For immigration law firms · by invitation

Check the role and the candidates, then build the Appendix D pack. Your solicitor decides.

SponsorGuard reads the documents your firm already has, checks them against the Home Office rules and shows each finding with the quote it read and the rule it applied. Your solicitor reviews and signs.

Talk to us — hello@sponsorguard.uk See the three steps

Open by invitationIn pilot with law firms
We add a firm once we have agreed a data processing agreement with it. Evidence and workflow; your adviser decides.

Your documents Checked againstthe written rules Pack yoursolicitor signs
How it works

Three steps, one trail of evidence.

Step 1 helps you decide who to sponsor. Step 2 builds the record once you have. Your solicitor signs at the end.

  1. Check the role and the candidates

    Open a role for your client, add the job description and the candidates' documents. Each candidate gets one of three outcomes, with the quote and the rule behind it.

    New · Certificate of Sponsorship checker

  2. Build the Appendix D pack

    For a hired worker, fixed written rules check the evidence against Appendix D. Each finding cites its paragraph. Points that need judgment are marked for your solicitor. The same files go in: PDF, photos, Word, Excel, OpenDocument or a zip.

    Evidence pack

  3. Your solicitor signs

    They accept or override each finding, give a reason and sign. Out come the signed pack and a CoS sheet with a copy button for each SMS field.

    Then, optionally: client register

If your client also uses SponsorGuard, their admin can apply the signed pack's details to their worker register after reviewing each change. That last step is optional.

Step 1 · Certificate of Sponsorship checker

Drop in what you already have. Get a clear answer per candidate.

Before you assign a certificate, see which candidates the checks we can run support, which need more information, and which do not meet.

Files you can drop in

  • PDFPDF
  • JPGJPEG
  • PNGPNG
  • ZIPZip of files
  • DOCXWord .docx
  • XLSXExcel .xlsx
  • ODT · ODSOpenDocument .odt, .ods

Older Word and Excel files (.doc, .xls) are not accepted: save them as .docx or .xlsx first.

Three outcomes, never a verdict

  • Meets the checks we can runNothing the checks can see is missing or conflicting.
  • Needs informationSomething is missing. You get a list of exactly what.
  • Does not meetA check found a conflict. You see the quote and the rule.

SponsorGuard never says a candidate is eligible. It shows what it read and which rule it applied; whether to sponsor is your solicitor's decision. A candidate you hire hands straight into step 2.

The step 1 rules are in review with us and are marked draft on screen. Every outcome shows its working so your solicitor can check it.

Illustration — fictional candidate
A. ExampleRole: Care manager · Client: Example Care Ltd
Needs information
  • Passport supplied
    Read on page 1: “Surname: EXAMPLE”
    Appendix Skilled Worker SW 1.2(c)
  • Name across passport, CV and certificate
    The same name appears on all three documents.
    Appendix Skilled Worker SW 1.2(c)
  • English language
    No English language evidence found in the documents.
    Appendix English Language EL 5.4
What we need: evidence of English language, or a statement of where the degree was awarded.
Step 2 · Appendix D evidence pack

Fixed rules. Every finding cites its paragraph.

A pack is built as a case: one worker, for one sponsor client of your firm.

Read, with the words kept

Each detail SponsorGuard takes from a document keeps the page and the exact words it came from, and those words are checked against the page before the detail is used. The whole value must be there: a page showing 37.5 hours never supports 37, and £3,086.67 never supports £3,086. Anything less goes to your solicitor to check.

Checked, with the paragraph

Fixed, written rules check the evidence against Appendix D (v08/26) and the sponsor guidance. Salary payments, for example, are matched to a bank line that names the worker, to the penny and in the right direction: paid in on the worker's own statement, or paid out on the sponsor's. A line moving money the other way, or one whose direction the statement does not show, is never counted as the payment.

Who decides

Evidence and workflow. Your adviser decides.

Section 84 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 restricts who may give immigration advice or services. SponsorGuard is not one of them, and the product is built so it never has to be.

SponsorGuard reads and checks

Reads the documents, runs the same written rules every time and shows the quote and the rule.

