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INTRODUCTION
This document serves as a guide on how
to get and maintain a sponsor licence as a
British business. If you hire foreign workers
already, but you want help maintaining
your licence, this guide will help you
through the process. It also provides help-
ful tips on how to avoid Home Office pen-
alties or sponsor licence revocation.
The process behind maintaining a sponsor
licence includes preparing documentation,
passing Home Office inspection, distrib-
uting certificates of sponsorship (CoS),
conducting audits of HR practices and
more.
If you would like to get a hold of Immigra-
tion Advice Service (IAS) to talk about your
specific situation and how we can tailor
our services to you, please phone us or
drop us a line at the following:

Who are we?

Immigration Advice Service is a team of
experienced immigration lawyers and ex-
perts. We have a wealth of knowledge and
experience in all kinds of immigration cas-
es. We start from a position of getting to
know each new client’s unique situation
and tailoring advice to them. That way we
provide the highest quality, most useful
information to you.

How can we help you?

We have years of experience helping businesses with the sponsor licence process and we are happy to
help with any questions you may have. We can help you through the process where you need us to. Oth-
erwise, we are always happy to provide advice if you are more familiar. If you don’t want to take the pro-
cess of acquiring or maintaining your business’ sponsor licence, we are also happy to take over the entire
process for you.

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Should it happen, IAS will also represent you in a court hearing. This could be the case if you have had
your sponsor licence wrongfully revoked and would like it reinstated. It could also be the case if you con-
test the period the Home Office has set as a cool-down before you are eligible to apply for a sponsor li-
cence again.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 2
Who are we?
How can we help you?
DUTIES AS A SPONSOR 5
What are your duties as a sponsor?
Payments
Timelines
Other obligations
SPONSOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 8
What is a sponsor management system?
Setting up
Benefits
IAS Offers
CERTIFICATES OF SPONSORSHIP 9
What is a Certificate of Sponsorship?
How do I get a Certificate of Sponsorship for my employee?
How much does a Certificate of Sponsorship cost?
Other help with the SMS
IAS Offers
BEST PRACTICES 9
Tip list
HOME OFFICE 12
Visits
Sanctions
IAS Offers
IMMIGRATION ADVICE SERVICE 13
Our packages

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DUTIES AS A SPONSOR
What are your duties as a sponsor?
You must report any and all changes to these
British immigration law requires you to per-
subjects to the Home Office.
form certain tasks, including:
The system for reporting these changes to the
- Ensuring that the employee you’re hiring
Home Office is called the sponsorship man-
has the necessary qualifications to per-
agement system (SMS). To use the SMS, you
form their job.
must already have a sponsor licence. You can
- Assigning Certificates of Sponsorship
also access other sponsor licence services such
(CoS) to workers in jobs which need spon-
as creating and assigning certificates of spon-
sorship.
sorship, distributing them to future employees,
- Informing the UK Visas & Immigration
and withdrawing certificates from employees.
(UKVI) agency if sponsored workers are
not complying with the conditions of their If changes occur, you must request a change
visa. with the UKVI or Home Office. These requests
take up to 18 weeks to take effect, and you will
The Home Office will downgrade or revoke
have to pay a fee of £200 to process the
your sponsor licence if you cannot follow
change.
these tasks.
You should have processes in place to track
your employees along the following lines:
- Your employees’ immigration status.
- Retaining copies of documents (passport
information, right to work information).
- Employee attendance and absence.
- Contact details.

Payments
When you apply for a Tier 2 sponsor licence in This fee is non-refundable, even if the Home
the UK, you must fill out an application and Office denies your application.
pay a processing fee. This fee is £536 for small
businesses and charities and £1,476 for medi- The fee is also applied to Tier 5 sponsor licenc-
um and large businesses. es but the fee is £536 regardless of business
size.
Small businesses are those with no more than
£10.2 million in revenue and a maximum of 50 You may apply for both licences at once but the
employees. These businesses pay £536. fee you must pay is the same as for Tier 2 spon-
sor licences.
All businesses with revenue or employment
over these amounts are medium or large and
must pay the larger fee, £1,476.

