Your door is opened by someone with a big smile on their face. You immediately return the look; you have waited so long for this day, for their arrival. It is of course always exciting to welcome fresh talent, but all the more so when you have gone through the sponsor license and Skilled Worker visa processes.

After the greeting and the handshake, it is over time to introduce your new employee to the rest of the team. However, before this can happen you must ensure that you have done all the necessary paperwork.

Effective 6 April 2022, the Home Office have advised that employers must rely on online right-to-work checks for all migrant workers with a Biometric Residence Card (BRC), Biometric Resident Permit (BRP), or Frontier Worker Permit (FWP) as the sole evidence of right to work. This means that the presentation and checking of a physical document will no longer be acceptable. So first things first, you ask your new Skilled Worker for their share code in order to finish this new right-to-work process.

Once their right to work has been confirmed, the employment contract is signed by both your company and your new Skilled Worker. This is then saved in their employee file, with a copy shared with them as well.

Finally, you also obtain the contact information of your new employee, including residential address, phone number, email address, next of kin information, and emergency contact. As the employer and sponsor of your Skilled Worker, you must keep this information safe and easily accessible. Going forward, you will make sure to record any changes to this information, and save it all – including past information – in their employee file.

Not only is all this important as part of your duties as a sponsor, but it will also prove to your new employee and colleague that you take their right to work and live in the UK seriously. This will help ease their anxiety as they not only start a new job, but a new job in a new country, potentially away from everything and everyone they know and love. By completing these steps you can boost their confidence, which will allow them to integrate into the team and business more quickly, thus ensuring a better performance from this person you have waited so long for.

With this paperwork out of the way, it is now time for you and your new Skilled Worker to leave the room together and greet the rest of the team. The business’s future has arrived.