Policy: Visa & Immigration

In this article we run through our key procedures around visa allocations for overseas or domestic workers who need a visa to remain to work at our schools

At Hatching Dragons we take our duties of safeguarding very seriously - part of that includes ensuring that our staff are consistent and therefore have the right to remain in country for the duration of their care of our children.

The company only issues contracts to those who have a minimum of one year left on their visa with a right to remain and work in the UK and are working towards securing a sponsorship license to issue eligible candidates with Tier 2 General Work Visas to keep them in country longer. Eligible Visas include:

Tier 1 Entrepreneur (graduate or otherwise)
Tier 1 Investor
Tier 2 General Working Visa (within the UK)
Tier 4 Student (up to 20 hours / week or as part of an application for a full time position with Hatching Dragons as and when the organisation is awarded a license to sponsor)
Tier 5 Youth Mobility Scheme
Tier 5 Government Authorised Exchanges - as long as the programme provider is vetted and agreed by Hatching Dragons board to be a suitable partner to the business

Hatching Dragons reserves the right to change the eligibility criteria at any point based on the changing nature of the UK’s visa & immigration policy as set out by the Home Office and assume no liability for the any changes to that policy that a Government may or may not make during the period of its tenure.

Managing Visas:

Currently, Hatching Dragons frames our Visa & Immigration policy under our Safeguarding frameworks as we believe that a child’s right to a consistent key worker is fundamental to their care with us. As such, we employ similar systems to ensure that the candidate / key worker / employees is suitable to work with children through the issuance of regular:

Staff declarations (see here)
Annual Declarations of codes of conduct (see here)

Both which require the employee to formally declare any changes to their circumstances on an annual basis.

We also augment this with a strong adoption of the HR systems set out by BambooHR in which named managers are required (and reminded) to check on a Visa staffers place of residence and leave to remain.

Hatching Dragons will pay any visa application fee on behalf of the applicant. Should the applicant leave within the period allocated against their work visa, they will be required to pay back (of the application fee):

The Full amount (if within the first 12 months)
75% (if between 12-24 months)
50% (if between 24-36 months)
25% if before the visa expires thereafter

RECORD KEEPING

We will keep the following records or documents, and make them available to UKBA on request:

a photocopy or electronic copy of the relevant page, or pages, of each sponsored migrant’s passport, worker authorisation (Purple Registration Certificate) or UK immigration status document and biometric residence permit (if available) - that show their entitlement to work including their period of leave to remain in the UK
each sponsored migrant’s contact details - up to date UK residential address, telephone number and mobile telephone number as per Appendix D: Record Keeping Guidance
Biometric information for those suitable

We will give UKBA, when asked, any documents relating to our sponsored migrants or the running of your organisation that they consider relevant to assessing our compliance with our duties as a sponsor, including recruitment practices to demonstrate resident labour market tests are being carried out .

REPORTING

We report to Home Office on specific changes / events using the Sponsorship Management System (SMS) (Users 1 and 2 can affect as above).

Any information reported about a migrant’s non attendance, non compliance or disappearance will be used to take enforcement action against them by Home Office and the Visa & Immigration Services.

We will report, within 10 working days, through the SMS:

