If you are looking to sponsor a candidate but you do not have any Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) available, you will need to make a request for additional CoS to the Home Office. Borderless can support you with submitting this request.

To submit a CoS request:

For more information on the difference between an Annual Allocation CoS request vs. In-Year CoS request, please see this support article for guidance.

🚩 Please note: If you name a candidate on the CoS request who is currently on a Student, Graduate, Dependent, or PSW visa and is switching to a Skilled Worker visa under SOC 6135/6136 for the first time, and they have not worked with you for at least 3 months, the Home Office may reject the request.

If they have been working with you for at least 3 months, then the Home Office would require proof e.g. payslips or employment contracts.

Once you click 'Submit', you will need to select how you want your CoS request to be processed by the Home Office:

⚠️ Important:
Once submitted, a request cannot be upgraded to Priority. Be sure to select the correct option before submission.

Sometimes our Immigration Team may require additional information or documents before submitting your request to the Home Office.

We understand that uploading multiple documents can be frustrating - however, these checks are required by the Home Office, and if we don't provide them now, the Home Office is likely to request them later, delaying your application.

👉 It is your responsibility to provide the documents.
👉 Our Immigration Team cannot review or progress your request until you submit the information on the Borderless portal.
👉 Further documents are often necessary for compliance.

Sometimes the Home Office may require additional information to make a decision on your CoS request. They typically give a 5 working day window to respond.

Instead, forward the email to your account manager or to our support team, and our Immigration team will handle the response on your behalf.

Borderless now checks your CoS request as you build it, so problems are caught before submission rather than by the Home Office weeks later.

Every document section shows guidance before you upload, explaining what the document is, what makes it valid, and what will cause it to be rejected. When you upload a document, Borderless automatically checks it is the right type of document and pre-fills form fields from it. If a document looks wrong, you will see a warning asking you to verify it. These warnings do not block you, but resolving them gives your request the best chance of success.

Bank statements get an additional check. The bank statements section shows the minimum balance your account needs to hold, based on the number of workers you are requesting to sponsor. If the closing balance on your statement is below that minimum, you will see a warning before the document can be accepted. Insufficient bank balances are one of the most common reasons CoS requests are rejected, so it is worth resolving this before you submit.

Current employees named on your request need employment evidence. If any named individual already works for you, you must upload their employment contract before you can submit, and draft contracts are not accepted. For care CoS requests, sponsored workers who are current employees also need their last 3 months of payslips. If either is missing, the submit button will tell you exactly which individual needs which document.

Your written answers in the reason for hiring section are also reviewed automatically against what the Home Office expects to see, and you will get feedback below each answer with suggestions to strengthen it. This feedback is advisory and never blocks submission.

Your progress now saves automatically as you type, so you can leave a CoS request part-way through and pick it up later without losing anything.