Recent changes in Home Office Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) processing, including increased scrutiny, processing times and best practice tips to help minimize delays.
In response to widespread abuses within the immigration system, the Home Office has implemented significant changes in its approach to processing applications for Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS).
As a result, the processing time for these applications has become much longer, and can extend further if employers fail to provide required information within stipulated timeframes or if the Home Office needs to conduct additional investigations. This shift is crucial, especially considering the prevalence of modern slavery issues in the care sector.
Here we look at the changes in more detail, offer best practice tips to help sponsors minimize delays, and provide answers to commonly asked questions.
Changes in the CoS Application Process
The following changes have been made, reflecting the Home Office’s commitment to transparency in the immigration process. Employers must adapt to these new norms and provide comprehensive documentation to support their CoS requests.
Increased Scrutiny: The Home Office has intensified scrutiny in response to systemic immigration system abuses, requiring a more thorough approval process.
Documentary Requirements: Sponsors must now provide additional documentation, such as contracts with service users or organizations, to prove their capacity to offer genuine employment.
CoS Application Delays: These heightened requirements have led to delays in CoS applications, even impacting those opting for priority services.
Genuine Employment Opportunities: The Home Office is committed to ensuring legitimate employment opportunities and grants CoS to employers with valid contracts and genuine openings.
Request for Additional Information: Employers now receive ‘Request for Additional Information’ when seeking Certificates of Sponsorship, ending speculative applications.
Role-Specific Requests: Employers are encouraged to specify which workers the CoS is intended for, categorizing requests into extensions, new hires, or visa category switches.
Evidence of Recruitment: Although the Resident Labor Market Test (RLMT) was removed in January 2021, the Home Office now seeks evidence of how candidates were recruited and their credibility.
Approval Outcomes: The Home Office may reject, approve in full, or allocate partial CoS based on the justification for roles and candidate readiness.
Best Practice Tips for Sponsors
By following these best practices, employers can adapt to the Home Office’s changing approach, ensuring compliance and a smoother CoS application process.
- Plan Ahead: Allow for extended processing times and build extra time into your recruitment process.
- Document Everything: Maintain records of all recruitment efforts.
- Clear Identification: Specify the intended CoS recipients in your application.
- Detailed Job Descriptions: Provide comprehensive job descriptions.
- Valid Contracts: Ensure valid contracts with service users or organizations.
- Transparency: Be truthful and transparent throughout the application process.
- Stay Informed: Keep updated on Home Office guidelines and policies.
- CQC Registration: Maintain registration with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) if applicable.
- Respond Promptly: Address Home Office requests for additional information promptly.
- Seek Legal Advice: Consider consulting immigration experts to navigate evolving requirements effectively.
Your Questions Answered
In February 2024, we delivered a series of, “Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) Application Online Workshops”. These were remarkably popular, with representatives from 225 care providers attending. We’ve gathered the most commonly asked questions from the workshops, and provided detailed responses, generously provided by the corporate immigration team at JMW Solicitors.
PLEASE NOTE: Some of this information is date-specific and may no longer reflect the current situation due to the changing nature of the UK immigration system.
It is no longer possible to submit prospective COS applications, with approvals now based on ‘actual’ business needs rather than ‘speculative’ needs. Thus any contracts must evidence a genuine need for additional work/employees within your organisation.
The Home Office are seeking evidence of contracts to establish that you have enough hours of work to provide to prospective candidates. The contracts you provide need to demonstrate that the business has been provided with actual imminent work resulting in the creation of additional work hours that the business needs to fulfil. After you demonstrate that these contracts have created an increase in work hours that the business needs to fulfil, you need to demonstrate that your current workforce is not sufficient to fulfil these additional work hours provided under the contracts. You can demonstrate that the current workforce cannot satisfy the additional work provided under the contract in several ways, including:
- Copies of rotas highlighting the gaps which explains the business need to recruit further.
