Business owners can employ relatives if they wish to.  However, great care should be taken to make sure that you meet the specific requirements for sponsoring relative.  If you are the level 1 user for the sponsor licence you cannot assign a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to a partner or a close relative.  The solution to this problem is to apply for a sponsor with a level 1 user who is not a relative of the person that you wish to sponsor, or after you are granted a sponsor licence apply for a second a level 1 user that is not a relative. The level 1 user and the level 2 user are the only sponsor management roles that have access to the Sponsor Management System.  Those that are counted as being relatives and partners is quite wide-ranging, and include parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, in-laws.  A business owner or somebody else in the UK business can employ relatives, as long as the person assigning the Certificate of Sponsorship in the Sponsor Management System is someone else.  If a CoS is being assigned to a family member of someone in the organisation, then a sponsor note should be added via the Sponsor Management System confirming this.