RECENT CHANGES TO THE HOME OFFICE GUIDANCE FOR SPONSORS

The Home Office recently provided updated guidance for employers sponsoring foreign nationals through the Worker and Temporary Worker immigration programs.

This has helpfully reduced some of the reporting requirements on sponsors. However, there are also amendments in salary and benefits that sponsors of skilled worker migrants, should be aware of.

The guidance has been updated to provide greater flexibility on start dates for sponsored workers. An individual can now start working in their sponsored employment as soon as they have permission to enter or stay in the UK. Rather than having to report any delayed work start date, delays only need to be reported if they are for over 28 days.

Rather than stop sponsoring a worker, the new guidance further includes “acceptable reasons” for a delay of over 28 days, such as travel disruption due to a natural disaster, military conflict or pandemic, or where the worker is required to work out a contractual notice period for their previous employer and also include other compelling family or personal circumstances.

This is not an exhaustive list, and each case will be judged on its merits, but you 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.

The updated Home Office guidance also includes some other helpful changes for sponsors. In the previous guidance, there was a defined list of exceptions to absences from work for more than four weeks, such as parental leave or sick leave. Now the new guidance goes further where “compelling or compassionate circumstances” will also be considered. This still must be reported through the SMS system. The Home Office may cancel a worker’s permission to remain in the UK if they are not satisfied that there is a valid reason to continue to sponsor the worker where they have been on unpaid leave for more than four weeks.

If you have any questions about any of the changes to the guidance for sponsors and what they mean for your business, speak to us. Our dedicated sponsor license team are on hand to help you understand your sponsor duties, maintain your sponsor license and prepare for any future compliance visit. Thank you for trusting us with your immigration matters.