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How to employ EU nationals after Brexit – your guide to sponsor licence

Posted by: Marcin Durlak
Posted in: Employment
Date published: 01/03/2021

You have probably heard about significant changes in immigration rules after the end of transition period when the UK ultimately left the EU. In fact, if you are UK established business and would like to recruit workers from outside the country, you may need to apply for a sponsor license.

What are the rules now?

The UK-points based immigration system has been now extended to EEA nationals who would want to work in the UK. Simply, it is required that non-UK nationals who arrived in the UK after 31 ^st  December 2020 apply for a visa to work here. In order to legally employ someone from outside the UK (Ireland is an exception), you need to be authorized by Home Office by virtue of ‘sponsor license’ that will be granted if you are eligible.

However, if your employee arrived in the UK before 31 ^st  December 2020, he may qualify to apply for a settled or pre-settled status. If he lives permanently in another country but works for you and you are UK-based employer, he may apply for a frontier worker permit. The procedure is in general quicker than the one when applying for a visa, so it may be worth checking if your employee qualifies to join the scheme.

Are you eligible?

You need to be an organization in the UK if you wish to apply for a sponsor license, unless you are a sole trader. Hence why, if you are a foreign business operating in the UK, you will need to have at least a branch or establishment registered in this country. Home Office must be satisfied that you have operating or trading presence here.

To get the license, you cannot have unspent criminal convictions for immigration offences or certain other crimes, such as fraud or money laundering and any history of failing to carry out sponsorship duties. You should not have your license revoked in the last 12 months.

You should also expect that the Home Office representatives will inspect your organization and every address you provided as a place where the worker will perform his duties. The visit may, but does not need to be announced.

Sponsorship management

When preparing the application, you will need to identify personnel at your business that will have an access to sponsor management system – an online platform you will need to use when managing the migrant worker.

You will probably use it for a first time when assigning a certificate of sponsorship. The foreign workers cannot successfully apply for visa in the UK, if they do not have such a certificate.

On the top of that, you will need to appoint an authorizing officer responsible for actions of staff and representatives assigned to use the sponsorship management system. You may wish to identify potential candidates to this role before the application. Otherwise, you may consider employing new manager to deal with the system.

Types of license

There are two types of sponsor license you can apply for, namely the ‘Worker’ and ‘Temporary Worker’ license. Within these two types there are number of individual routes and it depends on many factors which one will be best for you.

The ‘Worker’ type consists of:

• ‘Skilled Worker’ route – if you want to recruit someone to do a specific job in the UK, for instance, work as a doctor, artist, accountant or chemist. They should have a suitable rate of pay and skill level (language skills and qualifications).
• ‘Intra-company’ routes – best route for intra-company transfers of established employees or graduate trainees.
• ‘Sportsperson’ route – route for elite sportspeople or coaches.
• ‘Minister of Religion’ route – route for a person coming to the UK to work for religious organizations.

In general, ‘Worker’ route is for skilled workers and long-term or permanent job offers.

The ‘Temporary Worker’ license will be best for you if you consider to recruit workers on temporary basis. You can choose from:

• ‘Religious Worker’ route – for someone who works for religious organization (up to 24 months).
• ‘Creative or Sporting Worker’ route – for someone who can make a unique contribution to UK’s culture (up to 24 months) or sport at the highest level in the UK (up to 12 months).
• ‘Charity Worker’ route – for someone who will be working for a charity in the UK for less than 12 months.
• ‘Government Authorized Exchange Worker’ route – for someone to enter the UK on approved scheme for a period of 12 or 24 months, depending on the scheme.
• ‘Seasonal Worker’ route – for those who perform seasonal work, for instance on farms for up to 6 months.
• ‘International Agreement Worker’ route – for someone to provide service covered under international law, for instance private servants in diplomatic houses or international organizations officers. 

Sponsor duties

As an approved sponsor, you will have certain duties and responsibilities to perform. For instance, you will be required to report some specified events or provide information to Home Office, in particular when there are significant changes to sponsored worker’s employment or if he is absent from work or did not commenced the employment with you at all.

Further, you will be required to retain relevant documentation for the specified period of time. This include but is not limited to passport copy, payroll records or migrant contract details. When doing so, you will have to abide data protection law, so you may wish to implement data retention system beforehand. In fact, you are required to have this system in place when you process personal data.

All sponsors must comply with UK immigration laws, but also with wider laws, for instance employment regulations. They are also required not to engage in behavior or actions that are not conductive to the public good.

IMD Corporate can assist you

If you are a business and need assistance with sponsor license application, or need advice as to a potential application, then do not hesitate to get in touch.

If you require help or additional information, please contact one of the lawyers in our business team on 0330 107 0107 or email  business@imd.co.uk

This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please note that the law may have changed since this article was published.