Guidance

SMS guide 10: miscellaneous CoS functions (accessible)

Updated 18 December 2024

© Crown copyright 2024

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/miscellaneous-certificate-of-sponsorship-functions-sms-guide-10/sms-guide-10-miscellaneous-cos-functions-accessible

Additional SMS manuals

There are 12 SMS user manuals available, plus a supplementary policy guide for completing a CAS. The guides are grouped into three categories: common, CAS and CoS. The table below describes the purpose and audience of each manual.

You should read all manuals applicable to your licence before contacting the relevant helpdesk.

Manual reference Manual title Type Purpose Audience
Manual 1 Introduction to SMS Common Use this manual to log into SMS, change your password, manage SMS users and view important messages posted by the Home Office. In addition, this manual explains who should use SMS and for what purpose. The manual features a full introduction to SMS as well as a comprehensive troubleshooting section. All sponsors
Manual 2 Managing your licence Common To help sponsors manage their key personnel, change their licence details, manage PAYE references, and apply for allocations of CoS/CAS. All sponsors
Manual 3 Apply for Premium customer service, Basic Compliance Assessment and manage Action plans Common To help sponsors apply for Premium customer service, Basic Compliance Assessment and manage action plans. All sponsors
Manual 4 Creating and assigning CAS CAS To help sponsors create and assign individual and batches of CAS. Sponsors licensed in the Student Route
Manual 4a Creating a CAS – guide for education sponsors CAS This manual contains supplementary information on completing a CAS. Use this guide to determine what information is necessary in each field of the CAS. Sponsors licensed in the Student Route
Manual 5 Reporting student activity CAS To help sponsors report student activity, for example if a student’s circumstances change or submitting a graduate notification. This manual also contains help with reporting fee updates and adding sponsor notes to CAS that have already been assigned. Sponsors licensed in the Student Route
Manual 6 Miscellaneous CAS functions CAS To help sponsors complete all other functions of CAS, such as managing batches of CAS, managing pre-stored addresses for use when creating CAS, transferring ownership of CAS, printing CAS and exporting CAS. Sponsors licensed in the Student Route
Manual 7 Bulk Data Transfer of CAS CAS To help sponsors use the bulk data transfer (BDT) functions of SMS, including graduate notifications. You must have a bespoke IT system in place to use BDT. Sponsors licensed in the Student Route
Manual 8 Creating and assigning CoS CoS To help sponsors create and assign individual and batches of CoS. Sponsors licensed in any Worker or Temporary Worker route
Manual 9 Reporting worker activity CoS To help sponsors report worker activity, for example if a worker’s circumstances change. This manual also contains help with adding sponsor notes to CoS that have already been assigned. Sponsors licensed in any Worker or Temporary Worker route
Manual 10 Miscellaneous CoS functions CoS To help sponsors complete all other functions of CoS, such as managing batches of CoS, managing pre-stored addresses for use when creating CoS, transferring ownership of CoS, and printing CoS. Sponsors licensed in any Worker or Temporary Worker route
Manual 11 Temporary Work – Creative Worker Group of CoS CoS To help sponsors create and manage groups of CoS. Groups of CoS are only available to sponsors licensed in Temporary Work - Creative Worker Sponsors licensed in the Temporary Work - Creative Work Route
Manual 12 Defined CoS CoS To help sponsors apply for defined CoS, track applications for defined CoS and once granted, create defined CoS. Sponsors licensed in Skilled Worker

Glossary

Term Meaning
SMS Sponsorship Management System
CoS Certificate of Sponsorship
CAS Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies
AO Authorising Officer
KC Key Contact
BDT Bulk Data Transfer
SELT Secure English Language Test
.XML Extensible Mark-up Language
.PDF Portable Document Format
Automation On 6 April 2014 we introduced new functionality in SMS to automatically renew CoS allocations and to apply changes to your address, or that of your AO and KC. We will write to you if you meet the criteria and automation has been set.

CoS status

The table below shows each status which can apply to a CoS.

