Immigration Solicitors

The time is upon us where various education institutions will be actively taking steps to ensure compliance to renew their Tier 4 Sponsorship Licence after the 4 year period. Most, if not all Sponsors should be receiving a reminder email or letter by the Home Office a few weeks before the expiry date. And let’s face it; we rarely open correspondence from the Home Office with a smile.

Key personnel working as part of the compliance teams within universities will be approaching the renewal process in one of two ways; they will either be confident that the renewal process will be quite straightforward (as all is going well so far) or panicking as they are uncertain as to what needs to be done in the ever changing world of Immigration Law to ensure a smooth renewal process.

It’s fair to assume that the latter is usually the smarter way to approach this, especially if one or more students have had their Certificate of Acceptance to Study (CAS) refused or withdrawn.

Failure to renew a Sponsorship Licence in time

If for any reason a Tier 4 Sponsorship Licence is not renewed in time, Sponsors will no longer hold a licence to sponsor students and as such, all foreign students will have to cease their studies. It would be well-advised that senior staff members diarise the ‘Licence End Date’ or find a way to set up a reminder well in advance, so that the crucial application renewal date is not missed.

Furthermore, with no licence, students will soon start receiving curtailment letters, informing them that they have 60 days to find a new sponsor. If they do not, they would either need to make a separate application to the Home Office or they must leave the United Kingdom.

Naturally, Student Services at Universities will then have to deal with an influx of enquiries from Students asking what is going on. Resources at Universities will be strained and students may even express their concerns online causing reputational damage to the institution, all in the matter of a few days.

I have successfully followed the steps online, what now?

It’s very likely, given the size of the institutions and the number of students enrolled, that the Home Office will audit the premises to ensure compliance with the Sponsorship Duties of a Licence Holder.

The Audit itself is no walk in the park; the Home office will usually attend the premises with no notice and immediately audit files at a random selection.

Some of the things that the Home Office will look at are:

- The Monitoring of each Student’s whereabouts;
- Monitoring of their Immigration Status; and
- Record Keeping Duties.

The criteria for the audit are very rigid and any non-compliance is recorded. The action that the Home Office take usually depends on a variety of factors but is not limited to:

- Order the Sponsor to take active steps to rectify the non-compliance;
- Restrict or reduce the number of Certificates they can issue; and
- In the case of a fundamental breach, the Home Office could suspend or revoke a Sponsor Licence.

It’s safe to assume that there would be huge financial implications should there be a reduction or even a revocation of a Sponsorship Licence given the number of Overseas Students the UK welcomed through the borders each year.

In that regard, it is worth noting that most breaches can be resolved with simple compliance measures being in place and the effective training of staff to ensure document keeping is always in order from the outset. Should the Home Office wish to conduct an audit, this will ensure smooth running of the auditing process.

How can we assist?

Most potential non-compliance/s or breaches can be resolved by putting simple measures in place to prevent any breaches of a Sponsor’s duties.

One effective way in which we can assist is by conducting Mock Audits at our client’s premises and providing detailed reports on their compliance with the current Immigration rules. We are able to provide remedial solutions to rectify most breaches.

Clients have provided feedback on the aforementioned reports that have been drafted by the Specialists at Duncan Lewis, and have reported a 100% increase in the efficiency of their HR compliance processes.

About the Author – Shyam Dhir

Shyam Dhir has a great track record when it comes to Sponsorship Compliance and has been described as ‘tenacious’, ‘very efficient’ and ‘straight to the point’ when advising Companies with their compliance practices. Shyam receives regular instructions from companies all over the UK to conduct ‘Mock Audits’ and to implement practices to ensure compliance with the Immigration Rules for Sponsors.

Following a Mock Audit in which Shyam attended, the files which were organised were subsequently audited by the Home Office a few days later and were described by the Auditing team at the premises as ‘very good’.

Duncan Lewis have a dedicated team of Lawyers who specialise in Compliance for both Universities and Companies, both in the UK and overseas. They can be contacted on 0203 114 1271 or by email at privateimmigration@duncanlewis.com.