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Work Permit Compliance Checks
The Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) use compliance checks to ensure that the information an employer provides on a work permit application reflects the actual day to day working arrangements of the employment. The BIA want to see that the employer is capable of offering the employment described on the application form.As soon as you sign the work permit application form (WP1) you declare that you are happy for the BIA to undertake a compliance check.
When are Work Permit Compliance Checks carried out?
Work Permit Compliance Checks can either be carried out before or after a work permit is approved. If you’re selected for a check do not assume you have done anything wrong, companies are chosen at random. If the BIA chooses to undertake a compliance check before a work permit is approved it is likely that the work permit application will be delayed significantly.Undertaking Compliance Checks
If you’re selected for a Compliance Check you normally receive a call or letter in advance. However, this is not always the case as occasionally spot checks are conducted with no advanced warning. The compliance check takes the form of a meeting at which you will be asked questions about your business and your understanding of your duties in respect of the treatment of work permit holders.The Compliance Team will ask that you make company documents available at the meeting and may request copies to take away. Sometimes they also ask to speak to work permit holders employed by you. If you have multiple employees on work permits, names may be picked at random.
Where a work permit:
- Has already been issued: The compliance team will focus on validating information detailed on the work permit application. This may include checking that the salary specified on the application has been paid to the worker during employment as the Home Office is keen to root out unscrupulous employers who exploit and under-pay workers or who make unlawful deductions from their declared salary (although it focuses on less skilled immigrants, the book ‘Two Caravans’ by Marina Lewycka illustrates the sort of abuses concerned)
- Is yet to be issued: The team will check that the employer is capable of offering the vacancy detailed on the work permit application, including checking company premises etc. Obviously, if a company is being run from a spare bedroom that does not have planning permission for office use, they can not issue a permit for someone to work there as such work would entail breaking planning laws.
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