29/11/2007

Home office releases statement of intent re: immigration sponsorship

The minister for immigration, Liam Byrne, has given details of the Home Office statement of intent to oblige British businesses, educational establishments, and even churches to apply for a licence to sponsor overseas nationals. The scheme comes at a price, and failure to comply will mean all rights to sponsor foreign immigrant workers will be removed. For those who are found to continue to circumvent the immigration law a tougher sentence is possible.

On the surface, the scheme looks harmless enough with only a small fee to pay for a four-year licence to bring in those immigrants who are necessary to a sponsor’s business. It assists in tighter immigration controls and is beneficial to the UK. According to immigration experts Global Visas (www.globalvisas.com), however, dig a little deeper and it’s possible to see some major pitfalls which sponsoring organisations could fall into. For example, if a company changes hands and fails to register the changes, all sponsored employees could have their visas revoked. The biggest issues will be with large companies relying on hundreds of senior overseas nationals to work in their team. Under the new scheme, if a sponsorship licence is revoked or suspended as part of a dispute or for other reasons it will prevent any new staff being allowed into the UK and those in the UK must stop work.

As the new system beds in, Global Visas says it's concerned that many people will be caught out. Under the new Points Based Scheme (PBS) for immigration, sponsors have far more to lose if they get it wrong and also a far greater burden of proof to confirm they have all the relevant processes and procedures in place to justify continued registration as a sponsor.

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