A PDF arrives on WhatsApp. Some British company’s logo at the top, your name at the bottom, a salary written in the middle — just a little above the official threshold. With it a message: “The CoS is ready, it will cost twenty lakh, seats are limited.” And for the next two days the argument going on at home is about where the money will come from.
This scene is being repeated every day in every city of the subcontinent. The Skilled Worker visa is Britain’s main work visa, and for that very reason it is also the field of the biggest immigration fraud going on at present. Lakhs of rupees are being looted in the name of the “Certificate of Sponsorship”, and most of those being looted are people who actually have the skill — they simply do not have the information.
So first let us understand how the system works. The day you understand this is the day you will no longer need anybody’s opinion to recognise a fake offer.
The whole building stands on one pillar: sponsorship
In Britain you cannot get a work visa on your own strength. Only a licensed sponsor company can get it for you. The official register of such companies is on gov.uk and opens free of charge — anyone, at any time, can look up a company’s name in it.
The process is that the company gives you a job and issues a CoS in your name — Certificate of Sponsorship, which is in fact an electronic reference number, not some finely printed certificate. With that number you make the visa application: the CoS, proof of English (B1 level), financial proof, and the character and TB certificates.
Note that in this whole sequence the CoS comes after the job, not before. Half the fraud is laid bare by this one fact alone, because the agent sells you the CoS first and mentions the job afterwards — or never mentions it at all.
The rules on the job and the salary
Not every job works for this visa. The work must be at an approved skill level, and the list of these is official. The general salary threshold is around £38,700. In some cases the threshold is lower — the Immigration Salary List for shortage occupations, new graduates, and certain specific categories. The exact numbers change every year, so take them from gov.uk and not from any article.
Now two points that concern our people in particular.
The care worker route has closed. New care workers are no longer being recruited from abroad. This is a very big change, because in the last few years more people went by this route than any other, and the most fraud was also done in this name. Even today, if somebody is selling you a “care visa” there are only two possibilities: either he is selling old stock, or he is committing straightforward fraud. There is no third possibility.
Doctors and nurses are on a separate route. Certain medical professions come under the Health and Care visa, where the fee is lower and the IHS is waived. But this route is purely for professional medical staff — treating it as a back door to the ordinary work visa is a mistake.
How much it costs, and who pays — remember this difference
The costs are divided into two parts, and this very division is the biggest sign of fraud.
What you pay: the visa fee (in the hundreds of pounds) and the IHS, that is the health surcharge, which is about £1,035 per year and is multiplied by the total years of the visa. If the family is with you, it applies separately to each person.
What the company pays: the sponsor licence fee, the CoS fee, and the Immigration Skills Charge. These are legally the company’s responsibility, and recovering several of these from the candidate is forbidden.
And now the most important line in this article: selling and buying a CoS is a crime in Britain. The “offer” for which you are being asked fifteen to twenty-five lakh rupees is not a job. It is one of two things: either a fake document, or a company whose licence is going to be revoked tomorrow.
Understand what revocation of the licence means, because people take it to be the company’s problem. It is not the company’s problem, it is the worker’s. The day a sponsor’s licence goes, the visas of all its workers are put at risk. This has already happened to thousands of people, especially in the care sector — and among them were many who had sold land for that same “job”. The money went, the visa went, and there was nothing left to tell on going back.
Five questions to identify a fake offer
This is the list that should be run over every offer, one by one, without emotion. If even one answer comes out wrong, end the matter right there.
- Is the company’s name in the government’s official sponsor register? This is checked free on gov.uk and takes five minutes.
- What do the company’s age, office and filings say on Companies House? A six-month-old, one-room company that is “selling” fifty visas — that tells its own story.
- Did you have an interview? A real company does not issue a CoS without assessing the candidate. It wants your work, not your passport.
- Was money asked for the CoS or the job? A real employer does not take this money from the candidate. A demand for money is in itself a sign of fraud, whatever the amount may be.
- What is the offer letter like? A PDF that arrived on WhatsApp, a salary just a little above the threshold, a vague place of work — this is the classic fake pattern, and it looks almost the same every time.
One more thing. If you are told “do not contact the company yourself, the whole matter will go through us” — that answer alone is enough. In a real job there is no curtain between employer and employee.
If you get the visa, what are your rights
This part is for those who have already arrived, and it is often something nobody has told them.
You are bound to work for that same sponsor, in that same job. To change jobs, a new CoS from a new sponsor and an update to the visa are required. Taking advantage of this restriction, some employers start pressing the worker — pay below the agreed rate, hours above the agreed limit, and with it the threat that “if you complain your visa will go”.
That threat is false. In cases of exploitation there are routes to report it, and finding another sponsor is your legal right. What really harms you is quietly doing “side work” for cash — that is a plain breach of the visa, and in that the punishment falls not on the employer but on you.
And if the job is lost, there is a limited period to find a new sponsor. Limited means limited. Do not wait on that day — get legal advice that same week.
The road to permanent residence
After completing five years on the Skilled Worker visa — while keeping the salary condition met — an application can be made for ILR, that is Indefinite Leave to Remain. Along with it come the Life in the UK test and the English requirement. There has also been talk in government proposals of extending this period, so it is necessary to keep checking the current rules.
Twelve months after ILR is granted, an application for citizenship becomes possible.
About the family: a Skilled Worker can bring a spouse and children along as dependants. This is good news, but do one calculation on it — the visa fee and the IHS apply separately to each person, and the total cost for three or four people usually comes out far higher than people estimate. Do this sum before buying the tickets, not afterwards.
So what is the real route for someone sitting outside?
The question is fair. If buying a CoS is a crime and the agent is lying, then what should be done? The answer is less interesting, but it works.
The first task is to connect your skill to Britain’s actual demand. The companies that sponsor are concentrated in a few sectors — IT, engineering, finance, health, and the skilled trades. If your skill does not fall among these, then the first step is not a visa application but developing the skill. This sounds slow, but it is still faster than a twenty-lakh fraud.
The second task is direct applications: companies’ own careers sites, LinkedIn, and Indeed UK — where there is a “visa sponsorship available” filter. This is hard work and it takes hundreds of applications. It is exactly this labour that the agent sells you in exchange for a PDF.
And the third, which has in practice proved the most successful route: the bridge of study. A British degree, then a job during the Graduate visa, then that same job turning into sponsorship. At that point you stand before the employer as a candidate who is already in the country, who holds a local degree, and whom he has already seen face to face. We have a separate article on the student visa.
Whichever route you choose, do not break one rule: never a job in exchange for money. In a real job the money moves from the employer towards the employee. The day the direction reverses, understand that it was not a job.
This article has been written to explain the system to you, not as legal advice. Salary thresholds and visa routes in Britain are changing at an unusual pace, and the figures given here are approximate. Verify every step yourself at gov.uk, and take personal advice only from an OISC registered adviser or a solicitor — not from an agent.
