Can a COS sponsorship for a Tier 2 UK visa (meets all requirements) be delayed/denied because the UK reached its self-imposed monthly limit?

Question

If anyone has specific knowledge and/or experience with this, I would be grateful your input!

My business has recently received a status as a "qualifying company". We have US citizen we want to hire who meets all the requirements for an SOC 2136, and I have submitted a request for a COS about 3 weeks ago. I understand these COS' are issued once per month (I was told my application missed last months approval considerations by a few days, and are waiting for next month).

• My Question:
  • Is there a monthly quota for the number of COS they can issue?
  • Might my request for a COS, which meets all the requirements for SOC 2136, be rejected for no other reason than the government meet a monthly quota?
  • And if yes, does my request go into the queue for next month?

Answer 1

If the certificate cap is fully subscribed, they will not issue more certificates. It makes sense to do this because it jives with the purpose of having a certificate cap in the first instance.

Is there a monthly quota for the number of COS they can issue?

Certificates are issued to sponsors, and yes there is a cap. The Ministerial Statements issued by then Minister Mark Harper are here.

And if yes, does my request go into the queue for next month?

It depends upon the nature of your sponsor's business. You should ask the Authorising Officer at your prospective sponsor about the status of their certificates.

---

For your more general question about certificates and the quota imposed by Parliament, you can examine the statistics.