Business Immigration

Our team is here to help you understand and manage the complex nuances of immigration law.

Post-Brexit, many more employers will need to apply for a sponsor licence as this is now required in order to employ any skilled worker from outside the UK, including EU nationals. We can guide you through the sponsor licence application process and advise you on your sponsor duties.

If you are already a sponsor, we will work closely with your business, tailoring our support to the specific needs of your company. We can provide proactive full end-to-end support (including advice on the recruitment process, management of visa applications and sponsor compliance audits to ensure you are fully compliant with your sponsor duties) or ad-hoc advice on specific queries as and when needed.

Key business immigration services

Below is a list of the business immigration services we provide:

• Advice on the post-Brexit points based immigration system for employing skilled workers from overseas, including EU nationals.
• Applying for and obtaining a sponsor licence, including advice on sponsor duties such as record keeping and reporting duties.
• Applying for and assigning Certificates of Sponsorship.
• Management of and advice on Skilled Worker and Temporary Worker visa applications.
• Management of and advice on Global Business Mobility visas including the Senior or Specialist Worker visa for intra-group transfers from overseas.
• Advice on the new Scale Up visa and High Potential Individual visa.
• Compliance audits for sponsors to ensure you have all the required HR systems and up-to-date processes in place.
• Advice on ‘right to work’ checks and compliance issues.
• Regular updates and seminars on business immigration issues to keep you up to date with all relevant Home Office guidance and legislation.

Examples of business immigration work

• Advising both national and multinational businesses on the process of obtaining a sponsor licence and subsequently applying for and assigning Certificates of Sponsorship to preferred candidates. This enables them to sponsor skilled workers who are either overseas or who are currently in the UK on a skilled worker visa and wish to change employers. This includes supporting the potential employees with their individual visa applications and those of their dependants, resulting in clients securing the employees they require for key roles in the UK.
• Advising on Home Office delays and how to expedite immigration processes, including advice on the pre-licence priority service to ensure a sponsor licence decision within 10 working days and fast track priority visa applications for potential employees.
• Detailed advice on sponsor duties and compliance issues such as reporting and recording duties, including how to address historic non-compliance issues.
• Advising businesses on the immigration aspects of mergers and acquisitions. Advising on the process of notifying a change on an existing sponsor licence (change of circumstances applications) or applying for a new sponsor licence following a change in ownership or a TUPE situation, including advising on the impact on existing sponsored employees.
• Guiding a business through the process of successfully employing a skilled overseas national, enabling it to set up a new UK office and transfer staff from China. This included helping the company to identify the relevant SOC code for the role and advising on the requirements of the recruitment process.
• Advising on the requirements of a sponsor licence for Global Business Mobility visas/intra-company transfers and senior/specialist worker visa applications.
• Advising companies on the transition to the new post-Brexit points based immigration system, including how best to adapt business models post-Brexit where previous working arrangements are no longer viable under the current visa rules.
• Advising on the options available to companies wishing to bring people to the UK on a short term basis, including permitted activities for business visitors and Frontier Worker permits for EU nationals.
• Advising businesses on Temporary Worker categories including seasonal workers, charity workers, religious workers and youth mobility scheme workers.
• Advising companies on Graduate visas for international students who have graduated from UK universities.
• Advising businesses on right to work checks and potential illegal working issues, including identifying falsified documents and advising on the appropriate reporting of suspected illegal working issues to the Home Office.
• Providing training to businesses on immigration issues such as applying for a sponsor licence and employing skilled workers, sponsor licence duties and management, right to work checks and the requirements of the EU Settlement Scheme for EU nationals.

In-House Counsel

Our team of experienced lawyers is well-equipped to support you in various ways. Whether you require advice on a specific issue, additional resources due to capacity constraints, or a second opinion, we are here to help. Explore our legal counsel page for more information and details on our schedule of seminars, specifically designed for in-house counsel.

How we work with you

Whilst based in the South of England, Paris Smith acts for businesses and families throughout the UK. Technology has enabled us to provide a high level of service to our clients whether they are local to our offices or not. Our advice can be given in many ways:

• Over the telephone
• Via video conferencing
• In face to face meetings

We will talk through how you would like to be contacted and the best ways for us to meet in our early conversations with you.