Stay Audit-Ready Before the Home Office Calls

Mock UKVI compliance audits against Appendix D: HR file review, SMS check, reporting duty gap analysis and a written action plan before a real Home Office visit.

Wesbridge Associates is an IAA-regulated UK immigration law firm. Our advisers support individuals, families and UK sponsors with skilled worker visas, sponsor licences, family routes, settlement (ILR), British citizenship, appeals and compliance — combining experienced legal advice with AI-powered self-service tools.

Reviewed by Wesbridge Associates' IAA-regulated immigration advisers. Last updated: July 2026.

Immigration compliance is the ongoing legal obligation UK sponsor licence holders owe to the Home Office once their licence is granted. Our compliance service audits your HR systems, right-to-work processes, Sponsor Management System (SMS) reporting and record-keeping against Appendix D of the sponsor guidance, and remediates gaps before a Home Office compliance officer visits. We act for Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, Global Business Mobility, Scale-up, Temporary Worker and Student sponsors of every size.

How it works

We start with a scoping call to confirm your licence categories, headcount of sponsored workers and any prior action notes. Stage one is a documentary review of HR files, right-to-work checks, migrant tracking, absence monitoring and the last twelve months of SMS activity. Stage two is an on-site or remote mock audit that mirrors a Home Office pre-licence or post-licence visit: interviews with the Authorising Officer, Key Contact and Level 1 Users, a walk-through of recruitment records for at least one sponsored role, and a spot-check of biometric residence permit copies. Stage three is a written remediation plan with prioritised actions, template policies and, where required, an SMS clean-up of overdue reports on migrant activity, salary changes and change of circumstances.

What we check against Appendix D

Right-to-work evidence (share code or manual check) with clear date-stamped copies, up-to-date UK contact details for every sponsored worker, records of absences of ten or more consecutive working days, evidence the resident labour market was properly considered where genuineness is in question, and a full recruitment audit trail for each Certificate of Sponsorship assigned. We also verify that reportable changes — start date, salary, work location, role change, early termination and unauthorised absence — have been reported inside the ten or twenty working-day windows set out in the sponsor guidance.

After a Home Office visit or downgrade

If your licence has been downgraded to B-rated, suspended or is under a civil penalty, we prepare the response to the Home Office action plan, project-manage the twelve-week remediation window, and represent you in correspondence up to and including licence revocation appeals by pre-action protocol and judicial review where the decision is unlawful or disproportionate.

Frequently asked questions

How often should a sponsor be audited?

The Home Office expects sponsors to self-audit at least annually and after any material change (new HR system, TUPE transfer, restructure, or change of Authorising Officer). We recommend a full mock audit every twelve months, with a lighter quarterly SMS reconciliation for sponsors with more than twenty active Certificates of Sponsorship.

What triggers a Home Office compliance visit?

Common triggers include a first sponsor licence application (pre-licence visit), assignment of an unusually high number of Certificates of Sponsorship relative to headcount, anonymous allegations, HMRC or DWP data mismatches, and random sampling. Visits can be announced or unannounced.

Can compliance work be done remotely?

Yes for the documentary review and SMS audit; the mock interview stage can be run over video for smaller sponsors, but we recommend an on-site day for sponsors with more than fifty sponsored workers or multiple trading sites.

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Book a paid immigration consultation or contact our team for tailored advice.