Immigration law specialists have welcomed a u-turn on Home Office guidance requiring employers sponsoring migrant workers to conduct right-to-work checks on anyone they ‘directly engage’.
In the past three months there have been three updates to the Home Office guidance about whom sponsors should conduct right-to-work checks on – the latest, published on 20 May, could bring much relief to employers with licences to sponsor workers.
There had been much consternation and confusion among immigration legal specialists and companies, about whether Home Office policy published in March and April would mean sponsoring employers now had to conduct a right-to-work check on anyone they engaged – even a window cleaner or a plumber called out in an emergency. Failure to conduct a check would lead to sponsor licences being withdrawn.
Specialists at Vanessa Ganguin Immigration Law told Personnel Today that, along with other firms, they had written to the Home Office explaining how asking sponsors to check the right-to-work of anyone they “directly engage” could mean mass confusion for HR teams and a huge expansion of their duties.
All the complaints appear to have resulted in a U-turn with the Home Office this week reversing the situation to its pre-March advice, which will be welcome news for teams on companies with sponsor licences.
The wording in the guidance on checking anyone they directly engage has been removed – at least for now. The new wording states: “You must check that any...
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