Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, the cost of living crisis together with other global challenges are all contributing to the difficulties faced by UK employers struggling to recruit candidates. Employers intending to recruit from outside the UK and Ireland in the near future should consider the five tips outlined below by Katerina Lunt, Caseworker at Latitude Law.
Apply for a Home Office sponsor licence
Employers looking to take on overseas candidates who require sponsorship to be employed in the UK can apply for a Home Office Skilled Worker sponsor licence. Fees to apply for a four-year licence range from £536 to £1,476, depending on the size of the organisation.
Additional fees will be incurred including an immigration skills charge payable for each sponsored worker, and other relevant criteria must be met once a suitable candidate is chosen, depending on the length of time they are being sponsored to work in the UK, which can be up to five years and is a route to settlement in the UK.
Before you apply: Check your current employees' right to work
The Home Office expects employers to have policies in place to ensure that their employees have had valid right to work checks carried out, before their employment commenced, to ensure that their employment is lawful. Employers are also expected to have procedures in place to confirm that employees with limited permission to work in the UK have follow-up checks completed for them prior to the expiry of their permission to work.
Before you apply: Ensure you have suitable personnel in place to manage the licence
There are certain requirements that all key personnel must meet to qualify for the key personnel roles. These roles include authorising officer, key contact and Level 1/Level 2 user(s).
To be considered eligible, individuals must meet the following suitability criteria:
- be an employed member of staff and/or office holder and be present and permanently in the UK, at least for the duration of the licence, and hold the relevant immigration status to do so
- must not be subject to bankruptcy restrictions or debt relief restrictions
- must not have any unspent criminal convictions
- must not have had any adverse involvement with the Home Office, for example, they were subject to a civil penalty due to being involved in the employment of illegal workers in the past
The last two points may be the most challenging when it comes to choosing suitable key personnel to manage the licence. Employers should have conversations with the individuals they have in mind for these roles in order to check whether there are any skeletons in the closet, prior to an application being made for a Home Office sponsor licence.
If sponsorship isn’t for you, employers may wish to explore other options, albeit the information below is a non-exhaustive list of alternative options to sponsorship.
The EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
EU nationals and their family members who were present in the UK by 31st December 2020 were able to apply under the EUSS by the deadline of 30th June 2021. Applications can still be made for EU nationals and their family members if they can provide reasonable grounds for not applying by the deadline.
Family members of EU nationals overseas can also apply to join their family if certain criteria and conditions are met. It may be worth employers asking EU candidates if they have any direct family members who they may be able to join in the UK under the EUSS and therefore obtain immigration status and the right to work in the UK.
Frontier worker permits and business visitors to the UK
Since 1st July 2021, EU nationals whose place of residence is normally in the EU or elsewhere but who come to the UK regularly for work require a frontier worker permit to continue such arrangements, provided they were in place on or before 31st December 2020.
As mentioned, there may be other options for employers intending to sponsor workers from overseas that are not covered above. This is particularly relevant for employers who are part of a larger multi-national organisation and require intra-corporate transfers and/or individuals from overseas to enter the UK on a temporary basis, for example, individuals coming to the UK as business visitors to undertake permitted intra-corporate activities.
