UK: Restricted Sponsorship Cap Reached

June 12, 2015


It has emerged that the cap for Restricted Certificate of Sponsorship (RCoS) allocations, set by the government, has now been reached for the month of June. This is unprecedented as the quota for allocation had never been reached since the introduction of the Points Based System.
 
 
As a result, hundreds of sponsors have been notified by the Home Office yesterday, 11th June that their RCoS requests have not been allocated for this month. If this is the case the Sponsor will need to submit a new request for the same RCoS allocation prior to next month”s deadline, on 3rd July.
 
 
For the first time the Points Based System is understood to have been implemented in order to determine the RCoS requests that score the highest number of points, based on salary ranges as well as other factors such as the skilled criteria for the role. With only 1,650 allocation quota available for July”s allocation, sponsors will need to consider how best to bid for a quota for their new hires from overseas.
 
 
In the long term, the concerns as to the effects of maintaining the current annual RCoS cap of 20,700 during the next Parliamentary year may be even more far reaching.
 
 
The only consolation to the above is that this cap does not apply to anyone who may be an intra-company transferee or anyone who may earn a salary exceeding £155,300 per annum.
 
 
Newland Chase are now working with relevant groups to lobby to the government to review the cap. Should the above affect you or your business, please don”t hesitate to contact us.