Pre Licence
Before a Sponsor Licence is granted a 2 to 3 hours inspection visit will be carried by one or more compliance officers from your regional Home Office Sponsor Management Unit.
This will be to establish 8 qualifying criteria
- You have a genuine trading presence
- Your business has a need for specialist skills
- The intended sponsored job roles are genuine
- Detailed evidence of attempts to recruit UK/EU nationals or settled workers to fill your vacancies
- Your current employment practices meet acceptable standards
- All current employees have right to work verification
- Systems and procedures in place that meet Sponsor Licensing standards
- You are fully aware of your sponsor duties and responsibilities
The officers will either pre arrange the visit or just turn up at your door unannounced. The underlying purpose of the visit is to scrutinise your case for sponsor licence. As well as background checks and assessing risk to immigration control the Home Office conduct an extensive examination of your business in terms of employment needs and capabilities.
The investigative manner of a compliance visit can be intense and feel disconcerting. It is therefore important that you are fully prepared. Part of our service is to brief you of the procedure and be there in person throughout the visit. This is to assist both you and the compliance officer in ensuring the inspection is fulfilled to the satisfaction of both parties. Specifically our role is to ensure the following
- Your Goldstar HR system is in place and you fully understand it
- You are briefed of the questions and answers session prior to the visit
- You understand the questions and your answers are understood by the officer
- Provide clarification of complex queries, and ensure a simple answer or explanation has addressed a complex issue
- The officer has fully examined the relevant contents within your HR system and recorded having done so
- All evidence requested has been viewed or a follow up request noted
- The sponsor interview record is a true representation of your answers and documentation seen or provided
- The compliance officer has signed a declaration confirming sight and satisfaction of relevant documentation or evidence and / or has stated pending documentation or evidence to follow
Please see further guidance on dealing with compliance officers during compliance visits in paragraph titled ‘Dealing with UKVI’
Post Licence
This is practically a repeat of the pre licence inspection. As a sponsor licence holder you are subject to a routine annual inspection to check you are compliant with a vast array of sponsor duties and responsibilities. You will also be checked to ensure you are not breaking any rules or misusing your licence. A post licence visit is mostly unannounced.
As part of our Sponsor Maintenance Package we will continually update you with rule changes and ensure your HR system is kept updated and refreshed
We will ensure you have everything in place in case of an expected or UNEXPECTED Home Office visit.