The UKBA will announce tomorrow that the Migration and Advisory Committee's recommendation that job vacancies should be advertised for longer before a Tier 2 (General) Certificate of Sponsorship can be issued will be brought forward. While the other recommendations (aside from changes to allowances) will be implemented in April, with effect from 14 December all vacancies will have to be advertised for a minimum of 4 weeks both at Job Centre Plus and as per the relevant Code of Practice. The exemption for advertising in Job Centre Plus for some senior roles will remain in place.

Employers will have the option of advertising for one four week block or running an advert for separate 2 week periods or for 1 week plus 3 weeks within a 3 month window. If the post cannot be filled by a resident worker identified from the first 2 weeks of advertising, a second advert must be placed to further test the resident labour market. In practice it may be less of an administrative burden for employers to advertise for a consecutive 4 week period.

Adverts which are placed before the 14 December will not be caught by this change.

Actions for employers

  • This change needs to be communicated to everyone involved in the recruitment process so that procedures and systems can be amended
  • Any impact on timelines for potential candidates should be assessed - going forward Tier 2 applications are going to take at least 2 weeks longer.

Full details will be provided once the policy is officially released.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.

The original publication date for this article was 23/11/2009.