As seen in SMS Meaning
WORK IN PROGRESS The CoS is still in ‘draft’ form as one or more mandatory details have yet to be completed.
READY TO GO All mandatory fields are complete and the CoS is ready to be assigned to an individual.
ASSIGNED The CoS has been assigned to an individual and is ready to be used in support of an application for leave to enter or remain.
WITHDRAWN You have used the ‘Manage live CoS’ function to withdraw the CoS.
USED The CoS has been used in support of an individual’s application for leave to enter or remain.
EXPIRED Either: The individual has not made an application for leave to enter or remain by the expiry date of the CoS. A new CoS is required;
Or: The individual has applied by the CoS expiry date but we have not considered their application before that date. In this case, no action is required on your part; we will change the status of the CoS from EXPIRED to USED when the application is considered.
CANCELLED The CoS has been cancelled as your licence has been revoked or has expired, or you have surrendered the relevant route / your whole licence prior to the CoS being used.

SMS guides

Guide 1: How to transfer CoS ownership, view CoS history and other CoS administration functions

Follow the step by step instructions below to perform CoS administration tasks, which includes:

  • viewing CoS details;

  • printing a CoS for your records or for a migrant to use in support of their application;

  • transferring ownership of CoS between SMS users;

  • viewing the history of ownership of a CoS; and

  • viewing reported history of a CoS.

Step Instruction
1 From the Workers screen, select View CoS.
2 From the View CoS screen, select Search for CoS.
3 From the View CoS screen, enter the parameters you wish to search against, then select Next.
Note If your search parameters are not specific, you will be presented with a long list of CoS. This screen is not featured in this guide. Select the CoS you wish to view. If your search parameters are specific, you will be presented with the screen below.
4 From the View CoS screen, ensure the details are correct.
You now have five options:
1. Select Back to return to the CoS search results screen;
2. Select Status history to display the status history of the CoS, for example, READY TO GO, ASSIGNED or WITHDRAWN
3. Select Activity history to display any details reported for the individual using the Report Migrant Activity function (this can only apply to CoS with a status of USED); or
5. Select Transfer to transfer a CoS to another SMS user.
5 To Transfer:
From the Transfer a single CoS screen, select the relevant user from the drop-down list, then select Transfer.
6 The CoS has been transferred.
Select OK to return to the View CoS screen.
7 To print:
Scroll down to the bottom of the page, click the ‘Print’ button highlighted in red.
8 When the PDF file is opened, use your print command from your browser/PDF viewer to produce a hard copy.
Note 1. The keyboard shortcut for printing is CTRL+P on a computer running Windows or CMD+P on a computer running OSX.
2. You will only be able to open and print the PDF version of the CoS if you have the appropriate software installed, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader or an appropriate browser extension.
9 To view status history:
From the View CoS status history screen, you can see the status and date on which the CoS moved to its current status. When complete select Back to return to the previous screen.
10 To view activity history:
From the View CoS activity history screen, select the reported activity for which you wish to view further details, then select Next.
11 From the View CoS activity details screen you can see when the activity was reported, the CoS number and the details of the activity. When complete select Back to return to the previous screen.

Guide 2: How to transfer a batch of CoS to another user

Follow the step by step instructions below to transfer ownership of a batch to another user. This function is useful if an existing SMS user will no longer be using SMS, or if a SMS user is taking ownership of another SMS user’s workload.

Step Instructions
1 From the Workers screen, select View CoS.
2 From the View CoS screen, select Search for batch(es) of CoS.
3 From the Search for batches of CoS screen, enter your search parameters, then select Next.
Note If your search parameters are not specific, you will be presented with a long list of batches. This screen is not featured in this guide. Select the batch you wish to transfer. If your search parameters are specific, you will be presented with the screen below.
4 From the CoS search result screen, select Transfer.
5 From the Transfer batch of CoS screen, select the user to whom you’d like to transfer the batch from the drop-down list, then select Transfer.
6 The batch has been transferred. Select OK to return to CoS search results screen.

Guide 3: How to withdraw an unused CoS

Follow the step by step instructions below to withdraw a CoS with the ASSIGNED status. This function is useful if you decide not to sponsor a migrant before the CoS has been used in an application for leave to enter, leave to remain or worker authorisation.

