Naturalisation application - legal work under student visa

I submitted my application for naturalisation a couple of weeks ago. I have just realized that some people have been rejected for working whilst on student visa, where the work exceeded 20 hours during term time.

I have previously full-time worked during my student visa, although, I only worked after I had finished my exams and submitted my final dissertation. This means that I only worked when I was officially in vacation time and this work was done as a temporary worker i.e. I wasn't filling a permanent role. I have also listed this job in my employment section making it clear that it was an internship and provided the appropriate P60.

Even though I haven't broken any immigration law, should I have provided additional proof that I only worked during vacation time? Should I now send additional proof just to be safe or should I wait for HO to request for additional proof?

DocKnow wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:47 pm

I submitted my application for naturalisation a couple of weeks ago. I have just realized that some people have been rejected for working whilst on student visa, where the work exceeded 20 hours during term time.

I have previously full-time worked during my student visa, although, I only worked after I had finished my exams and submitted my final dissertation. This means that I only worked when I was officially in vacation time and this work was done as a temporary worker i.e. I wasn't filling a permanent role. I have also listed this job in my employment section making it clear that it was an internship and provided the appropriate P60.

Even though I haven't broken any immigration law, should I have provided additional proof that I only worked during vacation time? Should I now send additional proof just to be safe or should I wait for HO to request for additional proof?

I think there should not be any problem and no further documents needed if it happens then case worker will ask you.If you don't mind who suggested you to send p60 along with naturalisaion application, please?

The form asks for 10 year employment history so I just sent P60s as supporting evidence.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

i got approved on 21/11/18

i didnt declare work under 3 years student visa

i only wrote down history of work taken under spouse visa

to be honest , i didnt even remember as i worked in many places as student , i had no memory of duration, contact details etc etc

For my application I declared all my employment history during student visa. Attached employment history since beginning from HMRC.

I also did some extra hours but have taken university approval for any extra work during holidays such as Christmas and after end of exam.

Had no issues wit my application and was approved. I would declare everything as they will check with HMRc regardless you declare or not

thank you for your advices. I am on the same boat. Worried as I did overtime during term breaks (I had good 4 months term holidays (Apart from Festive breaks). my time lines and OPs are looking same (first of all there were no jobs for students and even for full timers during that time because of recession) i don't think any genuine student (who passed degree) would have overworked..all the best to us Keep us posted on your progress

I am in a similar boat. 4 years student then 5years Tier 2 visa then ILR

My degree was 4 years sandwhich course. I did a 12 month internship as part of the degree and during the study years I used to do various temp jobs around campus.

Putting the Tier 2 employment is of course dead easy. I have also mentioned my internship. However remembering all the temp jobs is not really possible.

So I have requested a SAR during the years I was a student but that can take a month to arrive...

It is interesting to see there a people who have not mentioned the student work and still got approval. I guess one can use the following approach - don't say anything in the employment section but just say in the additional information page that "I have worked within the allowable limit during my time at university etc".

There is no need to send any p60 and wage slips to cover the 10 years employment period. Just mention the employment start and finish dates in the application form. Thats what i did and got approved.Hope it helps.

When u see a wild animal sleeping in a jungle. Your best bit is to don't disturb him. If u start throwing stones at him. Then ready to face the consequences.

Hope u guys get my point.

Route to ILR wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 12, 2018 8:02 pm

There is no need to send any p60 and wage slips to cover the 10 years employment period. Just mention the employment start and finish dates in the application form. Thats what i did and got approved.Hope it helps.

When u see a wild animal sleeping in a jungle. Your best bit is to don't disturb him. If u start throwing stones at him. Then ready to face the consequences.

Hope u guys get my point.

That's the issue though, we don't remember start and finish dates of various temp jobs during uni time.

Route to ILR wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 12, 2018 8:02 pm

There is no need to send any p60 and wage slips to cover the 10 years employment period. Just mention the employment start and finish dates in the application form. Thats what i did and got approved.Hope it helps.

When u see a wild animal sleeping in a jungle. Your best bit is to don't disturb him. If u start throwing stones at him. Then ready to face the consequences.

Hope u guys get my point.

Its not a case of wild animal. I have the exact date of my thesis submission and my internship start dates. I only started working after I submitted my thesis and completed all my exams and coursework. This means that I started working when I was no longer "academically engaged".

As per immigration law, you are allowed to work full time when you are not academically engaged i.e. you are in vacation.

I also applied for the internship through my university careers department. So if there was any doubt about my permission to work full-time, they would've stopped me at the application stage.

My only worry was, should I submit all of these proofs along with the application to make it easier for the caseworker to verify. I eventually submitted P60s covering the last 10 years and salary slips covering the current tax year only. I did not submit any university letter confirming that I was allowed to work. My student visa stamp stated "Work allowed as per Tier 4 rules" and I think that is proof enough.

Furthermore, I did some research and the AN guidelines document states that the 10 year employment history is more relevant if you have been in breach of immigration law i.e. if you have been in the UK illegally. A lot of people get ILR despite the immigration law breaches (because ILR allows for more discretion and only 5 years history is covered) and the home office as decided to check this at the citizenship stage.

If you have been in the UK legally, it is unlikely that they will dig into the conditions of your tier 2 or student visa (for e.g. 20 hours limit). Unless, of course, you were caught working illegally at the time. The assumption is that given that you have been granted multiple leaves to remain over the years, had you been in breach of your visa conditions, these would have been caught at a much earlier stage.

If you have been in the UK legally, it is unlikely that they will dig into the conditions of your tier 2 or student visa (for e.g. 20 hours limit)

You would be surprised that they actually do.

CR001 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 13, 2018 12:25 pm

If you have been in the UK legally, it is unlikely that they will dig into the conditions of your tier 2 or student visa (for e.g. 20 hours limit)

You would be surprised that they actually do.

Sure they can - I am just saying that it is unlikely that they will ask somebody for a letter from a university attended 10 years ago confirming that you were allowed to work at the time. Of course where it is blatantly obvious that there has been a breach (for e.g. working during a period when the individual did not have valid leave to remain) they will refuse or at least ask for an explanation.

With these things, they apply a balance of probabilities principal. Somebody with a valid student visa is likely to have an income and a record with HMRC. It doesn't mean that they were working illegally.

Moreover, balance of probabilities has to be backed up by evidence and rationale.

Agreed with Docknow stance on this subject.

Home office goes digging deep when you have had issues in past with extensions , deception , overstay or being caught at work , working above your legal threshold. or and if you have issues with hmrc . i-e
underpaid tax or self employed account troubles


if you never had any of them issues , they wont dig deep or they wont have any reason to , as AN guidelines of good character state “ caseworker may contact hmrc to check if your tax issues are in line “.