Home Office Request for further information when applying for a Undefined or Defined CoS (Certificate of Sponsorship)
Defined CoS are increasingly subject to requiring submission of further documentation.
The Home Office will sometimes request further documentation from a business holding a Sponsor Licence, once a request has been made in the Sponsor Licence SMS System.
The reason for this is that they want to see that a business genuinely needs further staff from abroad at the time of the application. They may have concerns that some aspects of the initial CoS request were not clear.
The published guidance for sponsoring a worker states:
S2.17. When you apply for a licence, we ask you for an estimate of the number of Undefined CoS you may wish to assign in your first year in each route in which you are applying to be licensed. You must justify your request and we may ask you for further information before we make a decision.
S2.18. If we grant your licence application, we will tell you what your CoS allocation is for the year. When we set your CoS allocation, we may consider relevant factors including, but not limited to, the following:
any agents you will use to recruit workers and whether they have been linked to immigration abuse in the past
your previous record in dealing with us, including under the current sponsorship scheme or the previous Tier 2 and Tier 5 scheme
the number of workers employed at your organisation
the kind of business you conduct
the extent of the business you conduct
the length of time you have been trading
This also applies to Defined CoS allocations.
The types of documentation they may request that are mandatory:
Recent bank statements
Draft Employment Contract for the specific DCoS requested
Explanation of why a DCoS is needed currently for the specific job role
A detailed description of the CoS you intend to assign
Documentation that are requested that are not mandatory but will help the application:
Evidence of business expansion to explain the DCoS request
Evidence of contracts showing business expansion
If you are interested in applying for DCoS or Undefined CoS, we recommend speaking to a licensed immigration advisor to advise you prior to putting in a request. An expert in Sponsor Licences can ensure that all compliance requirements are met prior, making sure issues will not arise.