03 Sep Sponsorship reforms 2022
Sponsorship is required when a UK company wishes to hire a foreign worker under the Skilled Worker route or under the Health and Care visa route. Students who wish to pursue an educational course in the UK will need to be sponsored by an educational institution to be able to study.
As part of the requirements, most sponsors will need to evidence that they are a genuine business, are solvent and that the role they are hiring for meets the salary and skills requirements. Educational institutions are also required to undergo a compliance assessment and will be subject to further scrutiny if they wish to teach children.
As the UK seeks to develop its immigration system, a roadmap for reforms has been unveiled which aims to deliver a faster and simpler immigration system, reducing the amount of administrative worked required from sponsors.
In turn, the UK will be able to welcome overseas talent for employment and studies at a much quicker pace. The reforms aim to:
- Deliver a faster and smoother process for sponsors and workers in the UK, reducing the time it will take to recruit an overseas worker.
- The UKVI will aim to re-use information held on file already, where possible.
- Improving the accessibility and usability of systems, allowing sponsors to clearly understand the status of their sponsorship licence application and any outstanding steps.
- Faster processing times- the UKVI is reviewing their service standards and processing times. They aim to deliver an improved service by Spring 2022.
- New online sponsorship IT system- this will make it easier for sponsors to understand their application status and the documents required.
This new system will be rolled out in different phases and will only be available to a limited number of users first. The purpose of a phased roll-out is so that there will be an opportunity to test, learn and make the system as streamlined as possible, before making it available to all users.
