Sarfi wrote:Hi CS95TDG,
Thanks for your contribution; if you read relevant part (page 11 last paragraph) of
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary
You will see, "absences must be for reasons connected with the applicant’s purpose for being in the UK or for serious or compelling compassionate reasons" for ILR Applicant including Tier 1 General.
Now regarding list a reason for each absence; there 2 options. 1- evidence related to business or employment letter confirming them or 2- Due to serious or compelling reasons.
Now Confusion is that UKBA doesn't ask for Employer's letter from Tier 1 G directly (as T1 G can be self-empolyed or ...) and hasn't cleared this point and so T1G is left with 2nd option of Serious or Compelling reason only as Some Reason for each absence is required anyway (don't for less than 90 days even or only for >90 days). Thats what I am after to get clear. Thanks if some can share his appealing understandings of reason for an absence of 175 days. If reason required then what sort of compassionate is possible?
While its true that absences must be for reasons connected with the applicant’s purpose for being in the UK, for Tier 1 General Applicants no employer letter is required for annual leave or business related absences. All you need to do here is list the absences and give a reason against each (E.g. annual leave, business travel, etc...). It's only if you have an absence that is due to a serious or compelling reason that you need to provide a personal letter along with evidence to support it (E.g. birth or death certificate etc...). The area which isn't explained in the rules is on what happens to those Tier 1 G applicants who take holidays/time out of the UK while they are in-between jobs (I.e. not paid/unemployed). One of the forum members wrote to the UKBA to get clarity on this see the following thread for details:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... c&start=20
M2008 wrote:Got Reply from Home office
Dear Sir,
Details of all absences from the UK must be provided on the SET (O) application form, and must have resulted from either business reasons, or for compelling or compassionate reasons.
Tier 1 migrants do no need to provide a letter from their employer regarding the business related absences, as many Tier 1 migrants are self-employed. They must however provide the specified evidence of absences that were for compelling or compassionate reasons. These would be varied, but examples would be natural disaster, preventing travel following a holiday, or the death of a close relative.
Absences due to annual leave would be covered by the policy, but absences of unpaid leave would need to fully explained and would not necessarily be disregarded. This would be a decision for the caseworker to make, given the explanation of the absence.
Absences due to the applicant travelling to see family and friends whilst unemployed would break the continuous period for ILR, as they are not work-related or for compelling or compassionate reasons.
I trust this clarifies the situation.
It's not clear whether all your absences were while you were unpaid in the UK. But if they were, then reading this thread will help. It appears the UKBA are stating that any absence that was taken while unemployed in the UK would be considered a break in continuous residence. You cannot quote a serious compelling reason(s) for those absences. Even though the UKBA provided the above response, I have seen other recent success stories on this forum where the applicants were not questioned about their unpaid absences, so I would recommend you go through these to understand what case workers have requested post 13th Dec 2012 when the rule changes came into effect. I believe the key will be providing a credible reason for each of unpaid absences - if they were short in duration and you were employed soon after each and also have P60's for each of those years it would make that task easier.
