Tier 2 general visa start date vs cos end date

[nishenoy]

Hi,
My company has agreed to sponsor me with tier2 general with start date of oct 1st. I have couple of question regarding cos start date/end date vs actual start date and visa start date.

1. Should the cos be valid during the actual start date as mentioned in offer letter or is it sufficient for the cos to be valid while applying visa?
2. If i apply for visa in august, and my start date is oct 1st will the visa start accordingly or will they give visa start date anytime?

[ShrutiBlue]

The job start date needs to be within 3 months of the CoS issue date, so October might be too far away for it right now. Also, CoS validity is 3 months, so the earliest you can get a CoS to have a job start date of October 1st would be July 2nd.