Lynne Adams, Legal Director, Head of Immigration

Whether employment or immigration, seek legal advice early on – it can often save a lot of time and expense later on.

Always make contemporaneous notes of conversations you have with employees – you never know when it will be required/come in useful later on.

When you enter into a Contract of Employment, hope for the best and plan/draft for the worst.

I have an employee who has only been with us for 6 months and it is not working out, can I just terminate their employment?

Well, you could but it would not be without risk.

Employers are often aware of the magic two years’ service requirement an employee needs in order to be able to bring an unfair dismissal claim and so believe that they can easily dismiss employees who have less than 2 years’ service. However, what employers often forget is that an employee does not need any particular length of service in order to bring a claim for discrimination which can be less obvious (for example, an employee who has been off sick a lot may have an underlying issue which could be deemed to be a disability in employment law terms).

It is therefore helpful to discuss the particular circumstances with an employment lawyer before making a decision to dismiss – a 5/10 minute conversation at the outset could save you having to face the unenviable prospect of an Employment Tribunal claim later on!

How long does the application take to complete to become a licensed sponsor with the Home Office?

The application itself is completed online, is relatively straightforward and can take as little as half an hour to complete.

However, before you complete the online application you need to check that your business is eligible, be clear on the type of licence that you want to apply for and decide who within your organisation will be responsible for managing the sponsorship process.

Further, once the application is submitted you will only have 5 working days to submit the documents which are required to be provided in support of your application. This is plenty of time if you have your supporting documentation ready to send but, if you have pushed ahead with the online application and not collated the documents (which can take much longer and be more problematic than you may think), this can cause issues and add unnecessary time pressures.

When the potential repercussion is rejection of your application, it is important to get this right.

Is it a good time?

This is often asked by my colleagues, contacts and clients when I answer the telephone.

I always have time to speak with my colleagues, contacts and clients to try and help them resolve their employment law related queries!