Avoid a criminal record and 5k fines with the new immigration service

Global WorkPermits is launching its new Immigration Compliance Service at HRD 2003. This service will help prevent HR professionals, directors and other senior managers (including the board of directors) from unknowingly breaching Section 8 of the Immigration & Asylum Act 2002.

Failure to comply with the Act can result in a criminal record for individuals, including directors and board members, and fines of up to 5,000 per infringement for the employer.

The new Global WorkPermits Immigration Compliance Service has been designed to address three elements - Immigration Advice & Compliance, Employee Audit and Immigration Partner services - and emphasises that employers are ultimately responsible for ensuring that their company and staff are operating within the law.

Global WorkPermits has the largest team of work permit specialists outside of the Home Office. It has recognised that, with over 100,000 UK Work Permits and more than 40,000 Working Holidaymaker visas granted last year, companies are finding it increasingly difficult to ensure they are not only complying with, but also keeping up to date with changes in the Act. The new Immigration Compliance Service addresses this issue.

Gary Bland, Divisional Director of Global WorkPermits explains: With the workload and pressure senior managers are under these days, it is understandable that at times things can go wrong. However, lack of time, insufficient internal processes or even ignorance are not seen by the Home Office as viable excuses for non-compliance.

He added: We believe that the commercial embarrassment and negative PR that can follow an immigration fine can result in a company's clients, and the financial markets, responding in a manner which reduces the share price and capitalisation value of a company.

Global WorkPermits processes thousands of work permit applications a year, and our Home Office-trained immigration specialists have both the expertise and practical knowledge to help prevent unintentional illegal conduct - hence the new service was conceived.

The new Immigration Compliance Service offers three distinct services to public and commercial organisations.

The first part of the service is the Immigration Advice and Compliance Service, in which a Global WorkPermits team will visit an organisation and instruct the Directors, Personnel, Human Resources and Line Managers on what to look for when appointing an overseas national. This includes consultancy on how to safeguard individuals against prosecution under the Immigration & Asylum Act 2002.

The second part of the service is an Employee Audit Service, where an individual or a team from Global WorkPermits will visit an organisation to conduct a complete personnel file audit on all overseas nationals employed by the company. This is designed to address serious breaches in Immigration Law, and will help to protect employees, senior managers, and in larger companies the directors of the board.

The third part of the service is the Immigration Partner Service, dedicated to answering all Immigration queries from companies over the telephone, by email or by fax. Clients of Global WorkPermits will be offered an annual flat fee contract, which will enable department heads to request immigration advice as and when it is needed.

The client will receive a report from Global WorkPermits every four months, outlining the nature of queries made by the department heads, including observations and recommendations. This will enable the company to identify whether additional basic immigration training is required.

Gary Bland went on to explain: Our expert team of immigration specialists at Global WorkPermits has a strong commitment to customer service which drives us to seek to continually improve the services that we offer. We identified that an increasing number of our business associates were ill at ease with their level of knowledge and feared for both their personal and professional reputation relating to this matter. With this new service we aim to provide consultancy and advice so that mistakes can be avoided in the first instance, as well as educating our customers along the way.