The extent to which the meaning of "foreseeable future" for ILR application can stretch.

Hello everyone,

ILR application has many requirements that are basic to eligibility to apply. One crucial requirement is that "the employer/sponsor still needs the applicant for the job they are currently working in, for the foreseeable future". Right?

My question is whether this "foreseeable future" can be one year long? This weird question arises from a weird situation that I am foreseeing for myself in the coming years.

I am going to arrive in the UK as a Foundation Year 2 doctor (House Officer) working in the NHS. This post will last for a year. Next, I will work in a non-training fixed-term (temporary) job for a contract of 2 years to gain more NHS-experience (it is difficult to adjust in the highly complex and systematized NHS). Then I will apply to the Internal Medicine Training programme (the starting point for all medical doctors in the UK), which will last for 3 years.

If you examine this scenario, then I will be able to apply for ILR during the Internal Medicine Training programme. To say precisely, I will still have a year's sponsorship left after I become eligible to apply for ILR.

After this 3-year-long Medicine training, I will either have to bag a training post in a medical specialty (which is very competitive), or have to find another non-training job or to return back to my home country. No other option.

Here comes the detailed question: After working for 5 years as a doctor I will be able to apply for ILR AND I will have 1 more year left for sponsorship after which I will have to either "secure a competitive job (all medical jobs are highly competitive)" or return back to my home country.
Although I hope that I will be able to secure a job, there is always a possibility that I will not succeed in my first attempt (which means waiting for a year for the next recruitment round). In case this unfortunate event does occur, it will jeopardize, nay, ruin my ILR application if the last 1 year of sponsorship (completing which I will have spent a total of 6 years in the UK as an employed doctor) is not deemed as employment of me (the ILR applicant) in the foreseeable future when I apply for it (after 5 years in the UK).

In more simple terms, can I say to the Home Office that since I am employed for a three year medical training programme right now, and I have completed the second year of it which coincides the completion of my 5 years in the UK (which is why I am applying for ILR right now), I do have proof that my employer needs me for the next one year otherwise in case I do not continue the training-job, it will create a gap/vacancy in the NHS? Can this one year be claimed as continued employment (in the case ILR is granted) in the foreseeable future from the time of application for ILR?

Do make a note here that in case I get successful in obtaining ILR, I will definitely and obviously work for that last one year ("the foreseeable future") in the UK to complete my Internal Medicine Training, but there is no guarantee that right after that I will be able to secure another job, and I may very well be left unemployed. (I will do my best to avoid that situation)

I will genuinely accept curses for this lengthy question. I just wanted to give more detail so that it becomes clearer what situation I will be in, in the coming years.

Kind regards.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I think the "foreseeable future" means that there is no end date to that specific employment.

A fixed-term employment by definition means that it is not for the foreseeable future.

Indeed, the end of the employment is clearly foreseen and specified in the terms of the contract.

secret.simon wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 19, 2019 5:33 pm

I think the "foreseeable future" means that there is no end date to that specific employment.

A fixed-term employment by definition means that it is not for the foreseeable future.

Indeed, the end of the employment is clearly foreseen and specified in the terms of the contract.

Right. Thanks secret.simon.

1.) Are you 100% sure on this? I see you claim E&OE but just to make sure you're sure on this one.

2.) So this is not a foreseeable continued employment. This way I would have to change my future plans consistently. Now there ARE another sort of training programmes called "run-through" (read: continuous) programmes which combine the Internal Medicine Training (3 years long) and further (4 year long) medical specialty training (which normally and traditionally requires further competitive recruitment as I said in my original post). If I am successful in bagging this run-through post after 3 years (1 year as House Officer and 2 years in fixed-term job as I said in my original post) of my presence in the UK, it will mean that I will be in continuous employment for 7 years (3 years medical training + 4 years specialty). Taking this route will mean that I will be eligible to apply for ILR when I complete Year 2 of this run-through programme and that I will still have left another 5 years of employment (guaranteed employment, as long as I demonstrate satisfactory progress in my learning). Can this be considered a foreseeable future continued employment?

Thanks.

Definitely not certain. I am only going by the plain English meaning of the word "foreseeable".

Assuming the rules don't change before you qualify for ILR, there is no set time limit that the foreseeable future needs to be. It is open ended. As a limited leave to remain visa holder, you couldn't be a permanent employee without an end date anyway as there is no guarantee of visa extensions or ILR.

You are perhaps overthinking slightly. Your situation is not unique. You simply need the letter stating what is required, regardless.

CR001 wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:13 pm

Assuming the rules don't change before you qualify for ILR, there is no set time limit that the foreseeable future needs to be. It is open ended. As a limited leave to remain visa holder, you couldn't be a permanent employee without an end date anyway as there is no guarantee of visa extensions or ILR.

You are perhaps overthinking slightly. Your situation is not unique. You simply need the letter stating what is required, regardless.

I understand what you mean CR001. From my intuition, a typical scenario for granting ILR would be that the applicant is not required to resign from the job and is offering good service to the employer and the employer needs him so ILR would be a necessity to the applicant in the long term. Right?

Do you have any idea what the caseworker would think when he will assess that this applicant is required for the job but for only the next year?

You are right, I might be overthinking slightly. I just want to make sure whether I should take this route or a different one that I have (read my (2.) posted in reply to secret.simon).

Thank you for your response.