ILR - work related absences

Hi,

I had applied for ILR in March 2015 from Tier 1 ( General) category. I got my BRP done in mid April and thereafter, I have had a recent correspondence in June. Although, the letter had a sent date as 4 June but I (ex housemate) didn't receive it until 25 June and this was sent to my old home address and I had only 14 days to reply which were exceeded. I had called their helpline earlier to change the address but I was advised not to update as this will delay the process and as long as there is someone there to collect the post it should be fine so I didn't end up changing it.

The letter was asking clarification on all the dates I have exited out of the country and whether they were work related paid annual leave absences and was asking to produce a letter from my previous employers to demonstrate this. Not all my previous employers were able to provide me a letter so I attached payslips explaining the letter. And since I am a contractor a couple of trips I had made were for about 40 days out of UK and these were unpaid as I was out of work on a couple of occasions.

All of my travel period is within 180 days within any 12 consecutive months.

Please can you advise on the following:

- Is there an issue with responding to letter that has past its due date although, I had advised the change of home address
- is there any definition on not economically not being active - as I didn't have work on a couple of occasions when I travelled outside the country although, I meet my usual earning target to apply for this category
- would payslips suffice in place of employers letters for all those paid annual leaves

Please advise as I'm really worried it has taken this long and there has been no acknowledgment/update and whenever I call I get the standard response that it is within six months of their processing time so they can't provide any update.

Best wishes,
Pearl

Hello,

I haven't had a response yet. Please I would greatly appreciate your speedy response/ or any form of advice you can provide would be of great help.

Best wishes,
Pooja

poojj wrote:- Is there an issue with responding to letter that has past its due date although, I had advised the change of home address

If you do not respond back, the application may be refused. If you write back, even if after the due date, the caseworker may consider it if he/she hasn't decided on your case yet! You have everything to lose by not responding, but responding may help get you a positive result. So, respond ASAP.

poojj wrote:- is there any definition on not economically not being active - as I didn't have work on a couple of occasions when I travelled outside the country although, I meet my usual earning target to apply for this category

If you meet the income criteria, you will the get points for it. Being unemployed for periods in the 5 years doesn't matter as long as you meet the income requirements at the time of an immigration application.

poojj wrote:- would payslips suffice in place of employers letters for all those paid annual leaves

In absence of letter(s) from employers certifying your absences from UK, use your imagination to how you can explain to the caseworker that your absences from UK were "holidays", "annual leaves", "work related absences" while still being employed in the UK (salary slips) and/or that you and your family had ties in UK to come back to (spouse's employment, child's school, etc. etc.).

If you haven't yet responded, do it NOW!!

What happened next, did you get it?

Thank you sushdmehta for such a detailed response. This is really helpful information.

Sak15 - I haven't had any update yet. And when I called HO I was told about the usual six minth processing service standard.

Much appreciated,

Poojj