Reporting Working From Home / Hybrid Working Arrangements to the Home Office

The Home Office has recently updated its guidance and reporting duties meaning that sponsors must now report:

• If the sponsored worker is, or will be, working remotely from home on a permanent or full-time basis (with little or no requirement to physically attend a workplace); or
• If the worker has moved, or will be moving, to a hybrid working pattern.

A “hybrid working pattern” is where the worker will work remotely on a regular and planned basis from their home or another address, such as a work hub space, that is not a client site or one of the employer’s addresses noted on the sponsor licence, in addition to regularly attending the office.

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Post-pandemic there has been a significant shift in some sectors to incorporate home working arrangements into an employee’s weekly work pattern and we have been asked regularly by sponsors whether home working arrangements need to be reported to the Home Office.  While the answer has been no, some sponsors will have already notified the Home Office of the working pattern voluntarily and others will have chosen to await formal guidance from the Home Office.

This latest update clarifies the position and is a change from the guidance in force during the pandemic which stated that sponsors were not required to notify the Home Office about sponsored workers who were working from home due to coronavirus.

So what do sponsors need to do?

1. Review the working arrangements for each of the people that you sponsor
2. Identify any who work remotely from home either full-time or on a hybrid basis and for these individuals, inform the Home Office of this by making a report on the Sponsor Management System
3. Ensure that those managing the sponsor licence and those members of staff managing sponsored workers know of this reporting duty and that this information is passed through to the Key Personnel in a timely fashion to avoid late reporting
4. Contact a member of our Immigration Team, or visit our Visa Guidelines Hub with any queries or for support making reports on the Sponsor Management System.