Restricted Certificates of Sponsorship: Some good news for Employers at last 

Announcement: doctors and nurses removed from the cap; hundreds of allocations freed up. 

The Home Office announced today, as part of the Home Secretary's review of migration policy, that doctors and nurses above a certain qualification level will be removed from the numerical cap for Restricted Certificates of Sponsorship (RCoS) in Tier 2 (General) of the Points Based System. A Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules has been laid before Parliament.

  • There is a total exemption for qualifying doctors and nurses from the Tier 2 RCoS cap.
  • Hundreds of RCoS allocations will be available to other occupations as a result.

The overall numerical cap of 20,700 per annum is unchanged.

What does it mean for employers?

  • For the health sector, there is an exemption from the RCoS process for appropriately qualified doctors and nurses.
  • For other employers, a return to normality: there is now a much better prospect of RCoS being granted at the lower market rate remuneration levels because the cap is less likely to be exceeded.

Background

Tier 2 of the Points Based System (PBS) is the main route for employers to sponsor non-EEA nationals for employment in in the UK.

In many cases new hires are subject to both a strict Resident Labour Market Test and an annual numerical cap of 20,700 places, distributed on a monthly basis, which determines whether a Restricted Certificate of Sponsorship can be issued to a migrant. Typical "RCoS" scenarios are where:

  • The guaranteed market rate remuneration package is below £159,600 per annum.
  • The post involves a new hire from overseas.
  • The migrant does not qualify for an exemption.

The cap was set on the advice of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) a decade ago. However, it had only been reached once until December 2017 when business and advisers were taken by surprise – and it has been reached in every subsequent month. A sliding scale points criteria is used when the cap is reached, with top priority going to designated shortage occupations. Salary rates are important criteria. In practice, those who would otherwise qualify have been unsuccessful at salary levels as high as £55,000 per annum. 

The Government confirmed what has long been known: the reason that the cap has been repeatedly reached is due to demand from the NHS which has accounted for about 40% of Tier 2 requests. At a stroke, this will remove the greatest pressure and hopefully enable a return to "normality" for employers of skilled migrants in other sectors.

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