- Provide a breakdown of total hours required by staff, including new hours you need to fulfil under the new contracts. Then calculate how many hours your current staff can provide under their employment contracts. The difference between these two figures would demonstrate the gap in workforce and then explain why you need a specific number of new employees for that gap, i.e., there is a gap of 200 hours a week and thus you need 5 employees at 40 hours a week.
- Provide evidence that your current workforce is working overtime to fulfil current hours and thus, there is a need for more staff.
- Provide evidence that you are currently using agency workers due to the gap in staffing
- Evidence of recent employees leaving their roles
Please note that the Home Office now can either refuse your request to be granted CoSs outright, grant it outright or grant it partially if you are not able to prove a genuine business need to recruit additional members of staff that are subject to immigration control.
Unfortunately, the Home Office, once known for its swift approval of Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) requests, has shifted its approach due to systemic abuses within the immigration system, such as falsified information by some employers. This has led to a more rigorous approval process. Additionally, recent changes to the Immigration Rules announced by the Home Office on December 4, 2023, have made it challenging to secure a priority service for requests for additional Undefined Certificates of Sponsorships. Even if you manage to secure a priority service, there’s no guarantee of a timely response, as a Request for Additional Information is likely. With only 60 daily slots available for priority service and over 1000 requests received per day, delays are inevitable.
If you do secure a priority service, you can expect to receive a Request for Additional Information within 1-2 weeks of approval. You’ll then have 5 working days to provide representations and evidence, followed by another 1-2 weeks for the Home Office to make a decision. Without a priority service, it can take 2-6 weeks to receive a request for additional information, with a similar timeline for the Home Office’s decision. Overall, using the standard service, the process is currently taking around 18 weeks.
In such a scenario, consider the following steps:
A. Prioritize progressing the candidate’s visa application before their current visa expires, as it may affect their Right to Work and continuous residency requirements for Indefinite Leave to Remain.
B. Request a priority service with UKVI to expedite processing of additional certificates of sponsorship.
C. If unable to secure a priority slot due to high demand, email the Home Office at scoc@homeoffice.gov.uk, explaining the urgency and providing evidence of the candidate’s visa expiry date to request special consideration.
D. If still unsuccessful, consider seeking legal advice to submit an interim Skilled Worker/Health & Care Worker visa application, highlighting the challenges in obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship before the visa expiry.
E. The Home Office will hold the candidate’s visa application until a Certificate of Sponsorship is available.
F. Retain a copy of the candidate’s visa application and use the Employer Checking Service to receive a positive verification notice (valid for 6 months) for continued employment within your organization.
If your employee’s visa is expiring and they’ve submitted an in-time application to the Home Office for an extension or variation of their permission to stay in the UK, they can continue working for you during the application process.
To verify their application submission, request a copy of their submitted visa application, which should include a date and time stamp indicating it was submitted before their visa expiration date. Then, use the Employer Checking Service to confirm their ongoing right to work.
Your statutory excuse for employing them will extend for up to 28 days after their permission expires, allowing time to obtain a ‘Positive Verification’ from the Employer Checking Service, which grants a statutory excuse for 6 months from the notice date.
If an error is made regarding working hours in a Defined CoS application, the employer can either withdraw the application and resubmit it or address the error when responding to any requests for additional information from UKVI.
If a CoS is not assigned to an employee before they resign, it can be allocated to another applicant. However, once a CoS is assigned to an employee, it cannot be reassigned.
While the Resident Labour Market Test is no longer required, evidence of the recruitment process is needed to ensure genuine and credible employment.
If the promotion does not change the SOC code, a new CoS is not required. However, if the new role has a different SOC code, a new CoS is necessary.
The address for Domiciliary Care Workers should be the registered or trading address of the company. Employers should maintain an up-to-date rota to track employees’ locations.
Once a CoS is assigned, it cannot be reused. If the candidate wishes to reapply, a new CoS must be assigned.