Certificates of Sponsorship

A Certificate of Sponsorship is not a paper certificate. It is an electronic record created on the Sponsorship Management System that carries a reference number the worker uses in their visa application.

The details you enter — occupation code, job title, duties, salary, hours, work location and dates — become the basis of the worker's permission and of your sponsor duties. Inaccuracy is not a formatting problem; it can lead to refusal of the worker's application or to compliance action against the licence.

The occupation code determines the skill level, the going rate and often whether the role qualifies at all. Choosing a code because it sounds close to the job title, rather than because the duties match, is one of the most common and most damaging errors we see.

Where a role sits between codes, the safer approach is to document the duties, map them against the code definition and keep that analysis on file so it can be produced if questioned later.

Applications made from outside the UK generally use a defined certificate, requested from the Home Office before it can be assigned. Applications from inside the UK use undefined certificates from your annual allocation.

Allocations can be increased in year where the business can justify the need. Running out of undefined certificates in the middle of a hiring round is avoidable with a small amount of planning.