Digital Sponsorship Registration for UK Organisations
Welcome to Digital Registration (Sponsorship)
Welcome to Digital Registration (Sponsorship)
A warm welcome
We are transforming how we interact with UK sponsors. Using technology helps reduce the cost, greener to the planet and the eForms are specific and not generic to the sponsors requirements.
We have listed below 5 key areas our law firm can support your organisation. Each one will have sub-compliance which UK sponsors must have in place to sponsor overseas nationals.
Sponsor compliance area are:
- Reporting duties
- Record-keeping duties
- Complying with the immigration laws
- Complying with wider UK law
- Behaviour that is not conducive to the public good.
To learn more about these 5 key areas and how we can help your orgnisation, read the other top tabs.
New Sponsor Licence Self-Assessment
When the Org applies for a sponsor licence, the Home Office may ask to visit their premises to carry out an audit to verify if the Org complies to the 5 key areas. During any visit, they will test the Org's sponsor licence knowledge so key employees must be up to speed on the rules when holding a sponsor licence. If the Home Office issues a sponsor licence without the initial inspection, they will inspect the Org in the near future to ensure the 5 key areas and knowledge meets the Home Office policies and guidance.
The Org will be required to complete the digital eForm which is the pre-sponsor licence assessment form.
Existing Sponsor Licence Self-Assessment
If the Org has an A-Rated sponsor licence, the Org will be required to complete our digital eForm sponsor licence assessment form. This form is slightly different to the one above as the Org already holds a valid UKVI sponsor licence.
eForms
This digital eForms will ask the Org to provide an array of information about their operation that includes these key areas:
- Reporting duties
- Record-keeping duties
- Complying with the immigration laws
- Complying with wider UK law
- Behaviour that is not conducive to the public good.
Test your knowledge test
Key employees of the Org responsible for their sponsor licence should take this test.
This test will help us to gauge what level of knowledge the Org has per person involved in the sponsoring process. Failure to give a compliance officer factual information based on the rules, often leads to a sponsor licence being B-Rated, Suspended and Revoked. Also Orgs want to avoid the £60,000 fine for illegal employment.
The process
The Org will be invited to complete our pre-sponsor licence assessment form. Once we obtain the:
- Sponsor licence assessment form
- Test your knowledge test.
We will create a report for the Org. The report will confirm if they are:
- Non-compliance
- Partially compliant
- Fully compliant.
If our report confirms partially or non-compliant, our report will outline what the Org should change or tweak. Note: Our report will only cover compliance and no guidance on how to run their business.
Note: The above services do not include the actual sponsor licence application service to UKVI, please see tab 'Representation'.
Non-compliance
If the Home Office refuses an application for a new sponsor licence, the Org must wait 6-months to reapply.
If the Org holds a sponsor licence and gets a B-Rated (minor offences), the Org will not be able to sponsor new overseas nationals for 3 months.
If the Org holds a sponsor licence and it is Suspended (multiple issues or serious offence) the Org will not be able to sponsor any overseas national and they have 20 working days to demonstrate to the Home Office made an error in their assessment of the Orgs sponsor licence.
If the Org holds a sponsor licence and it is Revoked (non-compliance) any sponsored workers would lose their right to be employed unless a court of law states otherwise.
Sponsor Licence application and legal representative letter to UKVI
New sponsor licence application
To obtain a new sponsor licence, the Org must apply online by filling out the Home Office application form. Our firm will help with this process.
Depending on the sponsor licence requirements, the Org can applly for:
- Single property.
- Head Office and branches.
- Multiple businesses applying under one licence.
- Registered charities.
- Overseas entities.
Single property
If the Org just has one property they want to sponsor an overseas nationals in, then this is the right option.
Head Office and branches
If the Org just hss two or more properties they want to sponsor overseas nationals in, the Org must select the primary addreess (Head Office) and other addresses becomes the Branches.
Multiple businesses applying under one sponsor licence
If the Org group has two or more registered companies they want to sponsor overseas nationals in, the Org must select the primary addreess (Head Office) and other addresses becomes the Branches. Note: The Org must deemonstrate a'LINK' become each company such as a director/shareholder.
Registered charities
If the Org is legally registered as a charity, then the Org can apply under this option. If the charity hs multiple addresses, they the Org must apply under Head Office and Branches.
Overseas entities
If the Org is part of a International group and their overseas businesses want to send their employees to the UK under sponsorship, thiis sub-catergory must be added to the selected option above. Note: To get this sub-category added, the Org must demonstrate a common link such as a director/sharehller in he UK and overseas entity.
