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How a Fast-Growing Tech Employer Assigned 20+ UK Certificates of Sponsorship Without Compliance Errors
End-to-End CoS Management: Zero Refusals and a Future-Proofed Hiring Framework
Following a Series B funding round, Jobbatical managed a high-stakes, six-month hiring sprint for a London-based tech employer—processing 20+ CoS assignments with zero compliance errors, 100% visa success, and total protection of the company’s UK sponsor license.
Situation
A high-growth employer facing a high-stakes hiring window
Following a Series B funding round, a London-based SaaS company entered an aggressive six-month hiring sprint targeting software engineers, data scientists, and product specialists. A significant share of the best candidates in their pipeline held non-UK nationalities — requiring each hire to be sponsored under the UK Skilled Worker Visa route.
The company held a valid UK sponsor licence, but had historically processed only three to five sponsored hires per year. Their HR team had no structured process for managing certificates of sponsorship for multiple employees at once, no dedicated immigration expert, and limited familiarity with the Sponsor Management System (SMS).
With 20-plus CoS assignments needed over a compressed timeline, the margin for error was effectively zero. Each certificate of sponsorship is a legally binding document submitted to the Home Office. Mistakes — incorrect salary figures, wrong SOC codes, mismatched employee details — directly cause UK CoS errors leading to visa refusal and can put the company's sponsor licence at risk.
Trigger
The first in-house attempt revealed the true complexity of bulk CoS management
The HR team began assigning certificates of sponsorship independently. Within the first two weeks, several issues emerged that halted their progress and prompted them to seek specialist support.
Jobbatical stepped in to stabilise and standardise the client’s Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) operations by combining its global mobility platform with hands-on UK immigration expertise. Instead of handling CoS assignments as isolated tasks, Jobbatical introduced a structured system that aligned SOC code selection with the Home Office’s Skilled Occupations List, validated salary thresholds before Defined CoS requests, and clearly separated Defined vs. Undefined CoS workflows to eliminate allocation errors.
Results
20+ hires landed, zero errors, full sponsor licence compliance maintained
Jobbatical assigned over 20 Certificates of Sponsorship on behalf of the employer — a combination of Defined CoS for overseas candidates and Undefined CoS for in-UK applications. Every assignment was processed without a single Home Office query or visa refusal linked to CoS errors.
Beyond the immediate hiring cohort, the engagement produced a durable compliance infrastructure: standardised SOC code mapping for the company's core engineering and product roles, a repeatable pre-assignment checklist, and a trained internal point of contact for ongoing SMS management. The company now has the processes in place to manage certificates of sponsorship in the UK for multiple employees independently — with Jobbatical on hand for complex cases.
