We are pleased to share another recent success. Our client has been granted a Skilled Worker dependant visa, varied from a Skilled Worker application that was already pending when she instructed us.
The Home Office had written to her asking for the Certificate of Sponsorship within 10 working days. She went to her employer. The employer refused to assign it.
A Skilled Worker application cannot be granted without a valid Certificate of Sponsorship. The CoS is assigned by the licensed sponsor and carries the reference number the application is built around. No employer can be made to assign one, and no amount of correspondence with the Home Office substitutes for it. On a 10 working day deadline, there was no prospect of the position changing.
That is the point at which most people assume the application is finished and the only option is to leave the UK and start again.
It was not finished, because a pending application can be varied. Instead of withdrawing and making a fresh application, we varied her existing one into a Skilled Worker dependant application. She had married in 2026, and her partner holds a Skilled Worker visa, which made her eligible as a dependant partner.
A variation keeps the original application date, so her permission continued and she remained in the UK lawfully throughout. Withdrawing would have ended that protection and left her applying from the beginning.
That option depends entirely on the application still being pending. Once an application has been refused or withdrawn, it cannot be varied.
The complication was that the couple were living separately. A dependant partner application is not decided on the marriage certificate alone. The Home Office has to be satisfied that the relationship is genuine and subsisting, and that the couple intend to live together in the UK.
Living at separate addresses is exactly the fact a caseworker uses to refuse on that ground. Left unexplained, it invites the conclusion that the marriage is not what it appears to be.
So we addressed it directly in the application instead of leaving the caseworker to draw their own conclusion from an address mismatch.
The application was granted.
The lesson is that your immigration position should never rest on one employer's goodwill. A sponsor can decline to assign a Certificate of Sponsorship, withdraw one it has already assigned, or lose its licence, and the worker carries the consequences. It is worth knowing early whether a second route is open to you, because the time to find out is not the day a Home Office deadline lands.
And if an application is already in difficulty, the position may not be as final as it looks. The way out is usually a variation, and that depends on the application still being pending.
If your circumstances have changed while an application is pending, book a consultation with our team before you withdraw anything.
We handle Skilled Worker and dependant applications, refusals and administrative reviews, alongside our work for sponsors. You can read more of our success stories, including a Graduate visa we secured on administrative review, or see our full range of services for individuals.
If your employer has withheld a Certificate of Sponsorship, or you have been told your application cannot be saved, it is worth a second opinion.
Book a consultation with NARA Solicitors today.
