Anyone familiar with our articles will know how important it is to take Tier 2 / Skilled Worker sponsor license compliance seriously. Like many aspects of business, once you have a sponsorship process which runs smoothly and is applied consistently, the overhead on your staff reduces. This is because everyone knows what, when, and how to ensure that international workers are recruited and managed in a way that conforms to their Home Office duties and responsibilities.
It only takes a short period during which the correct process is not being followed to leave staff with a large clean-up task on their hands. This then exposes the business to considerable risk in the event of a Home Office compliance visit. In this article, we will take a look at the change of circumstances reporting requirement for Tier 2 / Skilled Worker sponsor license holders, including key business changes such as a change of business name or ownership.
What Are The Reporting Duties Of A Skilled Worker Sponsor License Holder?
When your business initially applied for a sponsor license, you entered into an agreement with the Home Office that in order to retain your license, you would ensure that certain key information and changes are reported back to them in a timely manner. These changes are reported via the sponsor management system (SMS) or a manual form. The changes in circumstances which must be reported are either related to a sponsored member of staff or the sponsoring business. A deadline of ten or 20 days applies depending on the change in circumstances, as follows:
Changes which must be reported within 20 working days
The guidance issued by the Home Office to sponsor license holders states that ‘significant changes in your own organisation’ must be reported within 20 days, these may include (this is not an exhaustive list):
- A change of company name
- A change of name of any branch
- The sale of all or part of the sponsoring business
- A merger or takeover of the sponsoring business
- Where the sponsoring business ceases trading or goes into an insolvency procedure
- If there is a substantial change to the nature of your business
- The conviction of a relevant offence
This confirms that if your business changes name, you have 20 days to report this to the Home Office using the SMS. If you don’t report this in time, as this would be a breach of your reporting duties, you risk having your license downgraded (from an A rating to a B rating), suspended, or revoked.
Changes which must be reported within ten working days
The changes which you need to report within ten working days are mostly sponsored employee-related, including where:
- They do not commence their role – you will need to explain why this is
- They are absent without prior permission (from you as their employee) for more than ten days consecutively.
- They are dismissed or resign
- Their application for entry clearance or permission is refused
- They move to an immigration route which does not need a sponsor
- They are promoted or have a change in job title or core duties, other than those which need a change of employment application
In addition to these employee-related changes, you must also report to the Home Office within ten days if the size or charitable status of your business changes; this may occur if you were a small company but now fit the category of a large company (or vice versa), your business has acquired charitable status, or if you were classed as a charity but are no longer.
Even if you do register a change of circumstance in good time, it can still take several weeks for the change to be actioned by the Home Office (potentially up to 18 weeks). It is possible to pay to have a change of circumstance dealt with faster using the priority service.
How Are Changes In Organisation Details Registered?
Businesses with access to the Home Office’s SMS will use the ‘amend your organisation details’ screen. This will need to be done by a Level 1 user. The user will select a ‘reason for change’; these include:
- Rebranding
- Office or branch closed
- Downsized business premises
- Expanded business premises
- Lease expired
- Royal Mail postcode changes
- Moved to new premises
More information can be added to expand on the reason selected. Once this is done, the user can then alter the organisation name/address and head office name/address. They will then be asked to tick a box to declare the information being provided is true and correct, along with their name and position within the company.
What Is The Change Of Circumstances Priority Service?
Your business can pay £200 to have a change of circumstances processed within five working days by submitting a request by email. The changes which qualify for the priority service are as follows:
- additional certificate of sponsorship (CoS) allocation
- annual certificate of sponsorship (CoS) allocation
- add a new level 1 user
- change level one user
- replace the authorising officer (AO)
- amend the authorising officer (AO)
- replace the key contact (KC)
- amend the key contact (KC)
- add a representative
- amend your organisation details – moved to new premises
To make a priority change, you first need to make the amendment in the SMS, then “email postlicencepriorityservice@homeoffice.gov.uk, with a completed Worker and Temporary Worker priority request form as an attachment”. No more than 60 priority requests can be submitted per day. If the request is approved, then you will receive an email from the priority service team confirming acceptance of the change and a request for payment.
Final Words
By ensuring that all changes which you need to report to the Home Office are co-ordinated through a dedicated role within your business, they can ensure that the SMS is completed in a timely manner according to the rules outlined above. And by taking this approach, you can relax in the knowledge that your Home Office reporting duties are being met consistently at all times.
