Protecting your licence, and your workforce
We act for employers at every stage: applying for a licence, maintaining compliance, and responding when the Home Office suspends or revokes.
Applications and compliance
A sponsor licence carries continuing duties, and the Home Office enforces them strictly. We advise on applications, on the sponsor’s record-keeping and reporting obligations, and on preparing for a compliance visit. Problems identified and corrected early rarely become enforcement action.
- Sponsor licence applications
- Compliance audits and preparation for Home Office visits
- Assigning Certificates of Sponsorship
- Responding to Home Office requests for information
Suspension and revocation
A suspension is usually accompanied by a short deadline, commonly 20 working days, within which to submit written representations. Those representations are often the best opportunity to save the licence and should be prepared with care. Revocation carries no right of appeal. It can be challenged only by judicial review, and its consequences are serious: a cooling-off period before any fresh application, and the likely curtailment of sponsored workers’ permission. We prepare representations, advise candidly on the merits of a challenge, and bring judicial review proceedings where the decision is open to challenge.
One barrister, from application to appeal
In many firms the application is prepared by one person, the refusal is passed to another, and counsel is instructed only once the matter reaches the tribunal. Here, a barrister is involved from the outset. Your application is prepared with the evidence and legal issues addressed at the start, which is the best protection against refusal. If the Home Office does refuse, the barrister who already knows your case can move directly to the next step, whether that is an administrative review, an appeal or judicial review. Where proceedings need to be issued, we can conduct the litigation on your behalf, so you are not left to deal with the court alone.
Fees are fixed and agreed in writing before work begins. Further detail is available on initial enquiry. Some members of chambers are VAT registered and some are not; your client care letter will confirm whether VAT is payable. Home Office, tribunal and court fees are payable separately.
Discuss your matter with a barrister
Consultations are by appointment and charged at a fixed fee, agreed before we begin.