Congratulations!

As someone who has a lot of absences myself I follow these sorts of posts with great interest

FYI - during the first 12 months of your employment, the employer can terminate your employment without stating a reason.

The work permit counts as contribution to the 5 years for ILR.

All I can say is .... just answer the question! And don't try to guess why they are asking the question.

So on your facts, the correct answer is clearly 1990.

Good point! Anyway I'm planning on applying in person so I'll be on hand to clarify if need be.

I agree, I first entered the UK in 1990, but I don't think that is the date they want.

When I fill this out in a few months time I'll be putting a date in 2005 which is the start of my (current) residency period.

I'm not convinced UKBA always have details of when you exit. Do the airlines pass them the details? What if you go out by car, boat?

The text indicates that leave to remain in the UK will be denied regardless of what category you apply under.

Congratulations!!!

This is also good news for all of us with a fairly large number of absences.

The 180 days isn't a hard and fast rule. I personally know two people who had approx 220 days over 4 years and still got it.

Not yet, but people extending Tier 2 do.

Thanks John for the clarification, I know nothing about migration for EU citizens...

Automatic PR? Are you sure?

I just spent 1 minute looking at the UKBA website and from what I make out even EU citizens have to apply for confirmation of permanent residence.

Once you get this mess sorted out, apply for IRIS the next time you leave the country. It is valid for two years (or the end date of your visa, whatever is earlier). Then when you come back through a major airport like Heathrow or Gatwick, you won't have to take your passport out of your bag. Or spe...

I know somebody who got ILR at Croydon PEO last week. Had 220 days absences, 40 of which were business related + letter from employer to prove. They put a post it note on pages in the passport with relevant stamps - the processing officer was grateful for this and allowed them to make a decision in ...

I don't think there is any problem if they convert the application at the PEO. Regarding the dates - doesn't the application form to say to put down the date of departure and date of return? So that is what you should put down - don't chop a day off either side or you risk upsetting them. It would b...

I'll be very interested in how you go, my absences add up to nearly the same number.

So you are not going to do it by post? From what I gather if you have more than a certain number of absences they'll turn it into a postal application at the PEO.

What makes you believe that? Is there something in the work permit that states that?

To be honest I'd be nervous too if I'd worked for a company that my workpermit didn't allow me to!

I think they used to consider you for FLR if you didn't qualify for ILR for some reason, but I don't think they do anymore. I think they want another application fee!

They were probably just running a routine audit. Similar thing happened to me, though in my case they asked me to prove I was a member of the BCS. I wasn't a member and had never claimed to be, yet they thought it was in some way important for my work permit...

Great news Hsac, congratulations!

For the 197 days absences, was that not counting the day of departure and the day of return?

Did they really check all the stamps?! Looking at my passport it would take hours to make sense of all the stamps, and some are missing for various reasons.

The £400 fee is a leftover from when it was a two step process to get these types of visas (new applications).

I don't know what the fee is these days for Tier 1 extension, but £820 sounds right.

You are not switching into Tier 1, you are extending your Tier 1 (new name of HSMP).

This is very interesting and it corresponds to how I read the Annex F guidance - absences consistent with annual leave (and presumably weekends + public holidays) are disregarded. After that you can have up to 6 months worth of non working absences. The way I often see it interpreted by on this foru...

So long as you can get the company to pay you a UK salary from the UK office, I don't see why they would need to readvertise the job. In any case you'd be crazy to give up a Tier 1 visa since by the sounds of it you wouldn't be eligigle for it in the future. You'd be better off taking the risk looki...

I'm pretty sure I highlighted my salary payments, put an asterix or something. My statements had hand writing all over them, I often write beside various debits what they were for. I didn't have any problem.