We are often contacted by businesses who are concerned about a Home Office visit, either because they have been given a date and time for an audit, or they are long overdue for one. This is understandable as there is a great deal resting on the outcome. Even if you believe you have followed the process and kept your records up to date, there is always the risk that the Home Office will find a discrepancy which had gone unnoticed. The secret to success when it comes to maintaining your sponsor license compliance at all times is three-fold; 1) putting in place systems, processes, and procedures which ensure your business always manages sponsored workers in the same way across your operation, regardless of person and location; 2) reviewing your systems, processes, and procedures in light of the latest guidance from the Home Office on a periodic basis; and 3) carrying out regular mock audits which simulate what would happen in a real audit. Of course, all of this takes time and resource, but as your business refines its approach, this becomes second nature. In this article, we will discuss what you can expect to happen if you receive a sponsor license compliance visit from the Home Office.
Before The Compliance Officer Visit
In order to understand what will happen before a compliance officer visit, it is recommended that you review the help documents available from the Home Office. The template which the compliance officer will complete while with you is even available online, hence there is no mystery as to what they will be doing while on your premises. Another document which you should become acquainted with is the guidance used by compliance officers. This explains what they will do before, during, and after a visit. By understanding both of these, you can ensure that you are prepared.
It is important to note that the officer will assess you as the sponsor, but also your migrant workers.
What Will The Compliance Officer Do During A Visit?
What the compliance officer will do on the day depends on whether they are carrying out a pre-compliance assessment visit (to determine whether you should be granted a sponsor license in the first place), or post-compliance assess visit (to determine if you are adhering to your duties and responsibilities). For pre-compliance visits, you can expect them to be focused on checking that you have the systems and processes in place in order to be compliant. For a post-compliance visit, they will be looking to ensure these are working correctly. The following is what you can expect during a post-compliance visit:
Migrant checks
The compliance officer will carry out a number of migrant checks, looking at migrant files, right to work checks, and interviewing migrants. You can expect them to:
- Review at least 10% of sponsored migrant files. This will be at least three files where there are three or more migrants, or all files where there are fewer than three migrants.
- Check right to work documentation for 40% where there are one to 50 migrants, or 25% where there are 51 to 150 migrants, or 10% if there are more than 150 migrants
- Interview at least three migrant workers. If you have less, they will interview all sponsored workers. If they find evidence which may suggest more checks are needed, they will carry out up to ten interviews.
This gives you an idea of the volume of checks they will carry out, hence it is important that all of your files, right to work check records, and migrant contact and addresses are up to date.
Tier 2 / Skilled Worker Specific Checks
During a compliance visit, the Home Office representative will check that you are following the rules in relation to the following areas:
Minimum skill level
Checks will be carried out to ensure that the skill level for your sponsored roles are at least equivalent to RQF level 6 (this will be from RQF level 3 from 2021). As the guidance clarifies, this does “not mean the migrant has to have a degree-level education, but the work the migrant will do must be at graduate level” (RQF level 3 is at A-Level).
Minimum salary
The compliance officer will verify you are paying your sponsored workers at least the minimum appropriate rate for the job or £30,000 per annum (this will be £25,600 from 2021). A lower pay threshold applies under the new post-Brexit immigration rules for new entrants or where the worker has traded higher qualifications for a lower salary (at least £20,480).
Certificates of sponsorship: restricted and unrestricted
During the visit, the officer will check the right types of Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) have been issued. Specifically, they will be looking to check that you have issued restricted CoS’s for:
- new hires earning under £159,600 per year coming to work in the UK from overseas
- dependants of a migrant who was last granted leave under Tier 4, where that dependant is already in the UK and wishes to switch into Tier 2 (General) and
will be paid less than £159,600
As the guidance explains, “Assigning an unrestricted CoS where a restricted one is required is a breach of the sponsor’s duties”. Unrestricted CoSs can be only issued for:
- newly hired migrants coming from overseas who will be earning £159,600 or
- more a year
- those already in the UK with valid leave under Tier 2 (General)
- those already in the UK under another immigration category, with valid leave, and is
- those entitled to switch into Tier 2 (General) - this excludes a dependent of a Tier 4
- migrants earning less than £159,600 who would need a restricted CoS
- Croatian nationals
Wrapping Up
While this is not an exhaustive list of everything you can expect to happen during a Home Office compliance visit, we hope this gives you a robust understanding of what to expect. We always recommend that sponsor license holders have mock audits carried out, ideally by a third party immigration lawyer who will be impartial and provide constructive guidance on how to resolve any areas of potential non-compliance. With careful planning and preparation, a compliance visit will simply become a routine process and will always lead to a positive outcome.
