Who can assign a Certificate of Sponsorship for a UK work VISA application?

Certificates of Sponsorship are usually assigned by a sponsor licence holder (usually your UK employer) to enable foreign applicants to apply for a Skilled Worker visa to enter the UK.

A Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) is an electronic record provided to migrants who have secured a qualifying position with a UK employer who holds a valid sponsor licence.

The employer will usually have dedicated HR team members who understand what information needs to be included on the CoS, and who have been given authority by the business to sign off this information as true and correct.

The CoS contains information regarding the job location, salary, job description and government job code. It also contains some personal details pertaining to the applicant.

Care needs to be taken if the migrant who will be sponsored is the relative of anyone already working at the UK entity, as specific disclosure and reporting duties apply during the CoS process.

Employees can check whether their prospective employer is listed on the Home Office’s register of licensed sponsors here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/register-of-licensed-sponsors-workers.

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