Seven standing obligations
Verify original documents before employment begins, confirm the permission covers this employer and occupation, record the check date and expiry, and repeat before expiry.
Run statutory payroll and contributions at the level stated in the authorisation. Underpayment breaches the permit regardless of agreement.
Keep the actual role, location and hours within what was authorised. Material change usually requires a new or amended permission.
Provide written terms meeting both employment law and the permit conditions. Retain the signed contract with the immigration file.
The employee needs address and contract evidence for registration and residence card steps. Employer delay here becomes an immigration problem.
Report defined changes, including early termination, within the national deadline and keep proof of the report.
Hold checks, authorisations, contracts, payroll records and reports for the required retention period, inspection-ready.
Where compliance actually fails
In practice the failures are rarely exotic. They cluster into four patterns:
The role quietly changes as the business changes, and the authorisation is never updated. This is the most common single failure.
Checks were done but not recorded to a standard, or permission expiry was never diarised, so the file cannot prove compliance.
Employment ends and nobody reports it. The authority discovers the position later and treats the omission as the breach.
Contributions or salary adjusted informally, including with the employee consenting, which does not make it lawful.
Why sponsor status is the asset that matters
Fines are survivable. Losing the ability to sponsor is not, because it stops all future international recruitment and can force current employees onto unstable status. Most regimes treat sponsor eligibility as a privileged status that can be downgraded, suspended or revoked for sustained non-compliance — and reinstatement is slow, uncertain and expensive.
That reframes compliance from a cost centre into the licence that permits your international hiring at all. A quarterly internal audit of the seven duties above is a small price against losing it.
FAQ
What right-to-work checks should we run before the first day?
Verify the original identity document and the immigration permission, confirm the permission covers this employer and this role, record the document details, the date of the check and the expiry of the permission, and repeat the check before any time-limited permission expires. Copies alone are not sufficient evidence of a compliant check in most regimes.
Can we change the role after the employee arrives?
Only within what the authorisation permits. The occupation, employer, location and often the salary are part of the permission. Moving the employee into materially different duties, a different site, or a lower salary typically requires a new or amended authorisation, and doing it without one breaches the permit.
What are our duties if the employment ends early?
Usually you must report the termination to the relevant authority within a defined period, and the employee loses the basis of their residence. Failing to report is itself a compliance breach in many countries. Confirm the reporting channel and deadline for your destination, and keep evidence of the report.
Is payroll below the approved salary a problem even if the employee agrees?
Yes, and severely. Paying less than the salary stated in the authorisation breaches the permit conditions and the employee consenting does not cure it. It also undermines the market-test and threshold logic on which the permit was granted, and it creates exposure for both parties.
What records should we hold and for how long?
Hold the right-to-work check evidence, the authorisation, the contract, payroll and contribution records, and any change or termination reports for at least the period the national regime requires, and ideally for the whole employment relationship plus a margin. Record-keeping quality is what determines the outcome of an inspection.
What is the exposure for non-compliance?
It varies by country and can include administrative fines, suspension or loss of sponsor eligibility, orders to cease employing the person, and in serious or repeat cases criminal liability for the directors. Losing sponsor eligibility is often the most damaging, because it stops all future international hiring.
Author: Nexus Point Consultants Employer Desk · Reviewer: senior immigration counsel · Last updated: 15 September 2026.