Important Notice
When applying and submitting a sponsor licence application it must be submitted via the Orgs PC and not external firm which is an offence under the sponsor licence rules and regulations. Note: Our firm will agree with the Org a share online screen to do the submission.
Why consider a recruitment cycle?
A key element of having a sponsor licence is having ‘Good HR Practices’ in place. We call this the ‘Recruitment Cycle’ which covers these 10 key areas:
- Job advert
- invitation
- Interviewing
- Right to work
- Shortlisting
- Verification
- Assignments
- Documentation
- Tracking
- Termination
We offer 3 unique packages:
- Standard
- Advanced
- Custom.
Standard
This will cover an array of information including essential links to employment and immigration laws and, health and safety, Home Office would expect all Orgs to be up to speed of theyb 5 key areas of compliance.
We even provide a link to a website where the Org can obtain virtyally ny type of document template to run their business.
Advanced
The Org must provide our firm their version of the Recruitment Cycle and we will tweak it accordingly. The Org will get the Standard as part of this package.
Custom
The Org will ask us to write them a bespoke recruitment cycle around their exact organisation requirements, We only recommend this for larger companies who have/want a sponsor licence to manage data across a wider network.
What is job compliance?
Job compliance (formerly known as the Resident Labour Market Test) which was removed from the immigration rules on 1 December 2020. The Resident Labour Market Test ceased to be a mandatory requirement where the Org must have advertised the sponsored job for 28 days before a Certificate of Sponsorship could be issued.
Since this date the Home Office still expects Orgs to try, and first recruit UK settled workers and the only way to do this is to demonstrate a recruitment exercise was carried out which we advise to do for 7 days.
We can provide the Org a ‘job template' that will help them capture the essential data to post on approved recruitment websites.
Job adverts must also comply to the Equality Act 2010 that will help prevent discrimination to any person applying to the job vacancy.
Job advertisement recording
We can provide the Org a template on how to correctly process all applicants that apply to the job advertisement, this will help the Org demonstrate to the UKVI compliance officer who applied, the process that was taken, how each applicant was interviewed, shortlisted and why hired and rejected.
Why have a Service Level Agreement?
This agreement with our law firm will help protect the Org and maintain their sponsor licence (SL).
Once the Service Level Agreement is signed, the Org Level 1 User must add us as a Level 1 User.
Below is a guide to the index of the service level agreement and what it covers:
