As a sponsored visa holder both you and Imperial College as your sponsor have to meet a number of ongoing legal requirements. These include:
Right to work checks
Demonstrating your right to work in the UK as part of any initial and follow up verification checks.
The Staff Compliance Team will undertake your initial pre-employment right to work check, and any follow-up checks required during your employment/engagement with Imperial College.
Aside from any informal pre-joining meetings, please do not start any induction or work activity in your new department until the Staff Compliance Team/HR have confirmed all pre-employment conditions are met.
Absence/attendance
Maintaining an up-to-date record in Teamseer of:
- Any absences that are part of Imperial College’s normal processes:
- Planned absences such as Annual Leave; Family Leave (i.e. Maternity Leave, Paternity /Maternity Support Leave, Shared Parental Leave, Adoption/Surrogacy Leave & Parental Leave); and Special Leave such as Jury Service/Witness Duty, Sabbatical Leave/Leave of Absence, Secondments, Study Leave, leave for Public Duties & Volunteer Reserve Forces, etc. N.B. planned absence should be notified in advance.
- Unplanned absences such as Sickness Absence; and Special Leave such as Compassionate Leave and Domestic/Family Emergency Leave, etc. N.B. unplanned absence should be notified as soon as possible, ideally on the day the absence occurs.
- Any other occasions where you are working away from Imperial College and/or are not contactable e.g. attending Conferences outside the UK, etc.
- N.B. Absences that are part of the normal work-related comings and goings such as working from home, travel to conferences within the UK, etc. do not need to be recorded in Teamseer providing you have provided your manager with up-to-date contact details and you are contactable within a reasonable period of time.
- College records of leave would be required for any future application for Indefinite leave to remain (Settlement), so it is particularly important that you record this accurately and keep full records of all absences from the UK during your period of sponsorship.
- For any future application to obtain UK ‘Settlement’ UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) rules dictate that any total absences from the UK over 180 days in any 12 month period, are likely to cause a settlement application to be ineligible unless an exemption applies (Designated PhD role, and overseas research, absences caused by travel restriction due to pandemic) or where there are serious and compelling reasons for the absence.
- Any period of absence from the UK where work may need to be undertaken from outside the UK should follow the Imperial College overseas working process and guidance should be taken from the International Mobility Team.
Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS)
Where an employee requires permission to work in the UK under the Skilled Worker or Temporary Worker Government Authorised Exchange route; and
- will be employed in a research, academic, engineering or technician role
- undertaking research activities at PhD level or above
- in one of the Academic Subjects/Fields of Research relevant to ATAS; and
- is not an ATAS exempt national,
you will be required to obtain a free of charge ATAS certificate before Imperial College can issue a Certificate of Sponsorship and you can apply for a visa / extension to your visa to work in the UK.
The ATAS certificate must accurately reflect the HEI/research institute which employs/hosts the research, and the research project, job title and duration. If any of these details change the sponsored employee should check whether they require an ATAS certificate and apply for a new certificate if required.
Please see the ATAS information here and gov.uk guidance here.
Contact details
Keeping your contact details (home address, home telephone number (if you have one) and mobile telephone number) up-to-date via the employee self-service portal.
Sponsored Researchers (T5 GAE) will not have access to the above portal and should email any changes to the Staff Compliance Team to update their record
Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) and keeping UKVI Account updated
Reporting if your BRP is lost, stolen or damaged or changes to address, personal details or circumstances. If you have an account keep your UKVI account updated
If you do not hold a BRP, you still need to keep your UKVI account updated with any required changes.
Travel outside the UK
Please be aware that:
- If you are outside of the UK and your leave to remain expires, you will not be able to re- enter the UK unless you make a further successful application for leave, which would require a new Certificate of Sponsorship.
- Your leave to remain will automatically lapse if you leave the UK, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man or the Channel Islands (Common Travel Area), and you have been granted leave to remain in the UK for 6 months or less.
- If you make an application to extend your leave to remain in the UK whilst in post, you cannot leave the UK or Common Travel Area whilst the application is in process, otherwise this will cause your application to be automatically cancelled by UKVI.
- You should maintain your own detailed record of all UK absences, in addition to recording annual leave and other work absences via Teamseer
- For any future application to obtain UK Indefinite leave to remain (Settlement) UKVI rules dictate that any total absences from the UK over 180 full days in any 12 month period of the qualifying period, are likely to cause a settlement application to be ineligible unless a permitted exemption applies or there are serious and compelling reasons for the absence.
- Any period of absence from the UK where work may need to be undertaken from outside the UK (e.g. fieldwork/overseas research) should be discussed with your line manager/department initially. Where this can be agreed, your department will need to follow the Imperial College overseas working process and guidance should be taken from the International Mobility Team.
- Additionally, where the agreed absence from the UK is agreed and is likely to be for a significant period that may be deemed as a temporary change in your work address, please notify the Staff Compliance Team directly once this is fully approved.