The Points-Based System

London Boroughs

Cheryl Pellew – Senior Visiting Officer

Who will the new system affect?

Routes to work, train and study

VisitorsStudent VisitorsFamily ReunificationUK Ancestry routesECAA business visitorsEEA NationalsMarriage

Includes: Does not include:

POINTS BASED SYSTEMOverview

The most radical reworking of the immigration system in a generation

Consolidation of 80+ existing routes into a structured 5-tier system

Clear, transparent and impartial decision-making

A streamlined process for those wishing to work in the United Kingdom

Revised, simplified and objective policy criteria

Sponsorship and sponsor obligations

POINTS BASED SYSTEMThe Basics

Applicants will need to pass a points based assessment to enter or remain in the United Kingdom

The number of points required varies from tier to tier

Any UK organisation wishing to recruit migrants under tiers 2, 4 or 5: will have to apply to for a sponsor licence

No out-of-country appeal rights — Administrative Review

POINTS BASED SYSTEMTimetable

July ‘08 Aug ‘08 Nov ‘08 Jan ‘09 Apr‘09

November 08Tier 2 and Tier

5 policygo-live

March 09Tier 4 policy go-

live

28 July 08Sponsor

licences for all tiers

30 June 08Tier 1 globallyTier 1 all sub

categories

Tier

Sponsor

29 Feb 08Tier 1 (general)

go-live

Feb ‘08 June ‘08

November 08Tier 2 and Tier 5 CoS Issue

go-live

Tier 2 – Skilled workers

At least 70 points are required from this table (including 10 for maintenance and 10 for English)

All jobs must be NVQ3 job at or above the appropriate rate

Section Certificate of Sponsorship Prospective Earnings (£)

Qualifications (or NARIC equivalents)

A

(50 points

needed)

Offer of job in shortage occupation

Offer of job that passes Resident Labour Market Test

Intra Company Transfer

50

30

30

17,000 – 19,999

20,000 – 21,999

22,000 – 23,999

24,000+

5

10

15

20

No qualifications

NVQ3

Bachelors or Masters

PhD

0

5

10

15

B Maintenance requirement (10 points needed) 10

C Competence in English (10 points needed) 10

Certificate of Sponsorship

• When applying for a licence, Sponsors will be required to give an indication of the numbers of certificates required.

• The certificate will be identified by a unique reference number – there is no physical “Certificate”.

• Sponsors will issue a Certificate of Sponsorship to migrants they choose to sponsor.

• Sponsors will be charged a fee when issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship

Sponsorship

Responsibilities of an Organisation

A sponsor must fulfil certain duties to make sure immigration controls stay effective. The sponsorship duties are:

• record keeping • reporting • compliance • co-operating with UK Border Agency • tier specific duties

If they fail to comply with any of their sponsorship duties, they may be down-graded to a B rating or have their licence withdrawn.

Processing payments

• When registered as an educational institution SMS presents three payment options – card, cheque or deferred. Selecting deferred payment will allow the CoS to be assigned and DCSF will cover the £170 cost

• There are no disadvantages

• Several LA’s have registered the different parts separately i.e. Social Services, Education, etc – this is because they operate as separate entities and therefore wish to select different AO, KC & L1U for each work area.

• Even if the LA chooses to register as a single entity, the license will cover all the activities that they are involved in. Selecting education as the section merely allows the IT system to identify/process deferred payments.

Employer Checking Service

• There may not always be a simple yes or no to employment of an individual. Having checked with the illegal working document if you are still unsure the above service will give basic information along the lines in the guidance as to whether an individual can be employed but will never given specifics about individuals due to data protection issues.

Email Service

• The sponsor management address is now transferred to the customer contact centre (I believe they operate a 5 day SLA on email enquiries).

• Prior to these it was covered by a discreet team on SMU/SLU. During busy periods there was sometimes a delay in responding to enquiries however all are eventually dealt and we currently have nothing over 2 weeks old. Therefore if they are still awaiting a response they should send the enquiry again as either the enquiry or our response may have encountered delivery problems.

Guidance on website

• It is not possible to have a circulation list for those using the Points Based System neither to we have a version control on the website

English Language requirement

• One of the requirements of the points based system will be that, in most cases, migrants coming here to undertake skilled or highly skilled work must provide evidence to demonstrate that they have an acceptable standard of English. One way in which applicants can demonstrate this will be by providing evidence that they have passed an English language test.

• Only tests that have been assessed as meeting the Border and Immigration Agency's requirements will be accepted as evidence that the applicant meets this requirement. We will publish a list of these tests, so migrants will know whether the test they propose to take will be acceptable to us.

