UK Border Agency issues reminders regarding the annual allocation requests for unrestricted Tier 2 certificates of sponsorship for the year beginning 6 April 2013 and ending 5 April 2014.

The UK Border Agency is now contacting Tier 2 sponsors to remind them that, from January 2013, they will be able to request new annual allocations of unrestricted Tier 2 (General) and Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer (ICT)) certificates of sponsorship for the year beginning 6 April 2013 and ending 5 April 2014. The annual allocations of certificates relate to the following:

• Migrants who are already in the UK and sponsored under Tier 2 (General) and who may need to extend their Tier 2 (General) permission between 6 April 2013 and 5 April 2014
• New hires from outside the European Economic Area who are already in the UK and who may be recruited by sponsors between 6 April 2013 and 5 April 2014
• New hires who are currently overseas and who will be coming to the UK to undertake a role attracting a salary of more than £150,000 between 6 April 2013 and 5 April 2014
• The number of Tier 2 (ICT) secondees a sponsor is likely to require between 6 April 2013 and 5 April 2014

Tier 2 sponsors should consider their requirements for the next allocation year (beginning 6 April 2013 and ending 5 April 2014) now and submit their requests for their new allocation of certificates in early January 2013 to ensure that they are processed before 6 April 2013.