This morning we held a webinar which covered the impact that mergers, acquisitions, demergers, and any other organisational restructures have on your Sponsor Licence and immigration compliance. This is a broad area in which we have specialised since the beginning of the Points Based System (PBS), which has attracted quite a bit of change since the inception of the PBS scheme.
It is impossible to go into a great deal of detail in a blog post due to the complex nature of the transactions that lead to these particular Sponsor Licence changes – for this, please contact us direct on 020 7494 0118 to get advice, support and assistance – however, we wanted to share with you a simple check list of ‘must dos‘ for when you are going through a restructure:
- Consider the immigration issues at an early stage of M&A. We appreciate and are acutely aware that more often than not, HR are the last to be advised when such a change is being discussed or about to happen; however, we always encourage clients to come to us as early as possible. Pre-planning is extremely important, and in fact, key.
- If you are required to apply for a new Sponsor Licence as a result of merger, take over or demerger, diarise the deadline for applying for a Sponsorship Licence with all supporting days within 20 days.
- Ensure that all relevant notifications are made within 20 days, in relation to the transaction, for example, change to migrant circumstances.
- Carry out the Right to Work checks within 60 days of a TUPE or similar agreement.
Author
Founder and Managing Director Anne Morris is a fully qualified solicitor and trusted adviser to large corporates through to SMEs, providing strategic immigration and global mobility advice to support employers with UK operations to meet their workforce needs through corporate immigration.
She is a recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers as a legal expert and delivers Board-level advice on business migration and compliance risk management as well as overseeing the firm’s development of new client propositions and delivery of cost and time efficient processing of applications.
Anne is an active public speaker, immigration commentator, and immigration policy contributor and regularly hosts training sessions for employers and HR professionals
