Company name change due to dissolution

[SerpentCrowley]

Hello all,

I've found a few posts about company name changes due to mergers, but what about dissolutions? I'm currently sponsored by company A owned by 2 partners X and Y. My visa details were completed by/with all the contact details for partner X, and the new building owned by partner X is already listed as a place of work.

Partners X and Y have had a falling out, and partner X is leaving to set up his own business in the new building. Partner Y will be keeping the original business name A, while partner X will open with business name B. I'm planning to follow partner X to company B.

I understand that partner X's new business is going to need a new sponsorship license, but would this be considered just as a name change, and therefore I won't need a new visa? All of the contact details will remain the same, including address of place of work. Or am I likely to end up needing to go through the whole visa process again?

[Frontier Mole]

Both companies will have to apply for new Sponsorship licences as the original legal entity has in effect ceased to exist. The trading name is fairly meaningless it is the legal entity that is important.

If the previous legal entity as you suggest is a partnership and the partnership is now dissolved then the licence is no longer valid when the partnership ceased.

The bigger issue here for you is how you move / transfer to whatever company you will work for. If you are transferred under a TUPE arrangement and you are moving with the work then it will not require you to get a new visa.

If the partners are not splitting the business and apportioning the work then that is a very different circumstance. In that case the partnership is over and you are choosing who to work for then you will need a new visa and in the interim would be unable to work.

Suggest you have a discussion with your employer to clarify the position as they are so very different outcomes.

[SerpentCrowley]

Thanks for the reply. That was my general understanding, I guess it's just determining whether I'd fall under TUPE or not. All the examples I found listed from the UK gov't website were for like big corporates owning multiple entities rather than partnerships - the business I'm employed by as it is is very small (the two partners plus 4 full time employees) so I couldn't quite extrapolate which circumstances I'd fit under. As you say, I suppose it depends how the business is registered, I'll have to have a chat with the partner(s) asap for us to figure it out since the split is happening in just under 3 months now.

Partner X has offered to pay for a new visa in addition to the licensing stuff if need be which is very fortunate as I wiped out my savings for the visa for this job just a few months ago... But obviously it would be so much simpler and slightly less stressful if I didn't have to go through the whole thing again!

And the news that Partner Y might need to do the whole license/visa thing as well if I'm to stay on with him is very, very important for me to know in terms of if something keeps Partner X from following through or if there's a delay from when he leaves to when the new business is set up and can take me on, especially as I don't necessarily trust Y to actually sort the bureaucratic mess himself... So thank you very much for that info!

[Frontier Mole]

As the dissolution is yet to happen then there is at least time to get the new licence for whatever employer you are staying with. I would prompt your preferred employer to apply for the licence as an urgent priority. Regardless of a TUPE or a non TUPE transfer they need a licence.