1. About our firm
2. Organisation introduction
3. The 5 key areas of SL compliance
3.1 Reporting duties
3.2 Record-keeping duties
3.2.1 SL key documents
3.2.2 Sponsored workers document filing guidelines
3.3 Complying with the immigration laws
3.3.1 Assigning a CoS to a family member
3.4 Complying with wider UK law
3.5 Behaviour or actions that are not conducive to the public good
4. Preventing illegal employment
4.1 Share code
4.2 ECS
4.3 Recommended process to follow
4.3.1 Engagement
4.4 Interviewing
4.5 Pre-employment guidance
4.5.1 Employment commencing guidance
4.6 LTE visa applications
4.7 LTR visa applications
4.8 BRP
4.9 eVisa
5. EU and non-EU nationals under sponsorship
5.1 EU nationals and their family members
5.1.1 EU membership & UK free movement
5.1.2 EU Family members post 2020
6. Job posting compliance
6.1 Job posting
6.1 Find A Job
6.2 Secondary advertising options
6.3 Advertising recordkeeping
7. SL and HR compliance
7.1 Business operations
7.1.1 Mergers and takeovers
7.2 Reporting duties
7.2.1 Ten (10) days reporting
7.2.2 Twenty (20) days reporting
8. Business structure
8.1 Company structure types
8.1.1 Single property clarification
8.1.2 Head Office clarification
8.1.3 Branch clarification
8.1.4 Overseas parent company or trading entity clarification
8.1.5 Head office and sponsor licence control
9. Assigning the right people to the org SL
9.1 SMS types
9.2 AO role
9.3 KC role
9.4 Level 1 user role
9.5 Level 2 user role
9.6 Representative role
10. SL compliance audit and non-compliance
10.1 SL five (5) key areas
10.1.1 Compliance officer question types
10.2 Organisation SMS business duties
10.3 What if organisation SL is B-rated?
10.4 What if organisation SL is suspended?
10.4.1 Reasons to revoke an organisation SL
10.4.2 Challenging the suspended SL decision
10.5 What if organisation SL is revoked?
11. CoS compliance & associated costs
11.1 CoS definition?
11.2 Who can be assigned a standard, defined of undefined CoS
11.3 What is UCoS?
11.4 What is DCoS?
11.5 Purpose of assigning a CoS?
11.6 Knowing the right occupation code to assign to a CoS
11.7 Annual CoS allocation
11.8 Annual CoS allocation increase
11.9 CoS and the ISC
11.10 Certifying CoS maintenance
11.11 What if the organisation does not want to certify maintenance?
11.12 When is it exempt to demonstrate meeting the maintenance rule?
11.13 Priority CoS
12. Recruitment cycle & internal responsibilities
12.1 Recruitment cycle steps
12.2 Recruitment cycle ownership
12.3 Internal responsibilities
12.4 UK legislation
13. Data compliance
13.1 Employees recordkeeping
13.2 Documents compliance
13.3 GDPR
14. Our firm SMS Fees & support services
14.1 SLA fee introduction
14.2 Org business expansion
14.3 Org acquisition
14.4 SLA extension
14.5 SLA revoked
14.6 Our firm SL support
14.7 Non-SL support services
14.8 SMS access
14.9 Our firm SMS access request
14.10 Visa support services
14.11 Our firm application verification and process
14.12 Processing visa options
14.13 Our firm charging policy
14.14 Our firm charges support services
15. Services not supported under this SLA
15.1 Chargeable immigration support services
15.2 SL training
15.3 SL auditing
15.4 Preventing illegal employment
15.5 Recruitment cycle
15.6 Workforce compliance
16. SLA Agreement.
Upon signing the service level agreement, our firm will issue this agreement to the Org.
Welcome to your introduction
Transforming how data should be collected to minimise time processing your application to the UK Home Office.
The pre-client care letter (PCCL) eForms will allow the overseas national (client) to complete the PCCL by providing key essential data and the ability to upload any document evidence that we have requested.
It is critical the data provided by the client is accurate, factual, and untampered as if any evidence or data provided to the Home Office is found to not be genuine, the client's visa will be refused and potentially given a 10-year UK entry ban.
If a UK sponsor (Employer Business or Family), is involved in the application process, the client is required to provide their sponsor details.
All data provided in this online form is strictly confidential and is only provided to the UK sponsor and the Home Office upon the client approval.
The client is not obligated to use our services if they decide to cancel unless they sign our client care letter which is a binding agreement that authorises our law firm to represent the client to the Home Office.
What is a pre-client care letter?
All eForms will cover two parts, Part 1 is ‘Generic’ data all visa forms generally ask for, and Part 2 is ‘Specific’ to the application type the client is asking to apply under.
UK Home Office forms are constantly changing meaning we do not want to keep coming back to you for data, so we have assessed the majority of visa forms generic questions and place them all under part 1 of the PCCL.
PCCL help and support
We have created several green tabs which will help you do the following:
- Document checklist
- How to scan and file your doc
You can find these green tabs if you select the tab below your documents.
Client Care Letter
A client care letter (CCL) is issued to the overseas national (client) if they agree to use our law firm services to represent them to the UK Home Office.
Before our firm can accept any client, we must first assess their data hence the PCCL assessment form.
The PCCL will outline all that we should know to agree to issue a CCL.
The CCL will cover these key areas:
- Statement identifying the client and sponsorship.
- Client immigration history & criminal convictions.
- Fixed cost policy and application costs.
- Getting started.
- Business Terms (online) has these sections to read and authorise:
Once you read the above you are invited to our website to read and authorise the below:
- Definitions.
- Representation.
- Discrimination & Equal Opportunities Policy.
- Data Protection & Security Policy Online & Digital Data Transfer.
- Visa Process.
- UKVI and Commercial Partner Portal Registrations.
- Application Delays.
- Documents.
- Invoices & Payments.
- Sponsors, Withdrawing the Client's Application/Documents & Refunds.
- Translation Services.
- Work Completion.
- Complaints Procedure.
Note: The client will be required to approve our law firm prior to any visa application being started.
Client Invoice
Our firm will issue the clients set fee invoice when we create their client care letter. All invoices are due for payment in seven (7) days from the invoice date and funds paid will go into HSBC client account. We do not touch these funds until we have submitted the visa application(s) to the Home Office.
Family members details
If your family members want to enter or remain in the UK, they must also compelte this PCCL.
Family members are deemed as your:
- Spouse/Partner
- Children aged under 18
- Children aged over 18 if entered the UK under whilst aged under 18.
