From 1 December 2020, changes will be made to the Tier 2 sponsorship system. The Tier 2 (General) visa category will be replaced by the Skilled Worker visa category and the Tier 2 (Intra Company Transfer) visa category will be replaced by the Intra Company Transfer (ICT) visa category.
Companies which already hold a Tier 2 Sponsor Licence do not need to take any action as their sponsor licences will automatically convert to the new system and so no action is required to transfer your licence to the new system.
Although the terminology and some qualifying criteria will change, the mechanism for sponsorship still requires a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to be assigned to the migrant worker before the migrant worker makes an application for a Skilled Worker or ICT visa. As with the Tier 2 system, under the new sponsorship regime there are two types of sponsored worker:
1 - Skilled Worker
A table setting out the key differences between the Tier 2 (General) and new Skilled Worker visa categories can be found here.
There are two types of CoS for Skilled Workers:
- Defined Certificate of Sponsorship (DCoS)
- Undefined Certificate of Sponsorship (UCoS)
2 - Intra Company Transfer
A table setting out the key differences between the Tier 2 (ICT) Long Term Staff and new ICT visa categories can be found here.
For further details, please find a briefing note here.