How we withdraw a licence

This page explains why we would withdraw your licence as a sponsor under the points-based system.

If your licence is withdrawn it will be withdrawn from all the tiers, categories and sub-categories that you are registered in.

Circumstances when we will withdraw your licence

You will lose your licence if:

• you stop trading or operating for any reason including insolvency;
• you stop being accredited or registered with any body that you need to be accredited or registered with to get a licence. For example, we will withdraw an educational institution's licence if it loses its accreditation with the appropriate accrediting body;
• you, or another relevant person, are issued with a civil penalty for employing one or more illegal workers (under Section 15 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006), and the fine imposed for at least one of those workers is set at the maximum amount (currently £10,000), unless we withdraw or reduce the penalty or it is cancelled or reduced on appeal;
• you have been B-rated and have not complied with an action plan for a period of 12 months or more; or
• you are B-rated and have assigned a certificate of sponsorship saying the job was on the shortage occupation list when it was not.

Circumstances when we will normally withdraw your licence

You will normally lose your licence if you, or another relevant person, are convicted of one of the following offences (unless it is a spent conviction under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974):

• any offence under the Immigration Act 1971, the Immigration Act 1988, the Asylum and Immigration Appeals Act 1993, the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 or the UK Borders Act 2007;
• trafficking for sexual exploitation; or
• any other offence which, in our opinion, shows that you pose a risk to immigration control - for example, offences involving dishonesty or deception, including any of the offences listed in Appendix B of the full policy guidance of the policy guidance. Any other unspent convictions could also lead to an application being refused.

You will also normally lose your licence if you, or another relevant person, are dishonest in any dealings with us. This includes, among other things:

• making false statements, or failing to disclose any essential information, when applying for a licence; or
• making false statements, or failing to disclose any essential information, when issuing a certificate of sponsorship - for example, falsely claiming to have met the resident labour market test.

You will also normally lose your licence if:

• you employ a migrant in a job that would not satisfy the appropriate skill level (for example, a skill level equivalent to S/NVQ level 3 or above in tier 2);
• you do not pay a migrant in the tier 2 - skilled workers category at least the salary (and/or allowances or benefits) specified on the certificate of sponsorship;
• you, or another relevant person, become legally prohibited from acting as a company director;
• you, or another relevant person, become an undischarged bankrupt);
• you, or another relevant person, are issued with a civil penalty for an offence listed in Appendix C of the full policy guidance of the policy guidance, and fail to pay it within the time allowed (unless we withdrew the penalty or it is cancelled on appeal); or
• you fail to comply with an action plan we set.

We cannot define precisely in which exceptional circumstances we may not withdraw your licence when one of the above circumstances applies. However, we regard this seriously and would look for evidence that you were either not responsible for what happened or that, if you were, that you took prompt and effective action to remedy the situation when it came to light. For example:

• if one of your employees was wholly responsible for the dishonesty, that person was dismissed when it came to light; or
• if a migrant was paid the wrong salary because of a problem with your payroll system, this was corrected as soon as possible.

If one of the above circumstances applies and we do not withdraw the licence, we are likely to downgrade you to a B rating.

Circumstances when we may withdraw your licence

We may withdraw your licence if:

• you fail to comply with any of your duties;
• as a result of information available to our visiting officers, we are not satisfied that you are using the processes or procedures necessary to fully comply with your duties;
• you, or another relevant person, are convicted of an offence that we consider to be serious. We will not take into account spent convictions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974;
• we find that migrants that you have sponsored have not complied with the conditions of their permission to stay in the United Kingdom, and you have not been following good practice guidance set out by us or a sector body; or
• you or any organisation that you, or another relevant person, have been involved with in a similar role has its authorisation removed by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. (This applies to individuals or organisations that provide immigration advice or services.)

We may withdraw the licence of a B-rated sponsor if any of its level 1 or level 2 users disclose their sponsorship management system password to another person.

We may also withdraw your licence if you are an education provider and:

• you continue to sponsor a migrant after they have already failed a re-sit twice or repeated a period of study twice; and/or
• a work placement associated with any of your courses for tier 4 general students accounts for more than 50% of the total course length; and/or
• the study element of any course offered to sponsored students is not undertaken on your own premises; and/or
• you offer courses that are below S/NVQ level 3 (or equivalent), or are below CEFR level A2 for English Language courses, to general students. (This only applies to the migrant's main course of study. Supplementary studies can be at any level.)

If we decide not to withdraw your licence in one or more of the above circumstances, we may downgrade you to a B rating.

OISC is the body responsible for ensuring that all immigration advisers meet the requirements of good practice.