The Tier 2 (General) Restricted Certificate of Sponsorship’s annual limit begins in April each year, with places released monthly and unused places carried over from the previous month. No places are carried over when the limit is reset the following April.
Each year, in April, there seems to be a trend of relatively high demand for places. Therefore, in February 2015, the limit was rebalanced to increase the number of places available at the start of the limit year from 1725 to 2550.
The annual limit for Tier 2 (General) Restricted Certificates of Sponsorship has been capped at 20,700 for the current year, 6 April 2015 to 5 April 2016. In April, the monthly limit was already increased by 825, meaning there are 75 fewer Restricted Certificate of Sponsorships a month available for the remainder of the financial year.
2277 Restricted Certificates of Sponsorship were allocated in May 2015, leaving only 8 to be rolled over to June 2015. The allowance for June 2015 is only 1658. Based on the current trend, it is likely that the cap will be reached for June 2015.
If the cap is reached for June 2015, then there might be a chance that some sponsors will not be granted their Restricted Certificates of Sponsorship. It is likely that the points based allocation system is to be utilised whereby those scoring a higher number of points (migrants receiving a higher salary) are more likely to be successful.
If Sponsors miss out on an allocation where the cap has been reached, then they will need to submit a fresh application the following month.