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IMMIGRATION POINTS BASED SYSTEM UPDATE
This contains new and important legal
information that Company Directors, Business Owners and UK Employers need to
be aware of and outlines the penalties, fines and criminal convictions
possible if found to be employing illegal foreign workers.
Civil penalties were introduced to make it
easier than ever to fine those employers who give jobs to people with no
right to work without carrying out the proper checks.
Rogue employers will face civil penalties of
up to £10,000 for each illegal worker they employ. Those found to have
knowingly hired illegal workers could incur an unlimited fine and be sent to
prison. The change comes as UKBA stepped up action in 2007 against illegal
working by 40 per cent.
This is an update of the
progress on the introduction of the new Points Based System
We have been informed that the uptake of
Employers' applying for their Licence to enable them to sponsor foreign
nationals under Tier 2 of the PBS has been very low. In fact there seems to
be a certain amount of resistance and reluctance from the Commercial sector
to apply for registration under the new Tier 2 Points Based System.
The Immigration Law Practitioners
Association has advised that at a meeting on the 16/05/08 with the UK Border
Agency, that the UKBA are very worried and concerned about sponsors not
registering and applying for their licence.
Our expectation is that companies and
Foreign Nationals will create a large volume of enquiries around their visa
needs once the PBS is operational.
Our advice would be that all Companies and
Organisations employing Foreign Nationals should submit their application
for registration at the earliest opportunity.
The UKBA stated that the risk of not
registering could cause log-jams and delays. This would mean if you were a
company employing a Foreign National on a Work Permit and it needed to be
extended but the employer was not registered in time that the individual
would have to leave the UK before the expiry of their visa and wait in their
country of Citizenship until registration and a totally new application was
completed.
Many companies and individuals are just not
aware of how the impact of these new policies could affect them.
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