A 22 September High Court judgment has sent shockwaves through the UK’s sponsored-work community by upholding the Home Office’s decision to revoke an IT consultancy’s sponsor licence after it failed to report compassionate-leave absences for a Skilled Worker. The case involved a software engineer who travelled overseas for six weeks following a family bereavement. Although the employee’s visa conditions allowed absences for compelling reasons, the sponsor did not log the leave on the Sponsorship Management System (SMS). UK Visas & Immigration found that the omission breached the licence duties and that the worker had, for two months, been paid below the headline salary stated on his Certificate of Sponsorship. The employer argued the pay shortfall was temporary and that the reporting failure was an “honest oversight”. The court disagreed, ruling that strict compliance is “integral to the integrity of the points-based system”. Legal advisers say the judgment confirms that even legitimate, short-term absences must be reported within 10 working days and that salary reductions—however compassionate—risk non-compliance unless a CoS is updated. Between July 2025 and June 2026, UKVI revoked 4,403 sponsor licences, many for clerical breaches similar to the one upheld in court. Practical takeaways for mobility teams: (1) build automated payroll alerts for any salary fluctuation; (2) align HR-leave systems with SMS reporting deadlines; (3) brief line managers that overseas bereavement leave counts as a “change in circumstances” for sponsorship purposes. Failure to do so could trigger licence suspension, forcing sponsored staff to curtail their visas and potentially grounding project-critical talent.
Source: Mondaq
