Download the full set of data from CaSE’s Home Office FOI detailing Tier 2 visa refusals by occupation
Tier 2 refusals: Full FOI data by occupation
16 May 2018
After repeated attempts by Parliamentarians asking the Home Office for the data, CaSE submitted an FOI and can reveal the scale of Tier 2 visa refusals broken down by occupational code.
We are calling on the Government to act in the interests of the UK and fix this broken policy by exempting Shortage Occupation List and PhD level roles from the cap, so that we can stop refusing visas for engineers, tech workers, teachers, doctors…with job offers to work in the UK.
Data is below and the full spreadsheet can be downloaded. In future, this data should not be denied to Parliament or need to be forced out by an FOI but published by the Home Office in the interests of transparency and accountability to the public for the effects of Government policy.
Summary
- Between December 2017 and March 2018, 6080 Tier 2 (General) Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) were refused due the number of applications exceeding the cap imposed by the Government (the annual cap is 20,700 with a specific allocation set for each month).
- Of all eligible applications for a Tier 2 (General) CoS: in December 36% were refused; in January 47% were refused; in February 48% were refused; in March 59% were refused.
- Within the 6080 eligible applications refused a CoS due to the annual cap, were:
412 Engineering roles
1226 IT & Technology roles
197 Teacher roles (9 STEM teachers)
1518 Doctor roles
362 Other healthcare professional roles
1815 Professional services
550 All other professions
This figure of 6080 is the number of applications that were refused, not the number of individuals affected as an employer could reapply the following month for a CoS for the same role.
Table 1 – The number of Tier 2 (General) Certificates of Sponsorship that have been refused in each month, since November 2017 as a result of the annual cap being reached. | ||||||||||
Month | November | December | January | February | March | |||||
No of RCoS Refused | 0 | 1093 | 1383 | 1648 | 1956 | |||||
Table 2 – The number of Tier 2 (General) Certificates of Sponsorship that were refused due to the annual cap in each month since November 2017, in each Standard Occupational Classification code. | ||||||||||
SOC Code | Dec-17 | Jan-18 | Feb-18 | Mar-18 | ||||||
1121 Production managers and directors in manufacturing | 5 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 33 | |||||
1122 Production managers and directors in construction | – | 1 | – | 2 | 3 | |||||
1123 Production managers and directors in mining and energy | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||||
1131 Financial managers and directors | 3 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 21 | |||||
1132 Marketing and sales directors | 8 | 9 | 5 | 10 | 32 | |||||
1133 Purchasing managers and directors | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 20 | |||||
1134 Advertising and public relations directors | 3 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 28 | |||||
1135 Human resource managers and directors | 10 | 10 | 18 | 14 | 52 | |||||
1139 Functional managers and directors not elsewhere classified | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 15 | |||||
1150 Financial institution managers and directors | 2 | 2 | 2 | – | 6 | |||||
1161 Managers and directors in transport and distribution | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | |||||
1181 Health services and public health managers and directors | – | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||
1184 Social services managers and directors | – | – | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
2119 Natural and social science professionals not elsewhere classified | – | – | 1 | – | 1 | |||||
2121 Civil engineers | 5 | 15 | 20 | 21 | 61 | |||||
2122 Mechanical engineers | 8 | 15 | 10 | 14 | 47 | |||||
2123 Electrical engineers – Other electrical engineer (experienced worker) | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 8 | |||||
2123 Electrical engineers – Power system, control or protection engineer in electricity industry | 8 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 25 | |||||
2124 Electronics engineers | 2 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 21 | |||||
2126 Design and development engineers | 17 | 25 | 33 | 20 | 95 | |||||
2127 Production and process engineers | 4 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 26 | |||||
2129 Engineering professionals not elsewhere classified | 17 | 20 | 14 | 29 | 80 | |||||
2133 IT specialist managers | 6 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 28 | |||||
2134 IT project and programme managers | 24 | 18 | 21 | 31 | 94 | |||||
2135 IT business analysts, architects and systems designers | 43 | 64 | 77 | 86 | 270 | |||||
2136 Programmers and software development professionals | 88 | 108 | 128 | 205 | 529 | |||||
2137 Web design and development professionals | 12 | 17 | 27 | 36 | 92 | |||||
2139 Information technology and telecommunications professionals not elsewhere classified | 37 | 54 | 58 | 64 | 213 | |||||
2141 Conservation professionals | – | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |||||
2142 Environment professionals | 1 | 1 | 1 | – | 3 | |||||
2211 Medical practitioners – Foundation year 1 (F1) and equivalent | 8 | 17 | 13 | 9 | 47 | |||||
2211 Medical practitioners – Foundation year 2 (F2) and equivalent | 73 | 107 | 64 | 87 | 331 | |||||
2211 Medical practitioners – Speciality doctor and equivalent | 42 | 37 | 40 | 45 | 164 | |||||
2211 Medical practitioners – Speciality registrar (StR) and equivalent | 143 | 214 | 273 | 346 | 976 | |||||
2212 Psychologists | – | 3 | 4 | 4 | 11 | |||||
2213 Pharmacists – Band 5 & equivalent | 8 | – | 1 | 1 | 10 | |||||
2213 Pharmacists – Band 6 & equivalent | 5 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 22 | |||||
