a sponsor licence is far more costly for a business to recover from than the threatened or actual suspension of the licence.

Business Immigration Solicitors

The best way to ensure that UK Immigration Solicitors can help your business avoid a sponsor licence suspension is to keep in regular contact with them. Your sponsor licence application should not be a one-off transaction between the company and its Sponsorship Licence Lawyers, but the start of an ongoing relationship between the company and its trusted legal advisors.

Sponsor Licence Solicitors can help with:

1. Advice on HR procedures so business systems can cope with sponsor licence reporting and recording duties.
2. Bespoke training for key personnel so they are aware of their sponsor licence reporting and recording duties and the impact on the company of their failing to comply with those duties.
3. Internal audits so any potential failures to fully comply with licence reporting and recording duties can be spotted and addressed before a Home Office audit.
4. Home Office compliance visit preparation, though it is best to always be in a state of readiness, as the Home Office can make both announced and unannounced audits.
5. Help with sponsor licence suspension from when a business first recognises that its sponsor licence is at risk, to liaising with the Home Office to try to avoid licence suspension, to challenging a decision to suspend the sponsor licence, or helping with the remedial action required to get the company's sponsor licence reinstated and avoid sponsor licence revocation.

Expert Business Immigration Solicitors can quickly assess the strengths and weaknesses of any challenge to the sponsor licence suspension and advise on the documents and paperwork needed to negotiate with the Home Office or formally challenge the sponsor licence suspension.

UK Immigration Lawyers understand that it is easy for a business to get overwhelmed by the administrative work involved in maintaining HR files, sponsor licence reporting, and record-keeping to the standards expected by the Home Office. That’s why OTS Solicitors encourage firms to stay in contact after their lawyers have successfully applied for the sponsor licence, so they can help prevent sponsor licence suspension and step in quickly to challenge a suspension notice.

Contact OTS Solicitors for sponsor licence suspension legal advice.

 

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