If you are an organization or institution based in the UK and are seeking the services of foreign citizens in your business company on a temporary or a permanent basis, then a sponsorship license is one of the most crucial and fundamental requirements you need to have to do that. This license allows the individual or organization to hire foreign based employees or allow students from other countries to learn at the institution.
It is necessary that you apply for a British sponsorship license before you proceed with hiring foreign workers to work at your institution according to https://imperiallegal.com/sponsorship-licence/.
Not doing so can result in strict legal action against your organization that you definitely don’t want to deal with.
The thing is, applying for this license is no easy task and there are a number of factors that need to be kept in mind before one proceeds to do so. If you too are one of these people who wishes to apply for the license but is confused on how to do so, then don’t worry because we have you covered.
In this article we will be listing several tips that you can use before you apply for a UK sponsorship license in 2024. Read the article till the end so that you don’t miss out on crucial details.
1. Organize all the necessary documents before you apply for the license
It is necessary that you organize all the required documents and papers beforehand while applying for a sponsorship license. There is a very limited window of time to submit these documents and not being able to submit them in this time slot can cause your application to be rejected. Having a set of all the documents you need while you are applying for your license will help you out a lot.
These documents need to either be original true copy documents or a copy that has been verified by a solicitor. An unsolicited copy of an important document will be inadmissible and there is a high chance that your application can get rejected because of it so ensure that you prove the authenticity of the documents before sending them to the website via email.
2. Confirm if you have the budget for the sponsorship license
While a sponsorship license is relatively easy to apply for, it is financially much harder to maintain – especially if you are a sole individual and are not representing an institution or organization.
An organization which has a turnover of over £10 million, has assets that are worth £5 million or more and has more than 50 employees, directly qualifies as a medium or a large organization. If your organization or you as an individual don’t meet these requirements, then you qualify as a small organization where you will be able to enjoy a much lesser fee.
The sponsorship fee for applying for the license for a medium and large sized organization is anywhere around £1,476. While the fee is considerably lesser for small organizations or individuals, it is still a hefty £500, more or less. We strongly recommend that you keep this expense in mind when applying for a sponsorship license.
3. Apply as early as possible
The UK Visas and Immigration office responsible for sanctioning your sponsorship application is notorious for taking a long amount of time to process it. The office takes a minimum of 8 weeks to complete and process each application and some people have even reported the process taking a longer period of time due to several reasons.
Sometimes the office even asks you to take a compliance check with the application which only adds to the amount of time it takes to complete the process. If you are going to apply for the license, we strongly recommend that you do it as soon as possible to ensure that you have the license in hand when you need it the most.
4. Check who qualifies the most as an ‘Authorizing Officer’ and provide them with training
To complete a sponsorship license application form, you need to assign a specific individual in your organization as the authorizing officer for the license. This officer is the one responsible for managing all foreign workers and employees as well as international students. This is an important and sensitive responsibility and should be only given to the most experienced and senior person in your organization who can carry out their duty successfully.
Once you pick the most suitable individual, you will need to provide them with adequate training and teach them about the various obligations and rules that come under the sponsor management system. There are various websites and agencies out there that can provide you the resources you need to teach your authorizing officer about the management system and ensure that they comply with all the regulations.
5. Consider the aftermath of the process
The office of the UK Visa and Immigration requires you to report all relevant matters and events to them in a very short period of time so that they can verify your organization’s authenticity. These reports have a very short window of time of about 9 to 11 business days. These reports can be regarding anything – your organization’s HR facility, recent changes in your organization, addition of a new workforce, etc.
Arranging these reports is a painstaking task and also a very time consuming one which is why we recommend that you always assign an employee or worker to these tasks who can handle these matters in a much more effective way. These employees should be informed and taught beforehand about their responsibility and what they need to report to the office so that they can carry out their task efficiently.
Always ensure that you put in all necessary deadlines for each report so that your employees have a clear cut idea of by what time they are supposed to submit their reports.
Conclusion
Applying for a British sponsorship license in 2024 is no easy task and we hope this article provides insightful tips to you that can help you out during the process. If this article was helpful for you, please consider following our website for regular updates as it will help us out immensely.