CoS with the following statuses cannot be withdrawn: WORK IN PROGRESS; READY TO GO; USED; or EXPIRED. When a CoS is withdrawn it is not returned to your allocation, nor will you be refunded the fee paid when you assigned the CoS.

You should read the Sponsorship policy guidance before withdrawing an unused CoS.

Step Instruction
1 From the Workers screen, select Sponsorship duties.
2 From the Sponsorship duties screen, select Manage live CoS.
3 From the Search for a CoS screen, enter your search parameters, then select Next.
Note If your search parameters are not specific, you will be presented with a long list of CoS. This screen is not featured in this guide. Select the CoS you wish to withdraw. If your search parameters are specific, you will be presented with the screen below.
4 From the Manage live CoS screen, select Withdraw CoS.
If you wish to cancel the withdrawal, select Back.
5 From the Withdrawal confirmation screen, select Withdraw CoS.
If you wish to cancel the withdrawal, select Cancel.
Once the CoS has been withdrawn, you will be returned to the Search for a CoS screen.

Guide 4: How to add, amend or delete work addresses

Follow the step by step instructions below to add, amend or delete a work address. This function is useful if you wish to store several addresses that you use frequently when creating CoS. Saved addresses will be available from the Pre-stored address drop-down list on the Add or amend a work address screen in all CoS that you create afterwards.

Step Instruction
1 From the Workers screen, select Manage work addresses.
2 From the Manage work addresses screen, select Add to add a new address, or to delete or amend an existing address, select the Address identifier.
3 To add an address:
On the Add work address screen, ensure you complete all mandatory fields, then select Save.
4 To delete or edit an address:
From the Edit work address screen, change the address details as necessary, then select Save.
To delete the address, select Delete.
Note At least one field must be edited to be able to Save.
5 To delete:
From the Delete work address screen, select Delete.

Guide 5: How to search for a CoS using the advanced search option

Follow the step by step instructions below to search for a CoS using the advanced search option.

Step Instruction
1 To use the Advanced search option, navigate to the View CoS screen and select Advanced in the bottom right.
2 The Advanced search option gives a wider range of search parameters. These parameters can be set singularly for wide searches or combined to refine your search results.
The following pages give full details on all search parameters.
3 Use the Reported Activity drop down menu to find a CoS based on an activity you have reported e.g. sponsor has stopped sponsoring migrant worker or Migrant has left the Sponsor.
Use the Route parameter to search for CoS in a specific route. To refine your search, you can select other parameters such as the CoS status and/or owner.
You can leave the route blank to search for all CoS with a particular status and/or owner.
More information You can search for a CoS based on the current status of a CoS. You can select multiple statuses in one search.
Work in Progress: will show CoS in draft form.
Ready to go: will show CoS created and ready to be assigned.
Assigned: will show Cos assigned, ready to be used in an application for leave to enter or remain.
Expired: will show CoS that have either expired before being used in an application or have expired before the application has been considered.
Used: will show CoS that have been used in support of an application for leave to enter or remain.
Withdrawn: will show CoS withdrawn by the Sponsor.
Cancelled: will show CoS that have been cancelled due to licence or route surrender, revocation or expiry, prior to the CoS being used.
Last changed status from/to: allows you to search within date parameters where a CoS status may have changed
Owner: allows you to search for CoS created by individual Level 1 and Level 2 users.
3 Once you have completed your Advanced search you will be shown the search results. To view a CoS in more detail, select a CoS using the radio button and then next.

Note: you can only view a maximum of 100 results on a search. If your search returns more than 100 results you should refine your parameters to reduce the results returned.

Note: The column titled “Migrated to SpUK?” has been added to SMS screens where multiple CoS search results are displayed. The new column appears for all sponsors regardless of the routes they are licenced in, or whether they are participating in the Sponsor UK pilot.
4 You are now able to view the CoS you searched for and have an option to Print the CoS details, check the Status history, Activity history and Transfer the CoS.
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