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If you have a Tier 2 sponsor licence and you

wish to apply for a Tier 5 sponsor licence, you
may do so for no extra charge.
If you have a Tier 5 sponsor licence and wish to
apply for a Tier 2 sponsor licence, you may for no
extra charge if your business is small or is a charity.
For medium to large businesses, it will cost an ex-
tra £940.

Timelines
The Home Office takes eight weeks to decide
whether to accept or deny an application. Howev-
er, some applications (about 20%) take longer than
eight weeks. That means you should plan out
when you wish to have your sponsor licence valid, and start the process at least three months
before. Your sponsor licence will be valid for four years after the Home Office approves it. Howev-
er, you must still determine whether the vacancy is in need of foreign talent or not via the RLMT.

Other obligations
you intend to assign a certificate of sponsor-
You must provide the UKVI office with docu-
ship.
ments proving the legitimacy of your business
and a need for foreign workers to get a spon- You do not need to provide these documents if
sor licence. you are a public body recognised by the British
government (such as a local authority), or if
What documents you provide depend on the
your company is listed on the London Stock
type of business you operate.
Exchange.
For example, you need to provide four docu-
Additionally, there are instances when your
ments detailing why you are applying for a
company needs to provide some documents,
sponsor licence, what sector you operate in,
totaling four documents, but not including
what hours your business is open what jobs

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some of the four previously mentioned, de- - Diplomatic Missions.

pending on what type of business you operate. - Overseas Governments.
- Start-up companies.
Also, in some instances you need to provide all - Charities.
four previously mentioned documents in addi- - Tier 5 International Agreement appli-
tion to further documents. In order to be most cants.
prepared, you should prepare the first four - Tier 5 Government Authorised Exchange
documents, at the very least, then evaluate applicants.
whether you need more or less documenta- - Tier 2 & Tier 5 Religious Workers.
tion. - Tier 2 Intra-company Transfers applicants.
Examples of companies that will send docu- - Tier 4 General Student & Tier 4 Child Stu-
ments different from or in addition to the pre- dent applicants
vious four include:
Please enquire about your duties as a sponsor and we will consider the unique details of your
case and determine which documents you will be required to submit to apply for or maintain your
sponsor licence.

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SPONSOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

What is a sponsor management system?
The Home Office requires all sponsors use the sponsor management system (SMS). The SMS is a
tool where you can create, distribute, and withdraw certificates of sponsorship. It is also the place
where you inform the Home Office about changes in the circumstances of any of your foreign
employees. You must inform the Home Office of any changes that affect your eligibility as a spon-
sor.

Setting up
When you make an application for a sponsor licence you will also get access to the SMS via a
username and password. The Home Office will send a username by mail to an authorising officer
(someone you choose). They will send a password to the authorising officer by email. If any other
users at your business need to access to the SMS for your business, they must ask the authorising
officer for permission. The authorising officer must ensure that they are managing the security of
the SMS. Do not do anything to compromise the account’s security, such as divulge the username
or password. If this happens, you could face civil penalties from the Home Office

Benefits
The sponsor management system gives
you access to sponsor licence services
without the need to write the Home Of-
fice.
Additionally, it can help your business
with the following:
- Keeping an efficient and organised
system for maintaining your sponsor-
ship licence.
- Managing and distributing certifi-
cates of sponsorship.

IAS Offers
IAS is able to familiarise you with the SMS
because of our wealth of experience using
the SMS. We can offer personalised ad-
vice and help you manage the way you
use the SMS. Best practices are key to
maintaining your sponsor licences with
the SMS and we have developed a number of best practices that we have seen work well. For
more information on this please visit our website.

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CERTIFICATES OF SPONSORSHIP
Before you can hire foreign workers, you need to create and distribute certificates of sponsorship
(CoS). This certificate is a number that your prospective foreign employees list on their visa appli-
cations. You may access certificates of sponsorship to distribute to your employees after you are
accepted as a sponsor.

