On New Year’s Eve, many were focused on celebrating the arrival of whatever 2025 may bring, but behind the scenes the Home Office introduced some significant changes to immigration policy. These updates have been quietly implemented as part of the government’s ongoing ‘crackdown’ on alleged abuse of the UK immigration system, but some could have far-reaching implications. In the absence of a thorough understanding of the relevant rules and guidance, even well-intentioned businesses could find themselves at the receiving end of a licence application refusal (following which there is a 6-month cooling off period before a new application can be submitted) or, worse, revocation of the licence for existing sponsors.

In this post we summarise the key changes.

Workers and Temporary Workers – guidance for sponsors part 1: apply for a licence

• Wording to clarify that sponsor licences must not be used to sponsor workers in a personal capacity including in the following circumstances:

• the sponsor is an individual person or household who wishes to employ or engage a worker, or workers, in a personal capacity and is not otherwise conducting business or providing a service in the UK; and
• the worker, or workers, will be employed by, or engaged for the personal benefit of, an individual who works for the sponsor, or a close relative or partner of that individual, and the role is unrelated to the sponsor’s wider activities

• New sponsors applying for a licence after 31 December 2024,...

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