UK Immigration Blog, Thoughts and Opinions

The UK immigration policy team is currently debating whether it is viable to accept proposed amendments to the Tier 2 technical changes allowing for a change of role as long as it is within the same Code of Practice.

Some employers are rather unsure on what changes are accepted as a technical change. From our experience we have noticed that the sponsors frequently promote Tier 2 employees without fully understanding whether a promotion would be treated as a technical change or a change of employment and might instead require the issuing of a new Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) and labour market resident test.

We have received clarification from a senior policy team member that proposed changes when approved will be implemented retrospectively.

We were also advised that in accordance with the current Tier 2 guidance any changes to core duties/responsibilities or  promotions, require a change of employment application. Therefore, it might be advisable that any Tier 2 employee who have had any such changes, should be returned to the role described on their CoS until either the policy is changed or a change of employment application is approved.We were also advised that the aim is to have the new changes accepted by April, however, according to the information released so far, any attempts to relax the current system are extremely difficult to envisage at present.