Changes to the Tier 2 (General) limit

The Tier 2 (General) limit applies to Restricted Certificates of Sponsorship (RCoS) – these are needed to sponsor migrants who apply for Tier 2 from outside of the UK (except those earning £155,300 or more) and for Tier 4 dependents who are switching into Tier 2.

There is an overall annual limit of 20,700 and RCoS are allocated on a monthly basis during a Home Office allocation meeting based on a points table. Up until recently this has worked fine as the limit was never oversubscribed so there was no need for the points table to applied, however for the last three months the limit has been oversubscribed so the points table has been used with only those earning the highest points being allocated a RCoS.

As a result of this the Home Office has noticed flaws in its current table, for instance jobs paying £32,000 to £45,999.99 all score 15 points for salary. They are therefore going to implement a new provisional table, with a more detailed breakdown of points for salary, until the changes are implemented into the Immigration Rules. The new table will not affect the 11 September allocation meeting, which will use the current table, however from the 12 October allocation meeting the new table will apply.

The new table can be found below:

Home Office also intends to make one further change relating to the limit.  Under the existing rules, RCoS must be assigned by Sponsors within three months or they will expire.  The change will enable to return any such unused places to the limit, increasing the number of RCoS available

We will continue to keep you updated.