The extent of the cap on those permitted to enter the UK under Tiers 1 and 2 of the points based system from April 2011 has been announced.

Tier 1

The Tier 1 (General) route will be closed and replaced with a Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route and limited to just 1000 places.

The Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) route will be reformed to make it more attractive for promising start-up companies which do not meet the cuurrent investment threshold.

The Tier 1 (Investor) route will also be reformed to offer an accelerated route to settlement, depending on the level of investment.

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Tier 2

The Tier 2 (General) route will be subject to a limit of 20,700 places for 2011/12.

This limit will not apply to in-country applications from those already in the UK or dependants of Tier 2 migrants; neither will it apply to Tier 2 (General) applicants who are filling a vacancy with a salary of more than £150,000;

Tier 2 (Intra company transfer) applicants in the Established staff sub-category will be able to stay in the UK for up to 5 years if they are paid more than £40,000 per year; those paid between £24,000 and £40,000 will be able to enter for up to 12 months within a specified period.

The current rules will continue to apply to Tier 2 (Intra company transfer) migrants in the Graduate trainee and Skills transfer sub-categories.

New Tier 2 (General) applications will be restricted to graduate-level vacancies. Existing Tier 2 (General) migrants in jobs below graduate level will be able to extend their permission to stay if they meet current requirements.

The minimum level of English language competency for Tier 2 (General) applications will be increased from basic to intermediate level (B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference).