Staying Compliant under the Points Based System

Our dedicated business immigration team has extensive experience in helping clients to maintain the highest standards of immigration compliance.

The UK government places the responsibility for immigration compliance with Home Office rules on employers, if they wish to employ foreign migrants in the UK under the points based system.

The Home Office has effectively outsourced the ability to issue work permits (known as Certificates of Sponsorship - CoS) to employers but this brings with it the obligation for employers to adhere to strict compliance requirements, in the form of the following sponsorship duties:

• Prevention of illegal working

You are required to put in place robust policies and procedures to prevent illegal working which we can assist with. Our experienced team of immigration advisers can assist with the drafting and implementation of your internal processes.

• Record keeping

There are specific documents that a sponsor must retain to demonstrate they are issuing CoS correctly and the sponsored employees are suitably skilled and paid appropriately for the role they are undertaking.  We can advise and assist you to ensure you can remain compliant with this duty.

• Tracking and monitoring your migrant workforce

The Home Office require the sponsor to have appropriate mechanism in place to manage absences, promotions, office moves, dismissals etc. Again we can ensure you have the correct tools to manage this duty on an ongoing basis.

• Reporting duties

There are many scenarios that require a report to be submitted to the Home Office in relation to sponsored employees, for example, premature end of employment, change of office location and absences. We can put in place systems to ensure these reports are made on time and undertake this task for you to ease the burden on you and your HR team.

Recent examples of work

• Providing strategic advice to a leading accountancy firm on sponsor licence obligations in a large scale acquisition.
• Advising a global financial services company regarding sponsor licence implications on the sale of part of its business.
• Undertaking a full review of a financial services company's immigration compliance systems and recommending and implementing significant changes.

For more information about our immigration services please contact Nicolas Rollason at nrollason@kingsleynapley.co.uk or a member of the team.