Whilst 2015 now feels like a distant memory and the majority of individuals are anticipating the major updates on the 6th April, we mustn’t forget some important announcements that took place in the latter half of 2015.
From the 19th November 2015 sponsors must keep references as evidence of an employee’s previous experience if they are appointed on the basis of this experience.
Another update to the Immigration rules in November requires Tier 2 and 5 authorising officers to be responsible for the activities of all SMS users, thus, they must have a system in place to check such activities.
Managing Director, Jonathan Beech, says that “I would recommend that as a minimum the authorising officer checks the certificates of sponsorship assigned to migrants on a monthly basis, to ensure that they are fulfilling their sponsorship duties”.
Employers must review the current version of the sponsor guidance to ensure that they are aware of any changes that may affect them, for example, they must have an employee who is a level 1 user, in order to ensure that they will be able to fulfil their sponsor duties. Employers must make sure that they are compliant with any requirements that have been introduced since their first licence approval.