Organisations with sponsorship licences must meet compliance duties, which includes informing the Home Office of changes in circumstances of the organisation or the sponsored employee. Failure to disclose changes or meet compliance duties may result in enforcement actions, potentially impacting the organisation’s permission to sponsor foreign workers.
Reporting changes in circumstances
If you are a sponsor licence holder, you must inform the Home Office of any significant changes within your organisation, including a change of address. In order to stay compliant, you must adhere to the strict timelines for reporting these changes. For instance, you must report any changes within 20 working days from the date they arise. Certain changes, however, must be reported within 10 working days. It is therefore essential to stay well informed about reporting duties so that you can maintain continuous compliance. Changes in your organisation’s address must be reported online through the Sponsorship Management System (SMS) by a Level 1 User within 20 working days.
If you are moving to a new address, you must also update the work address details for your key personnel and report the change of work address for your sponsored migrants. These updates are separate reports from the organisation’s address change. Once reported, the change in circumstances may be automatically updated in the SMS account. If not, it may require consideration by a Home Office caseworker. Reporting changes early helps to avoid compliance issues.
Level 1 Users
If you lose access to a Level 1 User (e.g. the Level 1 user has left the business) you will not be able to report changes through the SMS. It is therefore important to maintain more than one Level 1 User in your organisation so you can continue meeting sponsor duties even if one user departs.
Other considerations
Reporting a change of address of your sponsor organisation using the standard service is free. However, these requests may take up to 18 weeks to be processed. If you are looking for faster processing times, you may use the priority service. If you are successful in securing a priority slot, then changes in circumstances will be processed within 5 working days. The cost of the service is £200 per request.
If the address change is due to a merger or takeover, the organisations will need to determine whether this change triggers the need for a new sponsor licence. In such cases, it is advisable to seek advice early to avoid any negative impact on your employees.
Conclusion
Failure to report changes may prompt the Home Office to review your organisation’s overall sponsorship compliance and may even result in suspension or revocation of your sponsor licence. It is very important for a sponsor licence holder to diligently report changes in circumstances as soon as they arise to avoid complications.
Updated: November 2024
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