Family members applying for a UK visa
If any family member is applying for a visa to enter the UK, they must complete their own pre-client care letter application form.
Where children aged under 18, their parent must complete this form.
Children applying to enter the UK must be aged 17 or younger when their visa application form is submitted to the UK Home Office.
Children are not permitted to apply to enter the UK unless both biological parents are applying/applied for a UK visa unless:
- One parent holds British nationality
- One parent holds settlement status
- One parent alreadys holds a valid UK visa
- One parent is deceased.
- One parent has a sole custody order.
- One parent has a court order document restraining one parent from having access to the other parent/child.
- Exceptional circumstances why one parent cannot enter the UK.
Family members requiring a visa
If family members want to join their partner/parent in the UK, they can. If they are happy to use our law firm, we will email the family members separately and ask them to register.
Welcome to your introduction
Transforming how data should be collected to minimise time processing your application to the UK Home Office.
The pre-client care letter (PCCL) eForms will allow the overseas national (client) to complete the PCCL by providing key essential data and the ability to upload any document evidence that we have requested.
It is critical the data provided by the client is accurate, factual, and untampered as if any evidence or data provided to the Home Office is found to not be genuine, the client's visa will be refused and potentially given a 10-year UK entry ban.
If a UK sponsor (Employer Business or Family), is involved in the application process, the client is required to provide their sponsor details.
All data provided in this online form is strictly confidential and is only provided to the UK sponsor and the Home Office upon the client approval.
The client is not obligated to use our services if they decide to cancel unless they sign our client care letter which is a binding agreement that authorises our law firm to represent the client to the Home Office.
What is a pre-client care letter?
All eForms will cover two parts, Part 1 is ‘Generic’ data all visa forms generally ask for, and Part 2 is ‘Specific’ to the application type the client is asking to apply under.
UK Home Office forms are constantly changing meaning we do not want to keep coming back to you for data, so we have assessed the majority of visa forms generic questions and place them all under part 1 of the PCCL.
PCCL help and support
We have created several green tabs which will help you do the following:
- Document checklist
- How to scan and file your documents.
You can find these green tabs if you select the tab below your documents.
Client Care Letter
A client care letter (CCL) is issued to the overseas national (client) if they agree to use our law firm services to represent them to the UK Home Office.
Before our firm can accept any client, we must first assess their data hence the PCCL assessment form.
The PCCL will outline all that we should know to agree to issue a CCL.
The CCL will cover these key areas:
- Statement identifying the client and sponsorship.
- Client immigration history & criminal convictions.
- Fixed cost policy and application costs.
- Getting started.
- Business Terms (online) has these sections to read and authorise:
Once you read the above you are invited to our website to read and authorise the below:
- Definitions.
- Representation.
- Discrimination & Equal Opportunities Policy.
- Data Protection & Security Policy Online & Digital Data Transfer.
- Visa Process.
- UKVI and Commercial Partner Portal Registrations.
- Application Delays.
- Documents.
- Invoices & Payments.
- Sponsors, Withdrawing the Client's Application/Documents & Refunds.
- Translation Services.
- Work Completion.
- Complaints Procedure.
Note: The client will be required to approve our law firm prior to any visa application being started.
Client Invoice
Our firm will issue the clients set fee invoice when we create their client care letter. All invoices are due for payment in seven (7) days from the invoice date and funds paid will go into HSBC client account. We do not touch these funds until we have submitted the visa application(s) to the Home Office.
Family members details
If your family members want to enter or remain in the UK, they must also compelte this PCCL.
Family members are deemed as your:
- Spouse/Partner
- Children aged under 18
- Children aged over 18 if entered the UK under whilst aged under 18.
Family members applying for a UK visa
If any family member is applying for a visa to enter the UK, they must complete their own pre-client care letter application form.
Where children aged under 18, their parent must complete this form.
Children applying to enter the UK must be aged 17 or younger when their visa application form is submitted to the UK Home Office.
Children are not permitted to apply to enter the UK unless both biological parents are applying/applied for a UK visa unless:
- One parent holds British nationality
- One parent holds settlement status
- One parent alreadys holds a valid UK visa
- One parent is deceased.
- One parent has a sole custody order.
- One parent has a court order document restraining one parent from having access to the other parent/child.
- Exceptional circumstances why one parent cannot enter the UK.
Family members requiring a visa
If family members want to join their partner/parent in the UK, they can. If they are happy to use our law firm, we will email the family members separately and ask them to register.
Let's get started, select below link
Let's get started, select below link
Our law firm has been supporting UK sponsors since 2005
