How do I sponsor a migrant?
The rating system
This page explains the rating we give to your human resource (HR) systems and compliance while employing migrants. We do this when you apply for a licence to sponsor migrants under the points-based system to work or study. We may also conduct checks after you have been granted a licence.
On this page
What we assess
We 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.
We also assess your past compliance with immigration law while employing migrants.
The rating we give to HR systems
We will rate your HR systems and compliance from 1 to 3 as follows:
- You meet all of the criteria or are fully compliant.
- You only meet some of the criteria or are partially compliant.
- You do not meet any of the criteria or are non-compliant.
See the pages for each HR area and for compliance for more details.
The standards we use
We use specific standards when assessing whether to give you an A rating or B rating, or whether to refuse or withdraw your licence. We 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 we give you
Following our assessment, we 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.
We will usually give a B rating when we have given an organisation a rating of 2 for its HR systems or compliance, or both of these.
We are likely to refuse the application when we 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 we give the sponsor a 1 or 2 for compliance but a 3 for HR systems.
We will take into account both the severity and frequency of any non-compliance when deciding the appropriate rating.
For details of how we decide ratings for compliance, see How we rate compliance.
For details of how we decide ratings for human resource systems, see How we rate human resource systems.
See the Keep the right staff records guide on the Business Link website for more guidance on setting up a staff records scheme.