Skilled Worker visa is a general worker visa that requires a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) given by an employer before it can be applied for. The Business Services Authority (BSA) only has a finite number of Certificates of sponsorships that can be given each year. All sponsorships are processed by the Corporate HR (CHR) Team.
Recruiting an applicant who requires a Skilled Worker visa
Advert and Shortlisting
In order for a CoS to be offered, certain conditions and requirements must be met during advertising and shortlisting.
Further guidance on these requirements can be found by contacting CHR.
Offer
Should a Recruiting Manager (RM) move an Internal candidate with an existing Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS)/Visa to ‘Offer:Pending’, HR Shared Services (HRSS) will email CHR requesting approval to produce the Offer.
HRSS will not prepare and send the Offer until this confirmation is received from CHR.
Please note the above does not apply to external candidates. HRSS will send the offer to all external candidates regardless of their declared visa status and no approval is required.
Pre-Employment Checks
HRSS will require the RM to upload the CoS to the candidate’s record on Trac once received.
HRSS will request approval from CHR to request a start date for any candidates with a visa that has an expiry; this includes those on a Skilled Worker visa. This approval must be provided before the candidate can move into Starting.
Starting
A candidate who requires a Skilled Worker visa and has completed all other necessary pre-employment checks can only start in post once the following have been completed.
- A CoS has been issued for that individual by CHR and uploaded to the candidate’s record on Trac by the RM.
- The individual has provided proof that they have applied for or have received a Skilled Worker visa.
- A Home Office share code from gov.uk has been received that indicates that the person named is allowed stay in the UK and they are allowed to do the work in question. This code will be provided by the candidate via the DPEC request.
- The Home Office share code is used to generate the Home Office online output which evidences Right to Work (RTW). HRSS must also conduct a share code appointment via Teams video call to verify the photograph on the Home Office online right to work check is a true likeness of the individual.
- The visa expiry date on the Home Office online output is checked and is within 30 days of the end date under the work date section of the CoS.
- HRSS has received the first day reporting information from the RM following approval to request this from Corporate HR.
Please Note: The Right to Work (RTW) check for the candidate will remain open on Trac until they have received their Skilled Worker visa and provided a valid Home Office share code.
Further Guidance
- You can view the UK Visas and Immigration information on the gov.uk website.
- You can view the ‘Right to Work checks standard’ on the NHS Employers website.