Sponsor Licence Holders: Plan Ahead to Assign CoS Before 22 July Immigration Rule Changes

UK immigration sponsors should take urgent note of a scheduled Sponsor Management System (SMS) outage and ensure that all time-sensitive activity, especially the assignment of Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) is completed before the system goes offline.

According to the Home Office:

The Sponsor Application and Sponsor Management System (SMS) will be unavailable from 18:00 on Monday 21 July until 09:00 on Tuesday 22 July 2025 while an essential IT system upgrade is carried out.

During this outage window, sponsors will not be able to:

• Assign Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) (Defined or Undefined)
• Apply for Defined CoS
• Request additional Undefined CoS
• Apply to renew or increase CAS allocations
• Submit any other changes or requests via SMS

Why this matters

As previously reported, major changes to the UK immigration rules come into force on 22 July 2025, including:

• The removal of most below-RQF Level 6 roles from Skilled Worker eligibility (with limited exceptions via the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List)
• Higher general salary thresholds and increases to SOC code going rates for most occupations

If you are planning to:

• Sponsor someone in a role that will no longer qualify under the new rules, or
• Lock in the lower salary thresholds or current SOC codes for a hire already in motion

…you must assign the CoS before the rule changes take effect.

CoS can be post-dated by up to 3 months, and the visa application can be submitted later, but the CoS must be assigned before the deadline.

What you should do now

We recommend all sponsors:

• Review upcoming sponsorship needs and identify roles at risk under the new criteria
• Assign any required CoS before 18:00 on 21 July to avoid system access issues. The earlier the better, as the SMS is likely to be very busy on the 21st, which may result in downtime.
• Factor in internal approval processes and document readiness in advance of the outage

We're actively supporting clients to ensure CoS are assigned in time and aligned with the correct SOC codes, salary thresholds, and supporting documentation.

If you're unsure whether a role still qualifies or want support getting CoS assigned before the changes, please contact us as soon as possible.

If you're struggling to obtain a Home Office priroity service slot to increase your Undefined CoS allocation, we can help with our dedicated service.  Discover more.