Sponsorship and risk management

All employers should make sure that they are familiar with the law on employing illegal migrant workers. If you want to make sure that you are complying with your immigration law obligations, we can help with our compliance audit.

If you want to employ migrant workers under Tier 2 of the Points Based System, we can help you to register as a Sponsor, and advise you on your obligations under the Sponsorship Management System.

We can also advise and represent you if your business is being investigated by the UK Border Agency.

Tier 2 PBS and Work Permit employment

We can advise on issuing Certificates of Sponsorship under the PBS, and on managing the immigration status of any employees whose permission to work is based on the old Work Permits system.

Tier 1 PBS and Highly Skilled Migrant Programme

Employees with Tier 1 (General) or HSMP status have the freedom to take any employment for the duration of their visa. If you are an employer, you may prefer to assist a prospective employee to come to the UK with this status, if you don’t want to register as a Sponsor.

Students

Many overseas students have the right to work for up to 20 hours a week while they study. We can help your business make sure it is geared up to monitor compliance with your employees’ conditions of leave.

Business visitors

This visa category is appropriate for overseas workers attending the UK for conferences and courses, where they will not be employed in the UK during their visit. It’s also useful for “secondees” coming to oversee the work of an independent contracted company.

European Economic Area and Swiss nationals

We can advise you on your employees’ European free movement rights, and advise you on permission to work for non-EEA spouses and partners of EEA nationals.

Family members

Many categories of work visa allow the holder to bring members of their immediate family with them to the UK. Many dependants in this category are allowed to work during the currency of their partner’s visa. We can help you assess a job applicant's right to work where they could fall into this category.

Employment law

Our Employment and Immigration solicitors are part of the same team, so you can be certain that we will look at your business immigration requirements in a rounded commercial context.