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Hi

I have a question regarding SOC Codes.

I have been on Tier 2 for five years and I am due to apply for settlement and i earn £27,000/annum.

According to the SOC handbook Civil Engineers (2121)are classified as:

New entrant: £20,700 Experienced worker: £27,900

My question is do i need to ask my employer to increase my wages or will i be classified as a new entrant?

Thank you

Bump

Anyone? Manci?

What are your standard hours. SOC code standard hours are based on 39 hours per week. So if your hours are 35 per week, for example, SOC Code hours should be reduced i.e 35/39 X annual salary.

( I am no expert on this. I know because I read my friend's letter that was issued by the company and they had done the above calc. Just letting you know as your might not have considered this. I am still a rookie on this forum)

Hi Eddy

Thanks for your reply. I work 40 hours.

My main concern is if I will be classified as an experienced worker or new entrant when applying for the ILR.

It's really confusing.

Anyone? Gurus?

Hi,

I believe that you would fall under experienced worker since you have been working for 5 years in that field.
Had you, for say, switched professions recently only then I can see the 'new entrant' applying.
The reason I am saying this is because recently, when I requested for a letter my company quoted the 'experienced' rate in the letter ( I joined as a new entrant and have been working since then ). My company employs 1000s of foreign nationals and has a dedicated immigration department so I believe there would be some logic behind this.

Eddy B.

Also, what are your standard working hours i.e. hours written in your employment contract. ( not the actual hours you do ). For example, my standard hours are 35 per week but I do over 60 hours per week. If not sure, please check with your company

eddybaloch wrote:Hi,

I believe that you would fall under experienced worker since you have been working for 5 years in that field.
Had you, for say, switched professions recently only then I can see the 'new entrant' applying.
The reason I am saying this is because recently, when I requested for a letter my company quoted the 'experienced' rate in the letter ( I joined as a new entrant and have been working since then ). My company employs 1000s of foreign nationals and has a dedicated immigration department so I believe there would be some logic behind this.

Eddy B.

Hi Eddy

My standard hours are 40 hours a week and i earn £27,134.

It is really confusing, so are you saying UKBA expect a new entrant to be earning experienced salary rate by the time of application for settlement?

Thanks

anyone else?

?

Yes, and I don't think you should be complaining because from April 2013, UKBA expects a new entrant to be earning experienced rate even for extension (after 3 years of joining) and also a minimum of £35,000 for settlement after April 2016!

Dear LateCarrot,

I was sailing in a similar boat. I went to my lawyer (one of the best OISC approved lawyers) and she advised me to increase my salary straight away, which I did. You are classified as experienced and based on your SOC code you MUST be earning "the experienced wage" which in your case is 27,900£. Even a penny less, will result in automatic refusal. So don't take any chances and get your employer to increase your salary. Just so you know, u need atleast one pay-slip, that reflects the right salary per month (based on 27900£).
Also it does not matter whether u work for 40 hours or 35 hours or 37.5 hours. Salary is important !!

Hope this helps!

Shrinivas

Also it does not matter whether u work for 40 hours or 35 hours or 37.5 hours. Salary is important !!

Salary is based on 39 hour week so if the working hours are different, salary needs to be pro-rated.
Since LateCarrort works for 40 hours in a week, he needs to earn 40/39*£27,900 = £28,615.4 to conform to experienced rate.

Hi oj.bulmer,

There are 2 things Late carrot needs to be looked at.
I was told that by my lawyer that for Tier 2 visa holder no. of hours is not an important criteria anymore.

I will state my case:
I was granted Tier 2 visa RENEWAL 2 years ago under the following situation:
37.5 hours, salary 24500£ in 2012.
But now when I looked into the updated new SOC codes it states 26000£ experienced worker wage. I argued the same with my lawyer that based on 37.5 hours my current salary was OK, But she said, that is not the case and its just the salary figure that is more important and not the hours worked. (That's why i said 35, 37.5 or 40 is not important). I also called other solicitors for second opinion and they echoed the same. "You don't earn at-least the experienced wage, not a chance for ILR".

When pressed further with my arguments, they said that the UKBA doesn't mention explicitly the number of hours situation with regards to the new experienced salary. Which in short means, if you submit your application with a penny less than the minimum stipulated wage, the decision entirely rests with the case worker and you cannot challenge the decision. So its a big risk. Hence everyone I called, said "get your employer to big-up your wage packet" which I did.

Shrinivas

thanks for the info guys. very helpful!

i guess this is another challenge to overcome!

(That's why i said 35, 37.5 or 40 is not important). I also called other solicitors for second opinion and they echoed the same. "You don't earn at-least the experienced wage, not a chance for ILR".

Have a look at page 4/5 on SOC code:

The rates are based on a 39-hour working week for all occupations where the salary source used is the
Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings....
... If the job has contracted weekly hours or is paid an hourly rate, the rates must be pro-rated accordingly,
but otherwise they do not need to be pro-rated.

The fact that weekly hours are mentioned in CoS, it is reasonable to argue that the salary needs to be prorated.

Additionally, there had been discussions on this on the forum earlier:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/indefi ... 66412.html
http://www.immigrationboards.com/indefi ... 58350.html

At the end of the day the decision will be given by caseworker based on SOC code guidelines, and not the lawyers. But I do appreciate that there is a fair deal of ambiguity, and often no general agreement amongst the applicants, because of unclear guidelines in the online documentation (probably deliberate).

But to be on the safer side, of course lawyers advise to fight for the higher 39-hour salary than mentioned in SOC code. Remember, caseworkers can also overlook some details on the form and make mistakes.

Thanks for that info

I have asked my employer for more money, I hope to get a positive response. I don't want any maybes with my application. The guidelines are so unclear!