Yikes, the new sponsor guidance has been published, and it's split into 5 sections & totals 246 pages. Nothing says "get ready for Brexit" like hundreds of pages of dense prose on very technical aspects of sponsorship [THREAD] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sponsor-a-tier-2-or-5-worker-guidance-for-employers

Shall we look at some of the hotly anticipated bits? I'm most interested to know about requirements for advertising before licence applications & sponsorship - removal of the Resident Labour Market Test is great & all, but is there still a need to test the market after all? [2/]

First reference to adverts, Part 3 C1.24: adverts which overstate a job, ask for irrelevant skills/experience, or are tailored to exclude settled workers from being recruited are an example of a vacancy not being genuine. Interesting. [3/]

That's actually the only reference to adverts, which is curious. There's a heavily subjective aspect to the new Skilled Worker rules, a focus on the employer proving the genuine nature of the vacancy. Bit concerned that this guidance isn't going to offer practical assistance [4/]

The appendices to the guidance appear to be staying - Appendix A confirms docs needed for the licence app, Appendix D confirming record keeping requirements. Apdx A still requires extra info for Skilled Worker/MOR sponsors too, so no real changes here [5/]

Licence applications to consider: genuine org operating lawfully; honest, dependable, reliable; capable of compliance with duties; "can offer genuine employment that meets the skill level and salary requirements" - genuineness being hammered home here [6/]

Urgh, the 6-month cooling off period is maintained following licence refusal. Why? It's so unnecessary and just amounts to penalising an employer for a mishap rather than guaranteeing future good compliance. [7/]

A good thing: Part 1 L6.24 "Once you have submitted your online application, you must send the following documents (by email) to validate it" - great to see that the digital submission of documents will be continued even after Covid-19. Guidance on format from L7.7. [8/]

Dancing round the genuine vacancy requirement, look at this at C1.23: "We may request additional information &/or evidence from you or the worker to establish this requirement has been met, and may refuse the worker’s application if this is not provided within our deadline." [9/]

Presumably this extra evidence would include evidence of advertising, but no guidance to confirm what is acceptable and what is not. That's not ideal when it's such an important compliance point. [10/]

Interesting that Appendix D - which confirms record keeping requirements, including the current RLMT evidence - doesn't appear to have received an update in the way that Appendix A has. So again, no guidance on when a sponsor has done enough to prove their genuine vacancy [11/]

I've not really noticed anything else of note. On one hand that's a good thing; a radically different scheme introduced in 2 weeks would have been problematic for existing and new sponsors alike. However, it's frustrating to see the guidance lose some of its practical value [12/]

It will be interesting to see what types of evidence UKVI requests when assessing applications, especially those for new Defined Certificates of Sponsorship - SK9.11 confirms that extra docs may be asked for those... [END]