Letter of absences - Tier 2 to ILR

[nsr165]

Hello

Hope you're well.

I had a question and was hoping someone here would be able to help me out. I'm a management consultant and aim to apply for ILR next year. Due to the nature of my job, I have quite often found myself in situations where I'm working through my holidays and weekends. As a result, all of those worked days are given in-lieu to be used at a later date. This has resulted in me being out of the country for quite a bit over the course of five years. I estimate by the time I'd submit my application, my days abroad counter would hit c. 380 days and c. 440 days if I were successful in my ILR application and then apply for citizenship.

All of these days abroad have either been paid leaves or working remotely/abroad and I have never exceeded my holiday allowance, nor breached the 180-day rule.

Do you envisage any issues, considering I'm quite close to the 450 cut-off. Would the case worker be tempted to question the number of days out of country? Should there be a specific way of addressing the leaves in the absence letter?

Any appropriate advice would really help.

Thanks!

[zimba]

The is no such thing as 450 days cut-off for ILR under Tier 2, only the 180 days rule apply. Your employer letter needs to cover all your absences and prove the reasons for them. The absence requirements for citizenship are different (Max 450 days in the last 5 years but ONLY max 90 days in the final year)

[nsr165]

Thanks for coming back, Zimba.

Yes, I meant the 450 days cut-off for citizenship, as that is a natural progression from your ILR status, should it be successful. Want to ensure I cover all of my bases up to citizenship should I consider going for it.

As mentioned earlier, the leaves cannot be classified as secondments or business travel, per say, in my opinion. Can you shed some light on what the absence letter should say in this regard? Is it safer to have HR address these as business travel due to me working for clients in that period?

Thanks.

[zimba]

Thanks for coming back, Zimba.

Yes, I meant the 450 days cut-off for citizenship, as that is a natural progression from your ILR status, should it be successful. Want to ensure I cover all of my bases up to citizenship should I consider going for it.

As mentioned earlier, the leaves cannot be classified as secondments or business travel, per say, in my opinion. Can you shed some light on what the absence letter should say in this regard? Is it safer to have HR address these as business travel due to me working for clients in that period?

Thanks.

They simply need to confirm all absences from work were authorised by them. However given you had long absences, you better get them to mention they also involved you working remotely/doing business