This page explains the rating they give to your human resource (HR) systems and compliance while employing migrants. They do this when you apply for a licence to sponsor migrants under the points-based system to work or study. They may also conduct checks after you have been granted a licence.

What Home Office assess

Home Office assess five individual areas of your HR systems, which are:

• Area 1: Monitoring immigration status and preventing illegal employment.
• Area 2: Maintaining migrant contact details.
• Area 3: Recordkeeping.
• Area 4: Migrant tracking and monitoring.
• Area 5: Professional registrations and accreditations

You must mostly achieve a rating of 1 in each of the five areas to get the top rating for your HR systems overall. The Home Office also assess your past compliance with immigration law while employing migrants.

The rating Home Office give to HR systems

The Home Office will rate your HR systems and compliance from 1 to 3 as follows:

1.                 You meet all of the criteria or are fully compliant.

2.                 You only meet some of the criteria or are partially compliant.

3.                 You do not meet any of the criteria or are non-compliant.

The standards Home Office use

The Home Office use specific standards when assessing whether to give you an A rating or B rating, or whether to refuse or withdraw your licence. Home Office assess:

• whether you have the correct human resource (HR) systems to make sure that you can meet your sponsorship duties; and
• whether you are complying with, or have previously complied with, the work permit arrangements and other immigration law.

The rating Home Office give you

Following The Home Office assessment, they will usually give an A rating when the organisation poses little or no risk and the organisation has been awarded the top rating for both its HR systems and compliance.

Home Office will usually give a B rating when Home Office have given an organisation a rating of 2 for its HR systems or compliance, or both of these. Home Office are likely to refuse the application when they have given an organisation a rating of 3 for either its HR systems or compliance.

It may also be possible to get an A rating or a B rating with an action plan if they give the sponsor a 1 or 2 for compliance but a 3 for HR systems. They will take into account both the severity and frequency of any non-compliance when deciding the appropriate rating.

How Home Office rate compliance

This page explains how Home Office rate your previous compliance with immigration law while employing migrants. Your compliance will affect your application for a licence to sponsor migrants under the points-based system to work or study.

Full compliance

Home Office decide you are fully compliant if, for example, there is no historical record of any non-compliance and Home Office find you to be fully compliant during a pre-licensing visit.

Partial compliance

Home Office decide you are partially compliant if:

• you have not informed The Home Office of any technical change(s) of employment relating to your migrants. For example, during the pre-licensing visit, they found that a work permit holder was working at a different branch of your company and you did not tell The Home Office; or
• the employment circumstances, job role or salary do not reflect those declared on the work permit application form but you can give The Home Office a reasonable explanation for the differences.

Non-compliance

They decide you are non-compliant if:

• you have had work permit applications refused or withdrawn because your facilities were not good enough to cope with the increased staff, and you did not have plans to expand to take account of that increase. For example, a small restaurant submitted several work permit applications for chefs. During a pre-issue compliance check they found that the kitchen facilities were obviously too small to accommodate that number of staff, and the employer admitted that there were no plans to expand; or
• you supply false information on any application to The Home Office or to one of their officers. For example, a start-up company sent false documents to establish itself as a genuine employer. During a compliance check, the employer provided salary details for its staff that were found to be incorrect when verified with HM Revenue & Customs; or
• the employment circumstances, job role or salary do not reflect those declared on the work permit application form and you were unable to offer a reasonable explanation for the differences; or
• you failed to co-operate with any request from The Home Office without a good reason, for example if you have repeatedly failed to meet their officers or refused access to your premises; or
• the level of abuse is so high that a significant number of your current work permit holders have had or will have their permits withdrawn or the college has been or will be removed from the register of educational establishments. For example, if you were found to have serious salary breaches with a number of work permit holders and are unable to offer any explanation for why those members of staff were being paid salaries significantly lower than those given on the work permit application forms; or
• there is evidence which suggests that you have seriously breached any other part of the work permit arrangements. For example, if you declared on a work permit application form an annual salary of £23,000 but a compliance check showed that the work permit holder's salary was £14,000. The work permit holder would also be paid a non-guaranteed bonus of £9,000, but only after staying at the company for a certain period of time, to encourage them to stay; or
• there is no valid trading presence in the United Kingdom or you are not a genuine organisation.