CoS scam: how to check a Certificate of Sponsorship is real

A CoS scam is anyone asking you to pay for a Certificate of Sponsorship. A real CoS costs you nothing. Only a licensed employer can make one, after a real job offer, in its own Home Office account.

A Certificate of Sponsorship sounds like a paper. It is not. GOV.UK calls it an electronic record, not a physical document. Its number goes into your visa application, and you must apply within 3 months of getting it.

Because everyone needs one, a whole industry sells fake ones, and real looking illegal ones. This guide shows how the real thing works, then gives you eight checks to run on any offer in front of you.

How a real CoS happens

• A company with a sponsor licence interviews you and offers you a real job.
• The company creates the CoS in its Home Office account. Not you, and not an agent.
• The job on the CoS must be real, with real duties and pay that meets the rules.
• You use the CoS number in your visa application, usually within 3 months.

The scam: pay me and I will arrange your sponsorship

Selling a CoS is a crime. A worker is never supposed to pay for their own certificate. GOV.UK tells employers their licence may be revoked if they ask the sponsored worker to pay the fee or any costs linked to it.

Here is what actually happens. The licence used this way gets revoked. When it is revoked, every worker sponsored under it gets the 60 day letter. The person who paid loses the money and the visa. The agent disappears.

Eight checks to run on any CoS offer

• Nobody asks you for money. Not for the certificate, not as a deposit, not as a processing fee. GOV.UK says a legitimate employer would never ask for payment to secure a visa.
• The employer is on the Home Office register of licensed sponsors today, under its exact registered name. Check it yourself, free, rather than trusting a screenshot an agent sends you.
• The licence covers the right route. For most jobs that is Skilled Worker. A licence for a different route cannot give you a Skilled Worker certificate.
• The licence is still there. A licence that was revoked last month makes every certificate under it worthless. We read the register every morning and list the companies that came off it.
• You applied to the employer and the employer interviewed you. A guaranteed job you never interviewed for is not a job.
• The pay meets the rule. A Skilled Worker job usually needs at least £41,700 a year or the going rate for the job, and a health and care job at least £25,000. A promise that the pay on paper will differ from what you are paid is illegal from day one.
• It is not a care worker job offered to you abroad. Since 22 July 2025 care worker and senior care worker jobs cannot bring someone new to the UK on a work visa. If you are outside the UK and someone offers you one, stop.
• Everything comes from the employer itself. The offer, the job title and the CoS details come in writing from the company, from its own email address, not from an agent's personal account.

Check an employer against today's register, freeCompanies that came off the register recentlyThe pay rule, explained

Where to report a CoS scam

GOV.UK says to report suspicions or incidents to Action Fraud, on its website, or by phone if you are in the UK. In Scotland, report fraud to Police Scotland.

Keep everything: the messages, the names, the bank details you were given and any receipts. Do not pay anything more, whatever you are told about getting the first payment back.

If you already hold a visa that came from a bought certificate, talk to a regulated immigration adviser before you do anything else. This guide is not legal advice.

GOV.UK, Fraud, tricks and scamsAction Fraud

What it should cost you

Your costs as a worker are the visa application fee, the health surcharge, and things like translations. The sponsorship itself, the licence and the certificate, is the company's cost, not yours. GOV.UK sets the certificate fee for a Skilled Worker at £525 and says the employer must pay it.

Finding the real jobs should cost you little or nothing. Searching our list of checked jobs is free, and opening the company links is a one off £20.

Where these facts come from

GOV.UK pages read on 11 October 2026: Certificates of sponsorship for employers, Fraud, tricks and scams (updated 16 October 2025), Skilled Worker visa, your job, and Health and Care Worker visa, your job. A licence is permission to sponsor, not a promise to sponsor you. Nobody may charge you for a certificate of sponsorship. Not legal advice.

GOV.UK, Certificates of sponsorshipGOV.UK, Health and Care Worker visa, your job