09 Sep New Changes to Restricted Certificate of Sponsorship Application Process for Tier 2 General Migrants
As of 4 September 2015, the Home Office informed all the current Tier 2 sponsors that they are currently proposing to change the operation of the Tier 2 (General) limit to maximise the number of places which can be allocated each month, within the overall annual limit of 20,700.
If the limit is oversubscribed, as it has been in each of the past three months, applications for RCoS are prioritised according to a points table. The available RCoS are allocated based on the highest points scores. Points are awarded based on whether the job is in a shortage occupation, a PhD-level occupation, and the salary on offer.
Some of the points bands in the current table are relatively wide; for example, jobs paying £32,000 to £45,999.99 all score 15 points for salary. To improve flexibility, the Home Office intends to increase the number of salary bands in the points table.
The provisional table is shown below.
Type of job | Points | Salary | Points |
| Shortage occupation | 130 | £100,000 – £155,299.99 | 60 |
| £75,000 – £99,999.99 | 55 | ||
| PhD-level occupation code and job passes Resident Labour Market Test or an exception applies | 75 | £70,000 – £74,999.99 | 50 |
| £65,000 – £69,999.99 | 45 | ||
| £60,000 – £64,999.99 | 40 | ||
| £55,000 – £59,999.99 | 35 | ||
| £50,000 – £54,999.99 | 30 | ||
| Job passes Resident Labour Market Test or an exception applies | 20 | £45,000 – £49,999.99 | 25 |
| £44,000 – £44,999.99 | 24 | ||
| £43,000 – £43,999.99 | 23 | ||
| £42,000 – £42,999.99 | 22 | ||
| £41,000 – £41,999.99 | 21 | ||
| £40,000 – £40,999.99 | 20 | ||
| £39,000 – £39,999.99 | 19 | ||
| £38,000 – £38,999.99 | 18 | ||
| £37,000 – £37,999.99 | 17 | ||
| £36,000 – £36,999.99 | 16 | ||
| £35,000 – £35,999.99 | 15 | ||
| £34,000 – £34,999.99 | 14 | ||
| £33,000 – £33,999.99 | 13 | ||
| £32,000 – £32,999.99 | 12 | ||
| £31,000 – £31,999.99 | 11 | ||
| £30,000 – £30,999.99 | 10 | ||
| £29,000 – £29,999.99 | 9 | ||
| £28,000 – £28,999.99 | 8 | ||
| £27,000 – £27,999.99 | 7 | ||
| £26,000 – £26,999.99 | 6 | ||
| £25,000 – £25,999.99 | 5 | ||
| £24,000 – £24,999.99 | 4 | ||
| £23,000 – £23,999.99 | 3 | ||
| £22,000 – £22,999.99 | 2 | ||
| £20,800 – £21,999.99 | 1 |
This change would mean, for example, that in June they would have been able to allocate RCoS to all non-shortage occupations with a salary of £34,000 or more, rather than £46,000 using the existing table. The prioritisation given to shortage occupations and PhD-level occupations is unchanged.
The Home Office intends to apply the new bands to the RCoS allocation meeting on 12 October, applications for which will open on 6 September.
In addition, further changes have also been made to increase the points from 75 to 130 for Shortage occupation and reduce the points from 30 to 20 for Resident Labour Market Test (unless this is a typo). This would mean that for an application which requires a RLMT will need to score at least 12 points or have a £32,000 salary band to meet the minimum points of 32.
If you have any questions regarding tier 2 application, please do not hesitate to contacting Migra & Co for accurate advice.
