As we approach the end of January, most sponsors would have received their first reminders from the Home Office to renew their yearly Certificate of Sponsorship allocation. This renewal is important, and all Sponsors must apply for this renewal should they wish to sponsor migrants on an unrestricted CoS.
An Unrestricted CoS is needed to sponsor must migrant workers, if the application is to be made within the UK (except those converting from a Tier 4 dependant visa). This type of CoS is allocated to sponsors on a yearly basis, but sponsors can request an increase in-year.
The starting point for most sponsors now is to login to SMS and check if they have qualified for auto-allocation. This means that based on the previous year, the Home Office have automatically allocated a set number of CoS for the further year. If you have not received automatic allocation, then you must make an application as soon as possible.
An application for a renewal must be carefully made and whilst it can be straightforward, a sponsor must provide adequate justification for the number of CoS requested. In some cases, the Home Office can request further information and/or supporting documents in respect of your request. This is usually within 10 days of your request. If adequate justification is not provided, the Home Office can refuse your request and grant a lower number of CoS.
Once the application is made, you can track it from the SMS system, and will normally receive a decision within 18 weeks. However, if you have left it too late, or simply want a quicker decision, you can request for Priority service using the Priority Change of Circumstances Service. Whilst there is no fee for the standard application, the Priority Service costs £200 per request and has limited availability.
Preparing for Brexit
2020 will be an important year for most companies as the UK finally leaves the EU. As such, most companies should consider their Brexit recruitment strategy and include this within yearly CoS request. We expect most companies to rely more on their Sponsorship Licence as EU nationals will also become subject to immigration control under the new immigration system.