Sponsor Licence Personnel & Authorising Officer Duties

The Sponsor Licence Authorising Officer Role

The senior and competent person in your company who oversees all SMS users’ activities and participates in recruitment must hold the position of sponsor licence Authorising Officer. This individual is responsible for ensuring that the requirements of the sponsor licence are satisfied, such as keeping a system in place so that checks may be made.

Throughout your licence duration, you will need an Authorising Officer onboard. They ensure that your company complies with immigration regulations, laws, and requirements of your company.

They do not automatically have access to the SMS, in contrast to Level 1 or Level 2 users. After your company has been granted the sponsor licence, the Authorising Officer may be set up as a Level 1 or Level 2 user, or they can be listed in the sponsor licence application form as a Level 1 user and Authorising Officer.

The Responsibilities of a Sponsor Licence Authorising Officer

The Authorising Officer’s responsibilities are worth noting. They include:

Recruitment of Workers

The hiring of all migrant employees by your company should be the responsibility of the Authorising Officer, who should also ensure that you fulfil your sponsor obligations. This indicates that you are required to have a performing Authorising Officer (who meets Authorising Officer requirements) for the duration of your licence.

First Point of Contact

The UK Visas and Immigration’s (UKVI) initial go-to person in contacting your company will be the Authorising Officer. They will receive emails if the obligations of sponsors change, if Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) need to be renewed, or if the licence itself needs to be renewed.

Authorise Changes to Licence

The Authorising Officer helps to authorise most of the updates or modifications you can make to your licence, such as informing UKVI that you just opened a new branch. This may be done by signing the Submission Sheet, which is generated each time you send a change notification through the Sponsor Management System (SMS).

Grants Access to SMS

The person chosen to serve as the Authorising Officer will be in charge of determining how many employees require access to the SMS, what degree of authorisation they should have, and how all SMS users should behave.

Ensure Compliance With UKVI Requirements

You must set up a means for the Authorising Officer to monitor activities to guarantee that all SMS users abide by UKVI’s rules for utilising these online features. For instance, it is advised that the CoS given to migrant workers be reviewed at least once every month. Anyone you intend to sponsor must have a current CoS assigned to them before they can submit a visa application to UKVI.

The General Sponsor Licence Duties & Compliance

The Key Personnel in your company must perform certain sponsor duties. They include:

Record-Keeping Duties

Your Key Personnel must keep the documents related to the migrant workers, your company sponsors, their current contact details, and proof of their right to work in the UK. They must also keep all the documents your company submitted during your application for a sponsor licence.

Reporting Duties

They are required to use the SMS to send certain information or events to UKVI within a given time frame, regarding any changes to a sponsored worker’s employment, such as if they are fired, or specific migrant worker behaviours, such as non-attendance, as well as any significant alterations to the organisation’s structure.

Monitoring Duties

Your Key Personnel must keep track of the absences and attendance of any migrant employees sponsored by the company, as well as their immigration status. This will help to prevent them from working illegally when they have a temporary permit to work lawfully in the UK.

You could face compliance action if your sponsor licensing essential personnel obligations are not met. The activities of anyone put up as an SMS user, as well as those of your Authorising Officer or key contact, will be your responsibility if UKVI decides to take action against you.

Therefore, you must make sure that anybody you choose to fill one or more of the key people positions is trustworthy and qualified. If you don’t fulfil your sponsor obligations, your CoS allocation might be reduced, unused CoS allocations might be taken away, or your licence might be downgraded, suspended, or revoked.

Other Sponsor Licence Personnel

There are other sponsor licence personnel who play crucial roles in your company. They include:

Level 1 Users

These employees typically handle your daily immigration job. They can fully access the SMS, and by default, they can:

• Carry out standard sponsorship tasks, such as distributing Certificates of Sponsorship, notifying authorities about migrant activity and changes in circumstances, requesting CoS, applying for and issuing restricted CoS, and applying to have your licence renewed.
• View information about your licence and tell UKVI of any changes to your company.
• Track the development of your licence renewal application.

For the course of your sponsor licence, you must keep a minimum of one active Level 1 User onboard; otherwise, you cannot fulfil your sponsor obligations. This need is the same as for the other Key Personnel roles.

Additionally, this person must be a worker, partner, or director. However, any extra Level 1 Users may be an employee who is not affiliated with your company, such as a UK-based legal representative or a worker for a company you have hired to perform all or some of your company’s HR duties.

Because your Level 1 Users carry out the day-to-day management of sponsorship activities, they should be able to do the following through the SMS:

• Let the UKVI know of any change to work addresses.
• Change user details.
• Assign CoS to migrant workers.
• Withdraw CoS.
• View information about your Key Personnel and sponsor licence.
• Inform UKVI of any little changes to your information.
• Inform UKVI of any changes to the situation.
• Inquire about increasing your CoS limit, or the quantity of CoS you are permitted to assign.
• Add Level 2 Users to the SMS and request new Level 1 Users, or remove them.
• Report any employee activity to UKVI, such as a worker leaving the company, going missing, or being absent from work.
• Access important remarks occasionally provided by UKVI.
• Track the status of your sponsor licence renewal application.
• Track the status of your application to receive premium customer service.

