Immigration Compliance Audit & Training

Sponsor Licence holders are subject to compliance audits by the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). UKVI has the right to visit any business premises with or without prior intimation. More often these visits happen without prior notice as Home Office need not have to give you advance notice of the visit.

If inconsistencies are found when you have applied for sponsor licence your application may be refused. If you already have a licence, it could be downgraded, suspended or even revoked, impacting your sponsored employees’ visas and your business.

The purpose of the UKVI compliance audit is to verify whether you have complied with the sponsorship duties and specific requirements. These audits will involve interviewing your nominated officers to check if they have full knowledge of sponsor duties. UKVI Validation Officers will also interview a few of your sponsored employees. They will examine your internal compliance systems and check if you are maintaining the mandatory records of migrant employees. They will also review job descriptions, salary records, work hours, work location to check if these are consistent with Certificates of Sponsorship and check if you are complying with Prevention of Illegal Working requirements.

Validation visits are stressful, and even the sponsors with good knowledge of sponsor duties and record keeping can easily faulter. This would normally happen incase they have not been up to date in carrying out checks on visa validity or updating records or failed to report change of circumstances. When a business is found to be in breach of immigration rules by employing a migrant without right to work, a civil penalty for illegal employment may be served up to £20,000.00 per breach.

How we can help?

We have participated in many Home Office audits of our clients’ premises and have full knowledge of the processes involved in these audits. Onboard are experienced advisors who previously worked for the Home Office within Immigration Enforcement. In the past, we have carried out internal audits for several companies and provided training on how to be compliant with the immigration rules and face a Home Office audit.

We offer internal compliance audit service to ensure that your company remains compliant with your sponsor duties and be aware of changes to immigration rules on an ongoing basis. We have established a reputation for conducting internal immigration audits and training employers on how to be compliance with their sponsor duties.

As part of our audit and training service we cover a number of aspects of compliance. These include employing suitable people, salary threshold, Skilled Occupation Codes, Shortage Occupations, Migrants Record Keeping, Prevention of Illegal working, Reporting change of circumstances of sponsored employees and your business. We also discuss how to spot early pattern of migrants’ behavior which may have cause for concern and other duties as a Sponsor Licence holder.

For more information and assistance please contact us.