The Sponsorship Management System is the online platform through which all licensed sponsors manage their sponsorship obligations. It is used to assign Certificates of Sponsorship, report changes in sponsored workers' circumstances, add and remove key personnel, and communicate with the Home Office. Correct and timely use of the SMS is a core sponsor duty, and failures in SMS management are one of the most frequent triggers for compliance action, including downgrading, suspension, and revocation of the licence.
Common SMS management problems include delayed or missed reporting of worker changes such as absences, salary changes, or role changes, failure to update key personnel records, errors in CoS assignments, and misunderstanding of which events require reporting and within what timeframe. From November 2025, updated Home Office guidance has placed greater emphasis on right-to-work checks through eVisa verification rather than physical documents, which has changed how some SMS-related compliance processes work in practice.
NARA Solicitors advises sponsors on the correct use of the SMS, reviews existing SMS management practices to identify gaps, and provides guidance on which events require reporting, within what timeframes, and how reports should be made. We also advise where a reporting failure has already occurred and the sponsor needs to understand what steps to take to address it before it attracts Home Office scrutiny.