Level 2 Users

The Level 2 Users can also access the SMS but with some restrictions. Unlike the Level 1 Users, the Level 2 Users have limited access when using the SMS, such as not being able to withdraw a migrant worker’s CoS.

Besides that, the Level 2 Users cannot report changes in your company, whereas the Level 1 Users are not restricted. However, once you have received your licence, you can add as many Level 2 Users as you want.

The following actions can be performed by the Level 2 Users on the SMS:

• Create and issue CoS to migrant workers.
• Report the activities of migrant workers to the UKVI based on the CoS they have created and issued. Or based on the CoS given to them by a Level 1 User.
• Report on CoS assigned by a Level 1 User.

The Level 2 Users cannot get your company’s general licence information nor report any changes to your company.

Key Contact

The Key Contact in your organisation is the office holder through which the UKVI reaches out to your organisation regarding your sponsor licence. If the UKVI has questions regarding your sponsor licence application, the submitted documentation, or the payment, they will get in touch with your Key Contact.

The Home Office may conduct a pre-licence compliance visit if they have any issues with your sponsor licence application. Or they may carry out a random immigration audit after you have been granted a sponsor licence.

The Authorising Officer and the Key Contact will be important in either of these situations. Given that the Authorising Officer is in charge of managing the sponsor licence and making sure that the organisation complies with the sponsor licence Key Personnel obligations, it is common for the Key Contact and the Authorising Officer to be the same person.

Additionally, the SMS is not automatically accessible to the Key Contact. They must be granted access to the SMS just as a Level 1 or Level 2 User if they need access to the system.

Nominating Sponsor Licence Key Personnel

You must consider certain factors in nominating sponsor licence Key Personnel, such as the personnel’s eligibility criteria. The Key Personnel must:

• Not be a consultant or contractor for a particular project.
• Be mostly based in the United Kingdom.
• Not have a record of violating a sponsor’s requirements.
• Not be under a debt relief restriction order or undertaking, or a bankruptcy restriction order.
• Be paid employees or office holders. Unless they are an extra Level 1 or Level 2 User who works for another organisation and performs all or part of your HR job.

Who Cannot Be Nominated As Key Personnel?

Ensure you do not nominate Key Personnel who fall under any of the following:

• Be based outside of the United Kingdom.
• Hired for a particular project as a consultant or contractor.
• Under a bankruptcy restriction order, or undertaking.
• Under an undertaking or a debt relief restriction order.
• Legally barred from serving as a director of a company.

Remember that the UKVI may reject an application if any member of your Key Personnel worked for a sponsor organisation whose licence was revoked in the last 12 months.

The Process Of Changing Key Personnel

A typical risk area for sponsors in a company is to ensure that the Key Personnel roles are always occupied and that their contact details are current.

As an employer in a company, you must ensure that you find a suitable replacement for all vacant positions of Key Personnel and ensure they are reported on the SMS by updating their contact information. Situations that would make you update the SMS are if a selected individual switches jobs in the company and can no longer work in the capacity of Key Personnel. Or if a chosen employee leaves the organisation or takes an extended leave, such as maternity leave.

You just have about 20 days to report and update the SMS regarding the changes in your company. Enforcement action may be taken if the change is not reported and the SMS is not kept current.

According to recent guidelines published in 2023, requests made by the SMS to change the Authorising Officer or Key Contact and add new Level 1 Users would be immediately complied with, if certain requirements are followed.

The criteria could be if the postcode of the sponsor organisation’s address or its head office address is the same with the postcode of the address for the new Authorising Officer, Key Contact or Level 1 User, and the postcode of a legal representative organisation that the sponsor has informed the Home Office is acting on its behalf.

Additionally, the sponsor should be an A-rated sponsor and the licensing must be completely valid. If you do not meet these requirements, your request will typically be considered manually, and pertinent checks will be carried out before any decision will be made.

How IAS Can Help You

As an employer, you must understand how important sponsor licence personnel and an authorising officer are in your company. There are certain roles they must play to ensure that your company retains its sponsor licence.

It is also crucial to understand how and when to take action in bringing your workers into the UK, especially as a sponsor licence holder. Because of this, you would need legal assistance to ensure you comply with the UK immigration laws.

We recommend you reach out to our immigration lawyers at IAS for expert guidance. We are well recognised for our expertise in all immigration-related matters in the UK, including advising sponsor licence holders. Learn how HR can manage the immigration process in our comprehensive guide.

We have helped several organisations by advising them on sponsor licence guidance part 1 to obtain their licences (for organisations seeking licences), bring their overseas workers to the UK and advise them on the best ways to retain employees and their sponsor licence. Let us help your organisation be more successful. Call us today on +44 (0)333 305 9375 or message us online for immediate assistance.