When a job offer or sponsorship is withdrawn

What a certificate of sponsorship does

A certificate of sponsorship is an electronic record, not a paper document. Your employer creates it to confirm the specific job it is offering you, with the occupation code, the salary and the hours. You cannot apply for a Skilled Worker visa without one, and you must apply within 3 months of it being assigned. See our guide to the certificate of sponsorship.

In points terms, sponsorship is worth 20 of the 70 points the application needs, and the rules add that no salary points are awarded at all if the sponsorship points are not. That is why withdrawal is decisive rather than merely unhelpful.

If it is withdrawn before the visa is granted

The application is normally refused, because a requirement it turns on is no longer met. Two things can happen:

• the Home Office refuses it, because there is no valid certificate; or
• you withdraw the application yourself once you learn the offer has gone.

Either way you have not entered the UK on this route, and there is no waiting period before applying again with a new job offer and a new certificate. Our refusal guide covers what a refusal letter does and does not allow.

If you are already in the UK

Your sponsor is required to report to the Home Office when your employment ends. Your permission is then normally cut short to 60 days from the date the Home Office writes to you, or to the date your visa would have expired if that is sooner.

The dates in your own letter are the ones that count, so read it for the exact end date rather than assuming 60 days from the day the job ended.

Being sponsored by a new employer

A new employer with a sponsor licence assigns you a new certificate of sponsorship, and you apply to update your visa. GOV.UK says you cannot change jobs or employer unless you apply to update your visa, and you should not start the new job until you have confirmation of the new permission. Our guide to changing jobs on a Skilled Worker visa sets out the steps.

Timing is the constraint. The application has to be made before your permission ends, which means the new employer needs to have assigned the certificate before then.

Applying on another route

Each route sets out which visas can switch into it from inside the UK. Some cannot be switched into from inside the UK at all, and some switches are barred depending on the permission you currently hold. Because that turns entirely on your own circumstances, it is the point at which a regulated adviser is useful: only a solicitor or barrister, or an adviser registered with the Immigration Advice Authority, may advise for payment. You can look someone up on the GOV.UK adviser search. The route requirements themselves are on the GOV.UK Skilled Worker pages and the equivalent pages for each other route.

Leaving before your permission ends

If no new application is made, you must leave the UK before your permission ends. Staying beyond it means being in the UK without permission, which the rules treat as a ground of refusal on later applications. Our overstaying guide sets out how that works.

What happens to the money

The immigration health surcharge has published refund rules. You get a full refund if the application is refused, if you withdraw it before a decision is made, or if you paid twice for the same application. A partial refund follows if the application succeeds but you are given less time than you asked for, or if a dependant is refused. There is no refund if you withdraw after the visa is granted, or if the visa is granted and you simply do not come to the UK.

You do not have to claim it: GOV.UK says the refund is paid automatically to the card or account it was paid from, and goes to whoever paid it. The rules are on the GOV.UK refunds page.

GOV.UK publishes no equivalent entitlement to a refund of the visa application fee. Keep receipts for what you have paid.

If you were already working here

Your employment rights are the same as any other worker in the UK, whatever your visa. Notice pay, redundancy pay and unpaid wages are matters of employment law, separate from your immigration position, and they do not stop applying because sponsorship has ended.

Practical points:

• read the letter from the Home Office and note every date;
• keep copies of all correspondence about the withdrawal, from the employer and from the Home Office;
• a new sponsor has to assign the certificate in time for the application to be made before your permission ends; and
• advice on your own circumstances has to come from someone regulated.

Questions and answers