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Sanwar Ali Comment and September 2019 update:
There is widespread confusion over the changes in the minimum points required for a Tier 2 Restricted CoS. The Government Restricted Certificate of Sponsorship CoS points scoring for salary has changed, with one point awarded per £1,000 in salary.
However, in practical terms this will not make a lot of difference for most people. For example, if you gain twenty points under the new system for a salary of say £20,800 per annum and you gain twenty points for completing the Resident Labour Market Test then you will gain the fourty points necessary. You would also have gained enough points under the previous Restricted CoS Tier 2 visa points scoring system. We have updated the Tier 2 visa points system on our site to take into account the latest changes. The Home Office adds to the confusion over the points for salary by not making it clear that the points scoring since 2 June 2019 is under the new system. This does not necessarily mean that you need to have a higher salary to gain enough points. It is not easy to find details of the new points system. It is in the Tier 2 Sponsor Guidance, which is hundreds of pages long.
One thing that may be worrying is the delays in announcements for the Restricted CoS allocation. The August allocation has not been announced yet. What does this mean? For a long period in 2018 when this happened there was a shortage in Restricted CoSs.
Following the latest Tier 2 visa allocation of restricted certificates of sponsorship meeting, the number of Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) available for August 2019 stands at 2,214, according to UK Visas and Immigration data. The department published its July report, without any notification as to the accuracy of its figures.
An employer with a Tier 2 Sponsor Licence needs to apply for Certificates of Sponsorship for immigrants they wish to employ. Under the current UK immigration system, unused Tier 2 restricted CoS to employ people who are currently based outside the UK, can be reclaimed after three months. This increases the availability of restricted CoS.
The number of certificates reclaimed as not used within three months for the month of July totalled zero.
The July, Tier 2 Certificate of Sponsorship allocation meeting took place on 11 July, 2019. All valid applications lodged by 5 July were successful, provided they scored a minimum of 40 points.
The breakdown of Tier 2 CoS for the month of July looks like this:
Number of Tier 2 Certificates of Sponsorship from annual limit set aside for allocation meeting in January. | 2,000 |
Balance of Certificates of Sponsorship carried over from previous month (June). | 210 |
Number of certificates returned during previous month (June). | 0 |
Number of certificates reclaimed as not used within three months. | 0 |
Number of certificates granted by exceptional consideration outside of monthly allocation during previous month (June). | 7 |
Total number of Certificates of Sponsorship available for allocation in July. | 2,210 |
Minimum point score for successful applications in July. | 40* |
Total number of Certificates of Sponsorship granted in July. | 1,996 |
Tier 2 (General – New hires under £159,600). | 1,990 |
Tier 2 (General – Tier 4 dependant switching to Tier 2). | 6 |
Balance of certificates of sponsorship carried over to July 2019. | 214 |
Number of certificates of sponsorship available for allocation in August 2019. | 2,214 |
* Applications received from 2 June, 2019 required a minimum points score of 40 to be successful.
The next UK Visas and Immigration allocation has already taken place, on 12 August. Once details of the meeting are published, they will indicate the number of Tier 2 CoS that will be available for the month of September, 2019.
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