Employers who need to sponsor individuals are reminded of the importance of considering their allocations of Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) on the Sponsorship Management System as early as possible.
This is especially important in relation to sponsorship from inside the UK, including those who are making applications to continue to work with their sponsor or changing sponsors.
The Home Office’s service standard for granting either additional, or annual CoS allocations, is 18 weeks. However, there is a priority processing service available, at a cost of £200, with a view to such applications being granted within five working days.
The critical aspect to remember is that the Home Office only accepts 60 requests each weekday, on a first come, first served basis.
From our experience, unless exceptional circumstances apply, it is taking several days and in some cases several weeks for these requests to be accepted, even for the priority service. Unless a CoS allocation is already available to use by sponsors, this can cause delays and stress during the process.
By way of reminder, an application for leave to remain, and for the relevant individual to begin or continue to work for their sponsor, cannot be successful unless a valid CoS is assigned.
We therefore advise all sponsors to consider their CoS allocations, especially if they foresee a requirement, and act sooner rather than later.
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