COVID-19 advice for Tier 2, 4 and 5 sponsors
The UK government has published advice for sponsors amid the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis for their Tier 2, 4 and 5 migrants.
Absences
Sponsors do not need to report absences for their students and workers if their absences are due to coronavirus. For example, if the students are self-isolating or unable to travel.
If the student is absent for more than 60 days due to the coronavirus pandemic, the sponsor need not withdraw their sponsorship.
Additionally, the Home Office is currently advising that sponsors do not need to withdraw their sponsorship where their worker is absent for more than 4 weeks.
Employees working from home
Sponsors are not required to report migrant workers working from home.
If the sponsors have had to reduce the migrant worker’s salary, you can temporarily reduce to 80% of their salary or £2,500 per month, whichever is lower.
Please kindly note that the reduction in salary must be due to the company’s policy to avoid redundancies and all workers are treated equally. Importantly, the measures must be temporary to adhere to the coronavirus pandemic.
Issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS)
If sponsors have issued a CoS but the applicants have not yet applied for a visa due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they may still be able to apply for their visas.
The Home Office will not refuse their applications if the reason was that the applicants were unable to travel because of coronavirus.
Please kindly note that this will be on a discretionary case by case basis.
Should you have any questions on sponsoring migrant worker and how the coronavirus will affect your migrant workers, please do not hesitate to contact our friendly team of immigration solicitors at barar.london@bararassociates.co.uk or call us at 020 7487 8370. You can access more information about us via https://bararassociates.com/.
