How to Operate a Visa Sponsor Licence Workshop
Are you following Home Office directives and managing your sponsorship licence correctly?
Time: 0930 - 1300
Cost: £275 + VAT per attendee
All dates: Register here
- Tuesday 4th February 2025
- Tuesday 3rd June 2025
When employing skilled workers from overseas, UK employers will need to hold a valid sponsor licence. Once a licence has been granted employers need to meet compliance duties. Understanding which records to keep, how to store them and reporting any concerns, for example if your sponsored employees have breached their conditions of stay are key to retaining your sponsor’s licence.
Failure to comply with the Home Office directives on sponsorship licence management can have disastrous and far-reaching consequences. These include:
- Enforcement action
- Punitive fines
- Loss of your license
- Your visa workers being deported
Appointing and training your key personnel, including the Authorising Officer, is vital. This intensive and time-critical course will equip your team with the correct tools and knowledge to remain compliant.
This immigration course will cover:
- Overview of the sponsor management system
- Sponsor duties: What you need to know
- Issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship
- Record keeping
- Absence monitoring
- Monitoring and reporting changes in circumstance
- Case studies and common challenges
Delegate feedback
"Great training course, I have left feeling confident about my next steps in this area" - Anna Valley Ltd
"Brilliant" - Larkfleet Phoenix
"Brilliant - Really brilliant as a trainer, he was patient, very thorough and explained everything in great detail and made time for the many many questions we had, it was great, thank you for your time and help, amazing teacher!" - Claranet
"Very in-depth and informative"
ONLINE TRAINING COURSE PLATFORM
Zoom - An encrypted zoom platform with password access. Click here for further information and to test access
Prefer to run this course In-house?
We offer this course as a face-to-face or online In-house training option for groups of 5 or more – a cost effective training solution for teams, if this would be more suitable, please email molly.sampson@bfi.co.uk.
Which functions will benefit from attending
- HR and recruitment professionals, administration, training, security, risk, compliance, legal, policy, vetting and screening, operations and all line managers and directors and staff with responsibility for Right to Work checks and non- UK employee recruitment
Schedule
Welcome, housekeeping, aims & objectives for the day
A chance to revisit your reasons for attending the course, meet fellow delegates and establish and agree learning objectives
Overview of the sponsor management system
Simon Kenny
Partner - Immigration & Global Mobility , Spencer West LLP
Simon is an immigration lawyer who helps with individual immigration applications, permission to work, illegal working penalties and sponsor licence suspension. He specialises in Skilled Worker and sponsor licence applications, right-to-work processes and defences to civil penalties. He also has significant experience in managing global immigration programmes and post-Brexit immigration compliance in respect of business travellers working across the EEA. Simon has specific expertise in working with institutions and individuals in the higher education sector. He has worked with universities on preparation for audit, right-to-work processes, defence to civil penalties and reviewing Certificates of Sponsorship for employees. Helpline services to both HR teams and individual employees of universities have been a major part of Simon’s recent career. He also helps academic staff make applications within the Global Talent programme. Simon has been listed as one of the UK’s leading practitioners in every edition of the Legal 500 since 2015. He was individually commended in the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Europe Awards in 2019 for research and analysis conducted following a Freedom of Information Act request regarding Certificate of Sponsorship allocations. This featured as a headline news story across numerous national newspapers. Simon was an immigration officer for several years and, after becoming a solicitor, an immigration manager in Big 4 professional services companies. That provided him with a focus on achieving the best outcomes for clients with reference to wider global mobility issues and creativity in finding solutions which work. This experience informs his immigration advice and helps ensure other legal issues related to immigration are identified at an early stage in considering an assignment.
- An overview of how to become a licenced sponsor
- Summary of employment-based immigration routes for staff coming into the UK
- Some general requirement of Skilled Workers and intra company transferees
Comfort break
Sponsor duties: What you need to know
- The Key Personnel
- The five fundamental sponsor duties
- Interaction between this and right-to-work
- Sponsor duties and HR reporting
- Practical tips
Comfort break
Issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship
- Requirements to issue a Certificate in the Skilled Worker or Global Business Mobility routes
- Defined and Undefined certificates
- The process to issue
- Creating a compliance pack based on Appendix D of the Sponsor Duties
- Using priority services
- Sponsor Notes
Some common challenges
- Meeting the sponsor duties
- Ensuring HR processes, meet these requirements
- Handling problems and changes
Worked examples and Q&A
Final wrap up
End of workshop
Contact us to book or discuss our events & services
01983 861133
info@bfi.co.uk