Privacy Notice
This notice explains what personal data we collect through this website and in the course of advising employers on sponsor licences, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and what rights you have over it.
Draft for review. This policy has been prepared as a working draft and has not yet been approved by the firm's solicitors. It is published here so it can be reviewed, and should not be relied on as the firm's final position.
Who we are
Shams Britvisa Lawyers Ltd is the data controller for the personal data described in this notice. Our registered address is Shams Britvisa Lawyers Ltd, 291 Slade Lane, Manchester, M19 2HR, United Kingdom, company number 14182242.
You can contact us about anything in this notice by email at info@uksponsorlicence.uk or by telephone on +44 7776 668557.
What we collect
Contact details for the people we deal with at an employer: name, role, work email address and telephone number.
Information about the organisation: sector, size band, structure, trading history and the roles it wants to fill.
Where you instruct us on an application, personal data about your key personnel and about the workers you intend to sponsor, including identity documents and immigration history.
Correspondence between us, including emails and messages.
Basic technical information generated when you visit this site, such as your browser type and the pages you view.
Controller and processor
For your own contact details and our record of the engagement, we are a data controller and this notice applies directly.
For personal data about your employees and prospective sponsored workers that you send us so we can act on your instructions, we generally act as your processor. In that case your own privacy notice governs how that data is used, and we process it only on your documented instructions under our engagement terms.
Why we use it, and our lawful basis
To respond to your enquiry and carry out the free eligibility check you asked for. Lawful basis: steps taken at your request before entering into a contract.
To provide immigration advice and services once you instruct us. Lawful basis: performance of a contract.
To meet our regulatory, anti-money-laundering and record-keeping obligations. Lawful basis: legal obligation.
To keep our own records and defend legal claims. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in running and protecting the business.
Special category data
Sponsorship work sometimes involves information that UK GDPR treats as special category data, such as health information or information about ethnic origin contained in documents you send us. Where that happens we rely on the condition permitting processing necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, or on explicit consent.
Please do not send us special category information about any individual unless it is relevant to the application.
Who we share it with
The Home Office and UK Visas and Immigration — but only on your instructions, as part of a submission you have approved.
Our IT and email providers, who host this website and deliver our email, under contracts requiring them to protect the data.
Our regulator, auditors or professional advisers, where we are required to allow access.
We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it for marketing purposes.
How long we keep it
Enquiries that do not become instructions are kept for up to 24 months and then deleted. Client files are kept for at least six years from the end of the engagement, in line with our regulatory and professional obligations, and longer where an ongoing sponsor relationship makes that necessary.
Your rights
Ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Ask us to correct anything that is wrong.
Ask us to delete data, where we are not required to keep it.
Object to, or ask us to restrict, certain processing.
Ask for your data in a portable format.
Complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk. We would rather you came to us first.
Security
Personal data is held on access-controlled systems, and documents containing identity information are not stored in publicly accessible locations. If you need to send us documents for several individuals, ask us for a secure upload link rather than attaching them to an ordinary email.