if a sponsored migrant does not turn up for their first day of work - we include any reason given for their non-attendance, for example a missed flight, including the last recorded residential address and contact telephone number for the migrant, and any personal email addresses we have for them
if a sponsored migrant’s contract of, or for employment, or services or registration is terminated earlier than shown on their certificate of sponsorship (CoS), for example if the migrant resigns or is dismissed - we will must include the name and address of any new employer that the migrant has moved to, if known; including the last recorded residential address and contact telephone number for the migrant, and any personal email addresses we have for them on file
If we stop sponsoring a migrant for any other reason, this could be if:
1. we become aware that they have moved into an immigration route that does not need a sponsor
2. they are absent from work without pay for 4 weeks or more, which is not covered by the exceptions in reduction in salary; We must include the last recorded residential address and contact telephone number for the migrant, and any personal email addresses we have for them
3. if there are any significant changes in the sponsored migrant’s circumstances, for example:
  1. a promotion or change in job title, or core duties, other than those which need a change of employment application – the ‘Change of employment’ section has more information on this in the SMS
  2. a change of salary from the level stated on the CoS, other than changes due to annual increments or bonuses o a change of salary from that stated on the CoS due to maternity, paternity shared parental or adoption leave, or a period of long term sick leave lasting one month or longer
4. the location they are employed at changes e.g from nursery setting to setting and if the sponsored migrant’s employment is affected by TUPE or similar provision being triggered by business acquisition, which could be if we are involved in a merger or demerger
any information which suggests that a sponsored migrant or a migrant we have endorsed under the Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) route (where applicable) is breaching the conditions of their leave
If a sponsored migrant is absent from work for more than 10 consecutive working days without permission, we will report this within 10 working days of the 10th day of absence.
If there are any significant changes in our own circumstances, for example, if we sell all or part of your business, cease trading, go into administration, substantially change the nature of our business, are involved in a merger or are taken over, we must report this within 20 working days as per the terms of the The ‘Reporting changes that affect your licence’ section within the guidance
If we are endorsing a migrant under the Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) route, we will make contact with them at least once every quarter (within a 12 month period). If a migrant misses an expected contact point without our permission we will report this by email to the Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur team within 3 months of it happening. We will include in our report:
1. whether or not we are continuing to endorse the migrant,
2. if we are continuing to endorse them, why
We will give the police any information that suggests any migrant we are sponsoring, or endorsing under any tier may be engaged in terrorism or criminal activity.
We will report details of any third party or intermediary, whether in UK or abroad, that has assisted you in the recruitment of migrant employees.

Complying with the law

To make sure we are complying with our immigration laws, we will:

only employ migrants who are appropriately qualified, registered or experienced to do the job,or in respect of a Tier 2 (General) migrant, will be, by the time they begin the job

We will keep a copy of any registration document, certificate or reference that confirm they meet the requirements of the specific job, and give this to us on request

We will not employ migrants where they don’t have the experience or permission to do the job in question, and stop employing any migrants who for any reason are no longer entitled to do the job

not assign a CoS where there is no genuine vacancy or role which meets the Tier 2 or 5 criteria - if we assign a CoS and UKBA does not consider that it is for a genuine vacancy, we understand and accept that UKBA reserve the right to suspend our licence, pending further investigation which may result in your licence being revoked

Only allow the migrant to undertake the specific role set out in their CoS - only assign a CoS to migrants who you believe will meet the requirements of the tier or category, and are likely to comply with the conditions of leave or worker authorisation; the requirements and conditions of leave or worker authorisation are set out in the Immigration Rules and the Accession of Croatia (Immigration and Worker Authorisation) Regulations 2013 (Croatian nationals only)

disclose if you assign a CoS to a family member of anyone else within the sponsor organisation if it is classed as a small or medium sized business, or 67 if you are aware that you are assigning a CoS to a family member of anyone else within a sponsor organisation classed as a large business - this should be done via the notes field on the CoS

only employ migrants on the shortage occupation list if you qualify to sponsor the migrants, where there are restrictions on who can sponsor them

comply with UK employment law, for example National Minimum Wage and paid holiday entitlement

hold suitable planning permission or Local Planning Authority consent to run your type/class of business at your trading address (where this is a Local Authority requirement)

if we are employing a migrant who is working for you on a Work Permit, we will comply with all associated conditions, for example we will must pay them at or above the rate of pay shown on the Work Permit

only assign a CoS to a migrant if we are satisfied that they intend and are able to fill the role where applicable, only assign a CoS for a role which is at or above the minimum skill level as set out in this guidance only employ a migrant who has had a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, where this is a requirement for the role