The Home Office has this week updated the ‘Workers and Temporary Workers: sponsor a skilled worker’ guidance for sponsors with new information on the Defined Certificate of Sponsorship (DCoS) application process and the information sponsors must provide when submitting requests.
Most significantly, it is now mandatory to include the total weekly working hours of the worker when submitting DCoS requests.
What is a Defined Certificate of Sponsorship (DCoS)?
Before applying for a Skilled Worker visa, the sponsor must give the applicant a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS), detailing the job offer. There are two types of CoS under the Skilled Worker route: ‘Defined’ for workers living outside the UK, and ‘Undefined’ for overseas workers who are already resident in the UK.
The DCoS application process
You can only apply for a DCoS as and when you require one. You can apply for more than one in a single application, provided the job roles on each CoS are the same.
Applications must be submitted using the online Sponsorship Management System (SMS). The fee is currently £239 for the Health and Care Worker (Skilled Worker) route.
If the Home Office does not require further information, you should receive a decision within a few weeks (at the time of writing, official guidance still states “one working day” but we are aware of delays). If your application is successful, the DCoS will be allocated to your SMS account. You must assign it to a worker within 3 months, or it will be removed. You should therefore only apply for a Defined CoS if you genuinely intend to assign it within this timeframe.
However, the Home Office may reject your DCoS application for a number of reasons, including:
- they are not satisfied that the job meets the skill or salary requirements
- you have used the wrong occupation code
- they have reasonable grounds to believe the job is not genuine
- if you have provided incorrect or misleading information
It is therefore important to be as accurate as possible when inputting the required details on your application.
You can find detailed information on how to complete a DCoS application in the Home Office guidance SMS Manual 12.
Changes to the guidance for sponsors on DCoS applications
The updated guidance has been amended to reflect changes to the DCoS application process, effective from 11 March 2024.
The guidance now states that sponsors must include the number of hours the candidate will work each week.
The guidance also now states that when applying for a Defined CoS to sponsor a worker under occupation code 6145 (care workers) or 6146 (senior care workers), sponsors must also provide the working location, or locations, of the job the worker is being sponsored for, and confirmation of CQC registration.