What is a Home Office compliance visit?

If you have a sponsor licence, or you are in the process of applying for one, you need to know that at any point the Home Office could conduct a compliance visit.

In the past, a compliance visit would always take place in person, at your offices. The Home Office have now announced they may also carry out compliance visits virtually.

During a compliance visit, Home Office officials will usually want to speak to the Authorising Officer, review HR files and office policies, and if you have sponsored employees, they are likely to want to interview at least some of them. The visit may be at random or there may be a specific situation that prompted the visit, but in most cases, the Home Office will give the Authorising Officer notice of the intended visit. 

Now, let’s talk about why the Home Office may visit your offices and what they may wish to check.

If you are an existing sponsor the Home Office may conduct a compliance visit to check that you have been complying with your sponsor duties, including keeping appropriate records for your sponsored migrants, and carrying out your monitoring and reporting duties, as well as conducting valid right to work checks for all employees. We talked about sponsor duties in more detail in our previous blog. If you have sponsored employees, the Home Office may ask of their whereabouts and also check that they are carrying out the role, and being paid, in line with the Home Office’s records.

If you are applying for a sponsor licence, the Home Office will want to check that you have the systems and procedures in place to comply with sponsor duties once your licence is granted. 

What happens if the Home Office compliance visit goes badly?

If you are an existing sponsor, and the Home Office are not satisfied that you are complying with your sponsor duties, your licence may be downgraded. If this happens you will not be allowed to allocate new Certificates of Sponsorship, and you will have to follow an action-plan to address the breaches to reinstate your licence.

In the worst-case scenario, your licence can be revoked and you will no longer be able to sponsor employees. You may also be barred from reapplying for a sponsor licence for a period of time.

If you are applying for a sponsor licence and the visit goes badly, your application may be refused, and you may be barred from applying again for at least 6 months.

What can I do to prepare for a Home Office compliance visit?

The outcome of a Home Office compliance visit can be critical to your business and therefore, you should have systems in place (and follow them!) to ensure you are prepared for a Home Office compliance visit at any time.

How Gherson can assist

Gherson’s Immigration Team are highly experienced in advising on all UK immigration sponsorship matters. If you have any questions arising from this blog, please do not hesitate to contact us for advice, send us an e-mail, or, alternatively, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn to stay-up-to-date.

The information in this blog is for general information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the information and law is current as of the date of publication it should be stressed that, due to the passage of time, this does not necessarily reflect the present legal position. Gherson accepts no responsibility for loss which may arise from accessing or reliance on information contained in this blog. For formal advice on the current law please do not hesitate to contact Gherson. Legal advice is only provided pursuant to a written agreement, identified as such, and signed by the client and by or on behalf of Gherson.

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