Legal and the advice boundary

SponsorShelf is compliance software. It does not give immigration advice and is not regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA, formerly OISC). Always check the current Home Office guidance, and get advice from a regulated adviser or solicitor for decisions about a worker's immigration status.

SponsorShelf helps a licensed sponsor keep records, dates and drafts. It does not submit reports to SMS, it does not decide whether a person can work, and it does not tell anyone what immigration application to make. Giving immigration advice in the course of a business without regulation is a criminal offence. A solicitor should review these words before any real customer data is taken.

Who controls the data

On a live service the sponsor would be the controller of worker data and SponsorShelf the processor. This local build stores everything in a SQLite file on the machine running it. There is no production database, and no live sub-processor is connected unless you add keys.

Retention

Appendix D expects records through the sponsorship and then until the earlier of one year after it ends, or a compliance officer agreeing they can go. The product flags that duty. It does not delete files on its own in this build.

Sub-processors, when you connect them

Placeholders exist for an LLM provider, speech-to-text, speech synthesis, Stripe, object storage and email. None are called without a real key. A published sub-processor list and a transfer safeguard would be required before launch, along with ICO registration and a DPIA.

This page is product copy for the MVP, not a contract.