2213 Pharmacists – Band 7 & equivalent | 3 | 7 | 12 | 11 | 33 | |||||
2213 Pharmacists – Band 8d & equivalent | – | – | – | 1 | 1 | |||||
2213 Pharmacists – Pre-registration pharmacists (non-NHS) | – | – | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
2214 Ophthalmic opticians | 9 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 47 | |||||
2215 Dental practitioners | 2 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 27 | |||||
2216 Veterinarians | 8 | 11 | 8 | 8 | 35 | |||||
2217 Medical radiographers | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | |||||
2218 Podiatrists | – | – | 1 | – | 1 | |||||
2219 Health professionals not elsewhere classified – Band 5 & equivalent | – | 2 | 5 | 3 | 10 | |||||
2219 Health professionals not elsewhere classified – Band 6 & equivalent | 4 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 34 | |||||
2219 Health professionals not elsewhere classified – Band 7 & equivalent | 6 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 31 | |||||
2219 Health professionals not elsewhere classified – Band 8a & equivalent | – | – | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
2219 Health professionals not elsewhere classified – Band 8a & equivalent | 2 | – | – | 1 | 3 | |||||
2221 Physiotherapists | – | 1 | 8 | 9 | 18 | |||||
2222 Occupational therapists | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 23 | |||||
2223 Speech and language therapists | 3 | 6 | 4 | 13 | ||||||
2229 Therapy professionals not elsewhere classified | 8 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 27 | |||||
2312 Further education teaching professionals | 1 | – | – | – | 1 | |||||
2314 Secondary education teaching professionals – chemistry | 1 | – | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||
2314 Secondary education teaching professionals – combined science (with element of physics) | – | – | 1 | – | 1 | |||||
2314 Secondary education teaching professionals – mathematics | – | – | 2 | 2 | 4 | |||||
2314 Secondary education teaching professionals – other subjects | 10 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 47 | |||||
2315 Primary and nursery education teaching professionals | 16 | 21 | 35 | 37 | 109 | |||||
2316 Special needs education teaching professionals | – | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||
2317 Senior professionals of educational establishments | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 12 | |||||
2318 Education advisers and school inspectors | – | – | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
2319 Teaching and other educational professionals not elsewhere classified | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 15 | |||||
2413 Solicitors | 37 | 14 | 19 | 15 | 85 | |||||
2419 Legal professionals not elsewhere classified | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 17 | |||||
2421 Chartered and certified accountants | 65 | 99 | 126 | 115 | 405 | |||||
2423 Management consultants and business analysts | 65 | 78 | 88 | 120 | 351 | |||||
2424 Business and financial project management professionals | 15 | 22 | 32 | 36 | 105 | |||||
2425 Actuaries, economists and statisticians | 5 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 22 | |||||
2426 Business and related research professionals | 5 | 4 | 11 | 3 | 23 | |||||
2429 Business, research and administrative professionals not elsewhere classified | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 40 | |||||
2431 Architects | 11 | 17 | 22 | 22 | 72 | |||||
2432 Town planning officers | – | – | 2 | 4 | 6 | |||||
2433 Quantity surveyors | – | – | 2 | 7 | 9 | |||||
2434 Chartered surveyors | – | – | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
2436 Construction project managers and related professionals | 4 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 29 | |||||
2442 Social workers – Band 7 & equivalent | 2 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 21 | |||||
2449 Welfare professionals not elsewhere classified | – | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||
2452 Archivists and curators | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | |||||
2461 Quality control and planning engineers | 3 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 39 | |||||
2462 Quality assurance and regulatory professionals | 13 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 52 | |||||
2463 Environmental health professionals | 1 | – | – | – | 1 | |||||
2471 Journalists, newspaper and periodical editors | 6 | 12 | 14 | 10 | 42 | |||||
2472 Public relations professionals | 11 | 19 | 23 | 28 | 81 | |||||
2473 Advertising accounts managers and creative directors | 25 | 29 | 31 | 43 | 128 | |||||
3113 Engineering technicians | 1 | – | – | – | 1 | |||||
3213 Paramedics | – | 1 | – | – | 1 | |||||
3411 Artists | – | – | – | 1 | 1 | |||||
3412 Authors, writers and translators | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 12 | |||||
3413 Actors, entertainers and presenters | – | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |||||
3414 Dancers and choreographers | 1 | – | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||
3415 Musicians | – | – | – | 3 | 3 | |||||
3416 Arts officers, producers and directors | 6 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 38 | |||||
3422 Product, clothing and related designers | 3 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 20 | |||||
3532 Brokers | 2 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 14 | |||||
3534 Finance and investment analysts and advisers | 47 | 23 | 24 | 45 | 139 | |||||
3535 Taxation experts | 7 | 10 | 12 | 9 | 38 | |||||
3538 Financial accounts managers | 6 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 22 | |||||
3545 Sales accounts and business development managers | 60 | 67 | 104 | 109 | 340 | |||||
5215 Welding trades | – | – | 4 | – | 4 | |||||
5434 Chefs | – | 1 | – | 1 | 2 | |||||
1093 | 1383 | 1648 | 1956 | 6080 |

Download the full data set
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