ILR/Accountant: Certified Accountant in Non-Certified Firm

Hi there

My ILR application is due on or after April 23, 2012. I have just started sorting out paperworks etc. I am a contractor and work through my own Ltd company. Apparently, I have appointed SJD as my accountants when I started the Ltd company back in 2010 as they are one of the leading contractor accountants in the market. But to my surprise, I am unable to verify the accountancy firm on ICAEW or ACCA websites recently

ACCA:
https://www.acca-business.org/pls/ecomm ... doba_first
ICAEW:
http://www.icaewfirms.co.uk/members/index.php

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I asked SJD to provide me membership details with any of the UKBA approved organisations, they replied back to me with their membership details for chartered institute of taxation. I have just told them that this organization is not one of the approved HomeOffice organizations and if they can provide their membership details for one of the approved bodies from below:

>>the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW);
>>the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS);
>>the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI);
>>the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA);
>>the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA); and
>>the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas ... documents/

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I am now awaiting their response.....

In the meantime, I want to know if any of the member has got SJD Accountancy as their accountants and whether or not they know if SJD is approved or not..... thier website is:

http://www.sjdaccountancy.com/

I appreciate your assitance in advance.

Kind Regards
hsmp2007Tier1

Hi All

I have just rcvd the following reply from my accountant at SJD Accountancy,

"
I have since found out that SJD Accountancy itself is not registered under any of below. We do have individual accountants who fall under ACCA & ICAEW , so we will supply the details of who will be signing the visa reference for at that time.
"

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Senior members, please advise if this is OK and normal practice to get letter from "Certified Accountant in non-certified firm" or do I need to change the accountancy firm ( which I dont want to as they have been excellent so far in all contractor accountancy related tasks )

Please advise.

I had requested a letter from SJD to support my visa application. In the letter my accountant provided his contact details along with his membership numbers for various bodies.

I didn't have to use that letter so not sure if it is acceptable, but yes the accountants at SJD are registered with appropriate bodies and they do quote their membership numbers on the letter.

hsmp2007Tier1 wrote:Hi All

I have just rcvd the following reply from my accountant at SJD Accountancy,

"
I have since found out that SJD Accountancy itself is not registered under any of below. We do have individual accountants who fall under ACCA & ICAEW , so we will supply the details of who will be signing the visa reference for at that time.
"

--

Senior members, please advise if this is OK and normal practice to get letter from "Certified Accountant in non-certified firm" or do I need to change the accountancy firm ( which I dont want to as they have been excellent so far in all contractor accountancy related tasks )

Please advise.

I suppose this should not be an issue.
As long as the signing person / accountant is a member of ACCA, UKBA should not have any problems.

m.j wrote:

hsmp2007Tier1 wrote:Hi All

I have just rcvd the following reply from my accountant at SJD Accountancy,

"
I have since found out that SJD Accountancy itself is not registered under any of below. We do have individual accountants who fall under ACCA & ICAEW , so we will supply the details of who will be signing the visa reference for at that time.
"

--

Senior members, please advise if this is OK and normal practice to get letter from "Certified Accountant in non-certified firm" or do I need to change the accountancy firm ( which I dont want to as they have been excellent so far in all contractor accountancy related tasks )

Please advise.

I suppose this should not be an issue.
As long as the signing person / accountant is a member of ACCA, UKBA should not have any problems.

thanks very much for the clarification. Though I may not need the accountant letter, as I am going to apply as employee of company with main evidences as salary slips + dividend vouchers and personal bank statements. I think that should be just enough, though ofcourse carrying other documents like biz statements, accountant letter etc. only incase if the case worker asks for it.

The person who signs the letter should have ACCA practising certificate. If he does not have ACCA practising certificate then legally he can not sign the accountant letter. Been an ACCA member is not enough to act for the public like signing letters. The good thing is the home office may not be aware of this so you might be fine if even the person who signed the letter does not have a practicing certificate.

bobby80gh wrote:The person who signs the letter should have ACCA practising certificate. If he does not have ACCA practising certificate then legally he can not sign the accountant letter. Been an ACCA member is not enough to act for the public like signing letters. The good thing is the home office may not be aware of this so you might be fine if even the person who signed the letter does not have a practicing certificate.

good point. But ukba requirement is that either accountant or firm needs to be member of one of the approved organisations and acca is just one of them. Secondly, I am sure big accountancy firms like SJD will always be having practicing chartered accountants and not just members. Though in my case its not that important to go extra mile for this backup document, but I will definitley check it with the accountancy firm too in the meantime. Thanks for mentioning.

[quote="bobby80gh"The good thing is the home office may not be aware of this so you might be fine if even the person who signed the letter does not have a practicing certificate.[/quote]

Actually it is the opposite. HO do check if the accountant is fully registered or not. If they cannot confirm the practicing licence then application will be rejected. That is why it is recommend to use an accountant who you trust and have relevant experience.

Hi There,

I'm self employed too and my accountant is not registered with any of the bodies mentioned in the home office website.

When I asked him he said, he has a third party accountant working for him who is registered under ICAEW. It seems this third party accountant will sign the letters.

My query is:

1- My accountant will sign my invoices, he will give me the letter on his letterhead, he will give me the profit loss statement. Is it OK for the third party accountant to sign on behalf of my accountant company? Will this be accepted by homeoffice ?

Please help!!!

Regards