The Home Office has published an updated version of the current ‘Workers and Temporary Workers Guidance for Sponsors Part 1: Apply for a Licence.’ The guidance was updated on 31 December 2024 and can be found here. It applies to new licence applications from 31 December 2024 onwards.
Changes to Key Personnel
When applying for a sponsor licence, specific individuals must be nominated to be responsible for the ongoing management of your licence. The Home Office defines these individuals as ‘Key Personnel.’ The guidance relating to key personnel has been completely redrafted and restructured, with new requirements clarifying who can operate as a sponsor’s key personnel. The new guidance is much easier to read and clarifies the eligibility criteria for key personnel and the scope of their roles. While the section on key personnel has been re-written, the underlying concepts remain largely the same.
Changes on who can take on a key personnel role
Sponsors are prohibited from nominating anyone who is not permitted to act as a company director for any reason, as their key personnel (unless specific permission is given by the courts). This applies regardless of whether the individual intends to act as a director within the sponsor’s organisation. The Home Office has confirmed that if breached, your licence may be revoked or your application rejected. This is a welcome clarification on the old guidance which referred to ‘limited exceptions’ where someone legally prohibited from being a company director could take on a key personnel role.
Amendments have also been made to a sponsor’s obligations regarding its Level 1 users. A Level 1 user is the individual responsible for the maintenance of a licence via use of the Sponsor Management System. If applying for a new sponsor licence, you must now nominate at least one Level 1 user who is both:
- an employee, a director or partner within your organisation and
- a ‘settled worker,’ as defined in section S1 of the Home Office’s ‘Part 2: Sponsor a worker’ guidance (found here). This is essentially someone who is not subject to immigration control, such as a British or Irish Citizen, or someone with indefinite leave to remain. There are limited exceptions to this rule
These were separate requirements under the old guidance, i.e. sponsors could have two separate Level 1 users who each met the above two bullet points (although often they were met by the same person). The new guidance hints that, all sponsors will need to meet the new requirement (i.e. at least one Level 1 user who meets both bullet points above) and recommends that existing sponsors who got their licences before the guidance changed, start making arrangements to add Level 1 users who meet these requirements.
Unless your organisation is in administration, an application for a new licence must comply with the above, if not, it will be refused.
Helpfully, the new guidance now confirms that sponsors can nominate more than one Level 1 user when making their licence application. The old guidance had stated that sponsors could only nominate one Level 1 user at application stage, and then had to wait for the licence to be put in place before nominating additional Level 1 users. Some users of the online application may have noticed that it was possible to do this before the new guidance was released. However, the new guidance expressly confirms that this is possible, provided at least one Level 1 user meets the above criteria.
The guidance confirms that if you nominate someone who does not meet the criteria, while the Home Office still reserves the right to refuse the application, it may also give you opportunity to nominate someone else who does meet the criteria first.
‘Personal’ sponsorship
The guidance previously stated that individuals (i.e. not companies) were unable to sponsor workers unless they were acting as sole traders looking to sponsor someone in their business. This exception has now been amended to prohibit any sponsorship intended in a ‘personal capacity.’
‘Personal capacity’ has been clarified in the new guidance which prevents sponsor licences being granted in either of the following circumstances:
- “you are an individual person or household who wishes to employ or engage a worker, or workers, in a personal capacity and you are not otherwise conducting business or providing service in the UK or
- the worker, or workers, will be employed by, or engaged for the personal benefit of, an individual who works for your organisation, or a close relative or partner of that individual, and the role is unrelated to your organisation’s wider activities”.
The Home Office has explicitly prohibited the above, its new guidance confirms that if they discover an individual is being sponsored in a personal capacity the licence will be revoked. However, it has highlighted an exception to the general prohibition if the sponsor is a diplomatic mission, consular post or recognised international organisation intending to sponsor a private servant in the household of either a diplomat, or a member of a recognised international organisation.
Passing on fees to employees
The guidance has also expressly banned the passing of certain sponsor licence costs onto an organisation’s sponsored employees. These changes come as a result of consistent attempts from employers to recoup certain costs of sponsorship through specific clauses inserted into their employment contracts.
For more information on this specific change please see our article here.
How can we help?
These changes reflect the Home Office’s continued commitment to the minimise the abuse of the current immigration system. We understand that the government is looking to address specific areas that have historically been exploited by employers.
Given the seriousness of the penalties threatened by the Home Office, it is as important as ever for sponsors to comply with the changes to the guidance. These changes can be and often are significant, it is therefore important to remain diligent in complying with your obligations as a sponsor.
If your business is a registered sponsor, you should consider whether these changes may affect you. Our Business Immigration team can help and provide ad-hoc advice to ensure your business complies with the new guidance.
If you would like to discuss any of these changes or require bespoke immigration advice, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our immigration team.
