The Tier 2 Sponsor License regime

Earlier this week EL posted a detailed piece on the Free Movement asking whether Tier 2 was Brexit ready.

The piece outlines the current process - which is generally acknowledged to be cumbersome - and explores the issues that current employers face when trying to bring non-EEA foreign labour to the UK.

The article then considers what would happen in the event that a similar system was put in place to deal with the migration of skilled workers after Brexit.

Home Office overstretch?

This got us thinking. While we considered the administrative burden from the client side, what about the Home Office?

Compliance with the Tier 2 scheme can be enforced by way of visits - both announced and unannounced - by Home Office Sponsorship Investigation Teams, spread out around the country. These visits are governed by this guidance, if you are interested.

In the event that the Tier 2 system is replicated, what will this mean for the required size of the compliance teams?

FOI requests

As a starting point EL has recently made FOI requests to establish the details of the investigating teams - including manpower and budgets - and will report any response on these pages in due course.

Main image credit: Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash