Before you pay any fee or submit a visa application, check your Certificate of Sponsorship against official UK government records. SponsorShield cross-references your CoS against the UKVI sponsor register, Companies House, and current salary thresholds, and inspects the document itself for signs of tampering — delivering a free initial risk verdict in under 60 seconds.
Start Your Free Verification ↓UKVI sponsor licence status
Cross-referenced against the live Register of Licensed Sponsors
Companies House company data
Incorporation date, trading status, and filing history
Salary vs going-rate thresholds
Checked against your specific SOC code
Document structure and metadata
PDF forensic analysis for signs of tampering
CoS reference number validity
Format and structural consistency checks
Employer name consistency
Matched across the document and official records
A genuine Certificate of Sponsorship is an electronic record issued through UKVI’s Sponsor Management System by a licensed employer — sponsors typically provide applicants with a PDF summarising it. Fraudulent versions are often built by altering a genuine document or fabricating one from scratch: common signs include an employer that isn’t on the UKVI register, a salary below the required threshold for the role, a reference number in the wrong format, and PDF metadata showing the document was edited in consumer software after its stated issue date. See our fake CoS warning-signs guide for the full list.
SponsorShield is an independent, privately operated screening tool — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to UKVI, the Home Office, or any UK government department, and not itself regulated by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC). Results are a probabilistic risk indicator based on publicly available records and document analysis, not an official verification and not legal advice. See our full methodology, data sources, and disclaimer.
Is this an official UKVI verification?
No. SponsorShield is an independent service, not affiliated with UKVI, the Home Office, or any UK government department. Results are a risk indicator based on publicly available records and document analysis, not an official verification — always independently verify your employer’s sponsor licence and, for legal questions, consult a solicitor or an OISC-regulated adviser.
What happens to my uploaded document?
Your PDF is analysed in memory only and permanently deleted the moment your report is generated. It is never written to disk or stored in a database.
How long does verification take?
The free initial risk verdict is delivered in under 60 seconds. A detailed paid report, covering every individual signal, is also available.
Want to check the employer separately, before you even have a CoS? Use our UK sponsor licence check.