UK Skilled Worker visa Part 4 CoS
Previous blog we talked about ATAS certificate. This blog talks about the Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) from your employer and required documents for the same.
Certificates of sponsorship
Certificates of sponsorship is provided by the employer as soon as you have an approved ATAS certificate, if you have a UK degree certificate. If you hold an overseas degree (like indian degree) you need to verify your degree certificate with ECCTIS before CoS can be issued to you.
NARIC reference number
If you hold a non-UK degree, the institute need your NARIC reference number to process your sponsorship certificate. Due to the UK leaving the European Union, the UK NARIC national agency function is now UK ENIC – managed by ECCTIC. All services operate as before. Individuals: use this Ecctis website to apply for Visas & Nationality and Industry Skills Statements.
PhD verification
ECCTIC provide a statement confirming your PhD is comparable to the standard of a PhD in the UK. This is the Academic Qualification Level Statement (AQUALS). In addition, they will check and confirm if the degree is genuine by contacting your institution. For verification, you have to provide, Final certificate(s), Transcript(s) and Certified translations of your documents, if not in English.
Proof for English proficiency
If your degree was not studied in a majority English-speaking country, they also confirm the level of your English language proficiency based on your qualification and according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). This is the English Language Proficiency Statement (ELPS).
If your PhD degree was not taught in English, but you have another degree which was taught in English, for example, a Bachelor or Master’s degree, we may be able to provide the AQUALS and ELPS for your Bachelor or Master’s degree, provided that they meet the requirements of the service.
For degree verification, you have to provide, Final certificate(s), Transcript(s), Certified translations of your documents (if not in English) and Medium of Instruction letter (if you need to evidence your English language proficiency). Medium of Instruction letter is issued by the institute that taught your course in English. Medium of Instruction letters typically look like this example. Ensure you have Medium of Instruction letter from your institute even before ATAS to avoid delaying your CoS.
English proficiency, PhD verification or both, all costs you £210 each. If you are from India, you should apply for PhD verification with English proficiency which will also cost £210 plus tax plus e-copy fee. You can also opt to fast track you application with additional fee of £124 and £174 plus tax for 24hr and 48hr service, respectively. Ensure you are ready with your English proficiency, verified PhD degree and NARIC reference number from ECCTIS by the time your ATAS is approved.
Next blog in this series brief about Tuberculosis (TB) screening test report needed for visa application.
Source: ECCTIS