Tier 2 ICT to Tier 2 General High earner category-Urgent

Hello Everyone,
Need some advise. I m currently on a ICT long term visa and my project ends in 2 months. I read the home office guidelines and found that I cant apply for Tier 2 General unless serving 12 months cooling period. But if I get a salary paid 155,300 p.a I can apply without serving the cooling period. One of the company is ready to offer me upto £550 for day rate contracting for 1 year contract paid to a umbrella company but not as full time employee to satisfy home office rules. I have some sponsors who are ready to offer sponsorship but not sure my approach will work. The rules say I can calculate the earnings as pro rata and if I use the below calculations I might reach the figure.

I assume the standard working hours is calculated as 39 hours. If thats the case can my sponsor apply for a COS with the below salary threshold?

£78*30*52=121680(~pro rata for 30 hours)
£78*39*52=158184(for a standard 39 hours)

Please suggest?

One of the company is ready to offer me upto £550 for day rate contracting for 1 year contract paid to a umbrella company

It is illegal and not permitted at all to do contract work or work through an umbrella company on Tier 2 General. You are going to have problems if you go ahead with this.

Well, most of IT jobs are sponsored by IT consultancy services who operate as an umbrella or limited company. And it is legal for these companies to sponsor someone if they have a valid client contract and home office is well aware of it. I am following that approach.

You are only permitted to work directly for your sponsor, on their direct payroll, not an umbrella company. Where they send you to help clients is different to 'contracting'.

CR001 wrote:You are only permitted to work directly for your sponsor, on their direct payroll, not an umbrella company. Where they send you to help clients is different to 'contracting'.

+1

You cannot trade through an intermediary, full stop. Has to be direct payroll with the client who directs you.

In a case a first time contractor will never get anywhere near £550 a day plus if trading via a brolly you pay both employers and employees NI (around 25% last time I looked) plus the brolly management fee which can be very heft with these dodgy bodyshops.

All these roles come via agencies and no agent will touch you without a T2G for a contract role. We had a guy working for us on contract saying he had a T1G, turned out he only had a T2 so we got rid of him PDQ because the potential fines are enormous.

It's fine to work for a consultancy and work on other clients sites, directly on their payroll, but you you plan to do is circumventing the immigration rules, and will get you removed.

T2HELP wrote:Well, most of IT jobs are sponsored by IT consultancy services who operate as an umbrella or limited company. And it is legal for these companies to sponsor someone if they have a valid client contract and home office is well aware of it. I am following that approach.

Then you are in for a world of bother.

Hi mate

Read point 5.8 on the Tier 2 Sponsor's guide
The sponsor should not just be responsible for your payroll processing.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... 6_v1.2.pdf

5.8 If you are a sponsor that wants to employ a migrant worker who has been supplied to you by
an employment agency or business, you can only assign a certificate of sponsorship (CoS) if
you:
 have full responsibility for deciding the duties, functions and outcomes, or outputs
of the job the migrant is doing
 are responsible for agreeing and paying the migrant’s salary