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From Certificates to Belief Statements: The CPS and the Limits of Forum Bar Intervention
Rebecca Niblock
The Home Office has helpfully reduced some of the reporting requirements on sponsors.
The main updates contained in the new Home Office guidance are set out here.
Delayed work start dates
Many sponsors are familiar with the fiddly reporting requirements where the UK work start date for a Skilled Worker application becomes delayed. The helpful changes in the guidance include:
- Only report if the delay is over 28 days. Rather than always having to report any delayed work start date, now sponsors only need to do so if the delay is over 28 days. The delay has to be reported no more than 10 working days after the end of the 28-day period.
- More flexibility for delays over 28 days. Before this new guidance, if the work start date was delayed by more than 28 days, the sponsor needed to cancel the sponsorship. The only exception was if the worker was working out a contractual notice period with their previous employer. However, the new guidance includes further “acceptable reasons” for a delay over 28 days. The new list is as follows:
o Travel disruption due to a natural disaster, military conflict or pandemic
o The worker is required to work out a contractual notice period for their previous employer
o The worker requires an exit visa from their home country and there have been administrative delays
o Illness, bereavement or other compelling family or personal circumstances
This is not an exhaustive list and each case will be judged on its merits, but sponsors should be aware the sponsored worker’s permission to work could later be cancelled if the reason stated in the delayed start date report is not deemed by the Home Office to be acceptable.
- When the 28-day period starts. The previous guidance stated that once a sponsored worker’s visa application had been approved, they needed to start working in the UK within 28 days of the later of: the start date in their certificate of sponsorship; the valid-from date of the visa; and the date of approval of the application. The new guidance changes the last option from the date of approval to the date on which the worker is notified of the decision.
Other changes
The new Home Office guidance also includes some other helpful changes for sponsors:
- Sponsored worker on unpaid leave for more than 4 weeks. If a sponsored worker is absent from work and unpaid for over 4 weeks in a calendar year, the sponsorship needs to end. In the previous guidance there was a defined list of exceptions such as parental leave or sick leave. Now the new guidance goes further as “compelling or compassionate circumstances” will also be considered. Again, once the reason is stated in the report, it could be that the sponsored worker’s permission to work will be cancelled if the Home Office is not satisfied with the reason.
- Immigration Skills Charge concession for certain Senior or Specialist Worker applications. Subject to approval of the legislation (this change is not in effect yet), from 1 January 2023 the Immigration Skills Charge (normally £1,000 per year of the visa) for certain Senior or Specialist Worker (previously known as Intra-Company Transfer) applications will not need to be paid. This is for international transfers within the same corporate group for up to 3 years, where the sponsored worker is an EU or Latvian non-citizen (not a citizen of Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein or Switzerland) and transferring from a business established in the EU.
If you have any queries in relation to the above change or any other immigration matter, please contact a member of the immigration team.
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