English Speaking Countries

• These are listed on our website at the following address

• http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingintheuk/tier2/ministersofreligion/eligibility/pointsassessment/englishlanguage/

Certificates of Sponsorship

• The System will not allow a Sponsor to issue a Certificate of Sponsorship if there is a live one in existence. This is done by the system providing a warning message ‘There is already a Certificate of Sponsorship issued for this person’

• Certificate numbers can be sent by email or even given over the phone it is your responsibility to ensure your transmission of the unique number is secure for your purpose

Sponsor Management System

• The Agency felt that the User Guide was a better use of resources rather than building a system that people could play with.

• I have included the links to this on my handout.

Transitional arrangements

• Many existing immigration categories are due to close when tiers 2 and 5 of the points-based system are introduced. After this date, anyone with permission to stay in United Kingdom who wants to extend their stay will need to apply under the points-based system.

• Please refer to the link below for further information

• http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/newsarticles/transitionalarrangements2and5

Payments

• There are no plans to introduce BACS payment presently but concerns that have been raised with different sectors.

Authorising Officer

• Please refer to section 66 of the Guidance for Sponsor applications – Tier 2, Tier 4 and Tier 5.

• You may appoint an Authorising Officer as an additional Level 1 User.

Transitional Arrangements Tier 2

Please refer to the link below for further information

• http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingintheuk/transitionalarrangements/

Deferred Payments

The Department for Children Schools and Families pays for the certificates of sponsorship on behalf of local authorities and state maintained schools under a deferred payment arrangement similar to that operated under the work permitted system.  When a local authority completes its application for a sponsor licence, in order to activate the deferred payment option, they should complete the following fields as indicated below: •Organisation Type: University or Educational Institution •Educational Institution Type: Either LA (Local Authority) – England• Or State Maintained School – England

Deferred Payments continued

If the fields were not completed as above, the online system will not allow the payment to be deferred, and the fee of £170 per certificate of sponsorship will be charged.  If this is the case, your Level 1 user should use the Sponsor Management System (SMS) to request a change of circumstances as indicated below:  

  In order to be able to select the 'deferred payment' option for Certificate of

Sponsorship payment, could you amend the licence details as follows- Type of Organisation- University or Educational EstablishmentEducational Category- LA (local Authority) Publicly Funded- YesInspected/audited- OFSTEDAccreditation Body- OFSTED

Maintenance Tier 2 General

• The balance must show that you have had at least £800 in your account at all times over the three-month period.

• The documents must be original, on the official letter-headed paper or stationery

• Evidence must be in the form of cash funds. Other accounts or financial instruments for example, shares, bonds and pension funds, regardless of notice are not acceptable.

• If you wish to rely on a joint account as evidence of available funds, you must be named on the account along with one or more other named individuals.

• Letter from your sponsor If your A-rated sponsor says they will maintain and accommodate you (and your dependants) until the end of the first month of the your employment in the United Kingdom, you must send a letter from them which confirms this.

• Information at this address• http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingintheuk/tier2/general/

supportingevidence/maintenance/#header2

How to avoid racial discrimination when preventing illegal working

• The Government has issued a Code of practice to help employers comply with the law and undertake the checks without discriminating against individuals on the basis of race. You can download a copy from the Border Agency website: www.bia.homeoffice.gov.ul/employingmigrants

• Information on the Resident Labour Market Test can be found as follows:

http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/employers/points/sponsoringmigrants/employingmigrants/residentlabourmarkettest/#header1

Summary guidance for Employers regarding Illegal working

• The link to our page on the external website that can be given to employers. Everything they need to know is included on this part of our website. Once they enter the page they need to go to SEE ALSO on the top right hand side of the page and click on Guidance booklets for Employers. When they go into that link the first 2 documents are the relevant ones for them as we discussed:

•‘The Comprehensive Guidance for Employers on Preventing Illegal Working’ and ‘the Summary Guidance for Employers on Preventing Illegal Working.’

•  •  • http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/employers/preventingillegalworking/

Links

• Guidance for Sponsors and Employershttp://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/employersandsponsors/

pbsguidance/

• How we assess HR systems and compliance

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/employers/points/sponsoringmigrants/HRandcompliance/

• Record Keeping

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/employers/points/sponsoringmigrants/sponsorshipduties/recordkeeping/

Links

• What is the Sponsor Management System

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/employers/points/sponsoringmigrants/sms/whatissms/

• Employer Checking Service

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/employers/employersupport/ecs/

• Contact us

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/contact/contactspage/contactcentres/