August 18, 2010 by MSI
Content contributed by Emigra.
In June
2010, the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) announced efforts to implement
several immigration regulation changes in the upcoming months. Throughout June
and July several changes were released regarding interim measures to reduce the
number of issued “migrant worker” visas to the United Kingdom (UK). This
interim/consultative stage is in effect until 31 of May 2011 with a review
schedule in the spring of 2011. Changes to the program affect all Tier 2
applications, as well as Tier 1 and Tier 4 (students). Points to note are:
Tier 1 (General)
- The cap will affect initial applications submitted
from outside of the UK
- The UKBA is administering the limit on a monthly
basis
- If an application meets all the requirements and
the limit has not been reached for that month, the UKBA will issue the visa in
the usual way
- All applications will be processed in the order in
which they are received, as far as operationally possible
- If the limit is reached for a particular month, the
UKBA will publish the information on their website
- Applications submitted from inside of the UK will
require increased points from 95 to 100
Tier 2 (General)
- Existing sponsors will receive a letter confirming
their allocation of certificates of sponsorship during the interim limit (19
July 2010 – 31 March 2011)
- If a sponsor has a zero allocation, they are able
to continue to sponsor existing migrants they employ who have valid leave to
remain – however the interim limit will affect both new applications and any
appropriate extension applications
- The limit has been calculated by determining how
many certificates of sponsorship were assigned during the period 19 July 2009
to 31 March 2010 with a reduction then applied to those sponsors who used two
or more certificates of sponsorship during that time
- Exceptional consideration for those sponsors who do
not have any further certificates of sponsorship to assign may apply where the
sponsor can meet the requirements (please note that it is likely that any such
requests will be turned down owing to the rigid criteria that will be applied
to requests for exceptional consideration)
New Sponsor Applications
- Applications will still be considered as normal,
however, new sponsors are likely to be allocated zero certificates of
sponsorship under Tier 2 (General) during the interim period
- Applications for a new Sponsorship License may take
longer than normal to process during the transition period
We will
continue to monitor the interim limit and will share further updates as they
become available. During this interim period, there will be a limit to the
number of Certificates of Sponsorship that licensed employers can issue. It is
anticipated that the reduction during the interim period will only affect 5% of
Tier 1 and Tier 2 applications (an estimated 1300 migrant workers).
MSI's immigration partner, Emigra, is working to prepare and submit a proposal to the
Committee on Migrant Workers. These types of submissions are vital as they may
prevent the government’s final decision next spring to implement an even higher
reduction in Migrant Workers, particularly Tier 2. If you are interested in
receiving further updates, please sign up for UK alerts at www.emigra.com.
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