Your solicitor decides

Accepts or overrides each finding, gives a reason and signs.

We never touch the SMS

No SMS login details, and no connection to the SMS.

What SponsorGuard does

  • Reads the documents and shows where each detail came from.
  • Runs the same written rules on every case and cites the rule behind each finding.
  • Keeps the case record: who uploaded, reviewed, overrode and signed, and when.
  • Produces the pack and the CoS sheet once your solicitor has signed.

What it leaves to you

  • No software decides whether evidence passes or fails, and none writes legal text for the pack as it runs.
  • Only a solicitor or admin at your firm whose regulator ID we have recorded can sign, and only after a code emailed to them confirms it is them. Staff can upload but cannot resolve findings or sign.
  • Every pack records the version of our rules catalogue and of the Home Office guidance it was checked against.
The rules we follow

Named sources, not a black box.

Every finding cites the rule it applied. These are the sources our written rules are built from, with the version each is checked against.

  • Immigration Rules, Appendix Skilled Worker

    GOV.UK page updated 3 Aug 2026

    Who can be sponsored, the occupation and salary rules, and the going-rate check.

    Step 1Step 2

  • Immigration Rules, Appendix English Language

    GOV.UK page updated 3 Aug 2026

    The ways a candidate can show English language.

    Step 1

  • Appendix Skilled Occupations

    Data version 2026-08-03

    The occupation codes and their going rates.

    Step 1

  • Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors, Appendix D: record-keeping duties

    Version 08/26

    The documents a sponsor must keep for each worker. The backbone of the evidence pack.

    Step 2

  • Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors, Part 2: sponsor a worker

    Version 08/26

    Certificates of Sponsorship, start dates and recruitment records.

    Step 1Step 2

  • Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors, Part 3: sponsor duties and compliance

    Version 08/26

    The duties a sponsor keeps after a worker starts.

    Step 2

  • Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors, Part 1: apply for a licence

    Version 08/26

    Key personnel and the sponsor's own systems.

    Step 2

  • Workers and Temporary Workers: sponsor a skilled worker

    Version 04/26

    Salary, occupation code and genuine-role guidance for skilled workers.

    Step 2

  • Worker and Temporary Worker sponsor compliance visits: caseworker guidance

    Version 17.0

    What Home Office caseworkers check on a visit, so the pack looks at the same things.

    Step 2

  • Right to work: Home Office code of practice and employer's guide

    As cited in each finding

    How right-to-work checks are done and retained.

    Step 2

  • GOV.UK: Tuberculosis tests for visa applicants

    Country list retrieved 2026-10-01

    Which countries need a TB test. This is a GOV.UK guide page, not the Immigration Rules.

    Step 1

  • UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018

    Consolidated text retrieved 2026-09-25

    The appropriate-policy-document check for sensitive data.

    Step 2

  • Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, section 84

    Statute

    Why your solicitor decides: it restricts who may give immigration advice or services.

    Whole product

Step 1's rules are in review and are marked draft on screen. Naming a source is not a statement of what it says: SponsorGuard cites the rule and shows the evidence, and your solicitor reads the rule.

The SMS and your data

We never touch the SMS.

The sponsorship management system

SponsorGuard never asks for, holds or uses SMS login details, and it does not connect to the SMS. The CoS sheet lists the details a named SMS user enters — job title, occupation code, salary, hours, start and end dates, work location and PAYE reference — with a copy button next to each.

Documents and access

  • Each document is fingerprinted (SHA-256) when it arrives and stored encrypted.
  • Every access to a document is logged.
  • Your firm sees only its own work, and only for clients it has a live link to.

Read next

Talk to us.

We are opening the CoS checker and Appendix D evidence packs to a small number of immigration law firms, one at a time, each after a data processing agreement. If your firm prepares CoS or Appendix D work for sponsor clients, email hello@sponsorguard.uk.

Email hello@sponsorguard.uk

SponsorGuard provides compliance software and record-keeping tools. It is not a law firm or an immigration adviser and does not give legal or immigration advice. In both steps, the judgments are your solicitor's: SponsorGuard supplies the evidence, the citations and the workflow.