Clarification on certificates of sponsorship assigned before 6 April changes

Following the announcement that some standard occupation codes (SOC) will be taken off the graduate list from 6 April 2012, we can now confirm that migrants who were assigned a certificate of sponsorship (CoS) before this date can use them for applications within the normal three month validity period.

However, migrants applying on or after 6 April 2012 will need to satisfy the new rules. As a result, if the skills threshold rises, migrants must meet the new threshold criteria even if their CoS was assigned before 6 April 2012.