About Alex Christen Alex Christen is a senior associate in Capital Law’s employment and immigration team. With over six years’ experience in providing businesses and individuals with immigration advice and praise from The Legal 500 for her professional approach, she supports clients across a range of industries on all manner of employment law. About Capital Law Capital Law is a full-service commercial law firm based in Wales. Its lawyers advise clients nationally and internationally, and across all sizes of business from SMEs to multinational corporations.The firm also works closely with its sister consultancy business, Capital People, which specialises in organisational development, human resources and health and safety. While the system has made immigration easier in some respects, in other respects many of the old issues remain. For most work visa routes, the individual wanting to work in the UK must have a sponsor. This is usually the business that will employ them. For the employer, this means there is still a requirement to apply for and maintain a sponsor licence, which is no small feat. The application process is still fairly cumbersome and expensive, making it hard for smaller businesses to afford to become a sponsor in the first place. The ongoing compliance duties are tricky for businesses to understand, and obligations are often missed, which can lead to a sponsor losing its licence and consequently its ability to employ non-UK nationals. Also to be considered are the timescales for applying for a licence or making changes to an existing one. Home Office resources are stretched, and licence applications are taking eight weeks plus additional time to process (with changes to licences taking up to 18 weeks). The Home Office is trying to resolve these issues, for example by opening up more priority licence application slots on a daily basis and by taking a more lenient approach to sponsors who voluntarily report licence breaches. Many of the new routes, particularly the global mobility routes (most of which are revamped old routes), still have onerous eligibility requirements. For example, anyone wanting to come to the UK under the Service Supplier route must show that their work falls under a relevant international trade agreement, in some cases have degree level or equivalent qualifications and up to six years on the job experience, and be fortunate enough to have a UK sponsor. Such onerous conditions mean that this route is rarely used. For whatever reason, the UK has chosen not to hop on board the remote working visa trend that many other countries have introduced, calling into question whether there can truly be a globally mobile visa route into the UK. The ambit of other routes is often misunderstood, and it remains to be seen how the new Scale Up route will fare, with applicants only having to work for their sponsor for six months before being free to explore UK vacancies elsewhere for the remainder of their visa. Similarly, the general overviews on gov. uk for each immigration route can be too simplistic, often missing out key pieces of information on the eligibility requirements for each visa route. The more detailed guidance notes for sponsors and applicants are extensive, but they too can be confusing and tricky to navigate. My best piece of advice to businesses here is to not be discouraged, and to seek legal advice to make sure they stay on the right side of immigration law. A good place to start is conducting an audit of your documents and HR systems to make sure you are compliant with your reporting obligations to the Home Office; are carrying appropriate right to work checks; and sponsoring suitable roles. There are serious financial penalties for businesses who do not follow the immigration rules, which should not be underestimated. 40 LAWYERMONTHLY SEPTEMBER 2022 Contact Alex Christen Senior Associate, Capital Law Capital Building, Tyndall Street, Cardiff, CF10 4AZ Tel: +44 02920 474423 www.capitallaw.co.uk My best piece of advice to businesses here is to not be discouraged, and to seek legal advice to make sure they stay on the right side of immigration law.
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