What is a Certificate of Sponsorship?

A CoS is a number that allows employees to apply for temporary and permanent work visas in the
Tier 2 and Tier 5 categories. The number is listed on a piece of paper that will be sent to you after
you have applied for one through the SMS.

How do I get a Certificate of Sponsorship for my employee?

When you need a CoS, you can assign one
from the SMS. This requires that you enter the
employee's details and any relevant details
about the position into the SMS. Additional
relevant details of the position that are re-
quired include ➡
- Gender of the employee.
- Salary of the position.
- Other details requested by the Home Of-
fice.

How much does a Certificate of Sponsorship cost?

Currently, a Tier 2 CoS costs £199. A Tier 5 CoS costs £21. Sometimes, companies seeking to em-
ploy someone via the Tier 2 General or Tier 2 Intra-company Transfer route must also pay an ‘im-
migration skills charge’.

£199 £21
Tier 2 Certificate of Tier 5 Certificate of
Sponsorship Sponsorship

Other help with the SMS

Most of the actions in the SMS are in the Li- and paying for action plans, and changing de-
cence summary, applications and services sec- tails about your company or personnel.
tion. You may access this by clicking on the link
with the same name. It contains services such Other actions, including managing and distrib-
as applying for renewal of your sponsor li- uting certificates of sponsorship to workers,
cence, applying for an increase in your allot- are in the Workers section.
ment of certificates of sponsorship, requesting
IAS Offers
IAS offers help with questions about CoS whether it is advice on best practices, help auditing business
practices so they are compliant with immigration law or any other information we can provide from our
experience.

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BEST PRACTICES
There are many best practices that you can
adopt to have a more robust system for when
the Home Office evaluates your business for a
sponsor licence. It’s a good idea to prepare for
any possible inspection by the Home Office to
avoid any delay in an already long process. Pre-
paring for a sponsor licence application is a
much easier process if you have an organised,
sure system of good habits. Below, you will find
a short list of tips to help you best get and stay
organised.
Tip list:
1. Keep proper records
Start a good habit of keeping the right infor-
mation about your foreign employees and keep
your records accessible. Collect the following
information from your foreign employees. ➡
Make sure you organise these documents and
in a safe and accessible place at your place of
business.
Make sure to keep your documents organised
by name, type of document, visa type, date and
other details. This saves time when you need to
find a specific document, especially if your
company is large and complex.
It is also recommended that you save the document in a common file format, such as a word doc-
ument or a PDF. This way you can send it in or print it without alteration to the content or prob-
lems opening it.
- A copy of their passport’s biographical
page and any pages with visas attached
to them
- A copy of their biometric residence per-
mit (required for Tier 2 and Tier 5 em-
ployees)
- A copy of their National Insurance num-
ber (Tier 5 workers are exempt)
- Current contact details as well as an ac-
curate history of their contact details if
they have changed.
- A copy of a letter permitting them to
work (if they are under age 18)
- A copy of the Disclosure and Barring Ser-
vice check, if required
- A record of the employee’s absences
from work
- A copy of the contract awarded if your
employee is working in the UK under the
Tier 5 International Agreement visa and
the tender document for that contract or
evidence of how the contract was
awarded.

2. Prepare for Home Office inspection

The Home Office may turn up to your office or place of business unannounced and ask for infor-
mation. The Home Office performs inspection to ensure its compliance with UK immigration law.
They may ask to see records, interview employees, look over company policies, and more.
To have the best chance of passing the inspection, make sure you:
- Keep records (see above).
- Draft policies that are compliant with UK immigration law and keep them updated.

