Sponsor Licence Compliance for IT and Technology Companies
IT and technology companies are among the UK's largest users of the Skilled Worker route. The sector's specific working patterns — remote and hybrid working, high staff turnover, and complex bonus and commission structures — create compliance risks that generic HR software is not designed to catch.
Why IT companies face specific compliance risks
Remote and hybrid working
Every time a sponsored developer works from a location other than their stated CoS work address, that may be a reportable change. The 10-working-day reporting clock starts when the change takes effect. IT companies with flexible remote policies must have a process to capture location changes as they happen, not at month-end or during an audit.
Bonus and commission structures
SW 14.3B (in force 8 April 2026) requires the salary threshold to be met in each rolling 3-month window, not just averaged annually. A developer whose base salary clears the threshold but whose variable pay creates a quarterly shortfall is non-compliant under current rules. This is a particular risk for sales engineers, solutions architects, and roles with significant performance-related pay.
High staff turnover
The technology sector has higher employee churn than most sponsor-heavy industries. Every leaver triggers a 20-working-day termination report; every starter needs a new CoS and a 10-working-day starter report. Missing either is one of the most common grounds for sponsor licence revocation.
SOC-specific going rates
SOC codes for IT roles — 2135 (IT business analysts, architects and systems designers), 2136 (programmers and software development professionals), 2139 (IT and telecommunications professionals not elsewhere classified) — typically have going rates well above the general £41,700 threshold. The going rate, not the general minimum, is the binding constraint. SMS System checks every worker against the correct SOC-specific rate, not just the headline threshold.
What SMS System does for IT companies
- Tracks every sponsored developer, analyst, and consultant simultaneously — a single dashboard view of all sponsored workers, their visa statuses, and upcoming deadlines.
- Flags location changes as reportable events — the moment a worker's work location is updated, SMS System checks whether the change triggers the 10-working-day reporting obligation.
- Checks salary against the SOC-specific going rate — not just the general £41,700 threshold, but the correct going rate for the worker's SOC code, ensuring the binding constraint is always the one being tested.
- Rolling-window salary compliance — catches quarterly shortfalls from bonus and commission structures before they become a revocation ground. The system monitors every 3-month window continuously.
- Automatic termination reporting clock — when a worker is marked as leaving, the 20-working-day reporting clock starts automatically, with escalating reminders.