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- Train your staff on immigration knowledge, focussing on key staff involved in the hiring of
foreign worker. Your HR department and management is a good place to start.
- Perform regular audits of your business’ immigration and hiring procedures. If this uncovers
shortcomings and violations, then you can fix them before the Home Office inspects your
business

3. Make sure your foreign employee’s work and their job description match.
Remember that each job given to a foreign
It is a violation of immigration law to hire an
worker must pass the RLMT. The Home Office
employee to perform one job and then have
could think you are deceiving them if you ini-
them work in the capacity of another job. Take
tially hire an employee and then change their
care that foreign workers don’t change job
work to a job that wouldn’t have passed the
duties slowly over time into a job that is no
RLMT.
longer what they were initially hired to do.
4. Be precise about the salary you pay
Pay is another potential violation because large differences in salary violate immigration law.
There are restrictions on how much you can pay foreign workers. Salary must be over a certain
amount so employees can sustain themselves without taking public funds. Vague ranges of salary
figures are insufficient for sponsorship of foreign workers.

5. Perform a Resident Labour Market Test

Any vacancy that you wish to fill with international talent must go
through the RLMT. This is unless the job belongs to the Short-
age Occupation List. The test consists of advertising the posi-
tion on job boards for 28 days. If it isn’t filled by national Vacancies must be marketed to the
talent, it is eligible for fulfilment by international talent. domestic market for
When you perform an RLMT be sure to:
- Collect documentation of the job post on online job
boards.
28 days

- Collect and keep CVs and resumes from applicants. before being filled by foreign
workers
Keeping these documents will help you prove that the appli-
cant pool was not able to fill the position. If your vacancy be-
longs to an occupation listed on the UK Shortage Occupation
List, then the Home Office considers it as requiring international
talent. In this case, you do not need to perform an RLMT

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HOME OFFICE
In the sponsor licence process, the Home Office reviews your application for a sponsor licence. It
also maintains your sponsor licence, conducts audits of your paperwork and place of business,
and enforces immigration law with respect to your employees.
You must assist the Home Office in this process by providing clear, accessible, and legible docu-
ments in a timely fashion to the Home Office. You must uphold minimum eligibility requirements
and report any changes to the employment circumstances of your hired foreign employees. These
changes may affect the eligibility of that position being given to a foreign worker instead of a do-
mestic one.

Visits
The Home Office has the right to approach your business in-person and ask to review your busi-
ness’ premises and inspect any papers you have

Sanctions
Sanctions applied by the Home Office range from written warnings to criminal proceedings and
imprisonment. They intend to punish businesses who knowingly and wilfully deceive the Home
Office about their employment circumstances.
Small transgressions and mistakes will not be severely punished in most cases, unless they add up
to careless immigration employment. This could signal that the business is unable to function as a
responsible sponsor of foreign workers. If they do not add up to this conclusion, you will most
likely not experience punishment from the Home Office for small transgressions. They may help
you to fix the mistakes and shortcomings.

IAS Offers
IAS is able to help you with interaction with the Home Office by conducting Immigration Audits of
your HR procedures and documentation. This could help you prepare for Home Office visits and
avoid potential sanctions due to discrepancies or inadequacies in your HR procedure.

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IMMIGRATION ADVICE SERVICE

Our packages
We offer four packages that help with a variety
of needs. Whether you only need advice or
whether you would prefer us to work on your
behalf for your sponsorship licence, we can
help you.
Advice Package:
Comprehensive immigration advice tailored to
your specific situation. We look at the details
of your situation and tailor our help to what
you need.
Application Package:
Working with you to fill out and bolster your
application to give you a smooth process from
beginning to end
Appeal Package:
We ensure that you have the greatest chance
of approval and we will also represent you at
any tribunals. This can be relevant if your
sponsor licence has been wrongfully revoked
or if you contest the length of the cool-down
period the Home Office has applied to your
business.
Immigration Audit:
Through our Immigration Audit, we will work
through your common HR practices and find
any potential discrepancies and issues the
Home Office might find so you can attend to it
beforehand. This also has the benefit of mak-
ing your business more efficient

Immigration Advice Service

Locations all across the UK

Phone: 0333 414 9244

Email: info@iasservices.org.uk

Immigration Advice Service