Consequences of beaching rules of additional paid work

Hi there,

Can anyone advice me on the possible impacts of beaching the additional paid work rules on the current visa status and future visa application?

I worked on an additional job for a few weeks (a few hours per week) before signing the contract (paperwork delayed, quite common in academia). This is a big mistake as later the HR found out that we couldn't sign the contract, because the additional job and my full time job have different occupation code (and with different employers). The employer of this additional job reported their mistake to the home office (without disclosing my details) and they felt obliged to pay me for the work I've done regardless of the contract.

My questions are:
1. Should I do the same to report my "mistake" to the home office, or should I just lay low?
2. I know if I accept the payment (around £500), there will be a record of me doing paid additional work which is not allowed. Do you think it's worth contacting UKVI for advice or is it better just to reject the payment?

Any information/advice is appreciated! Thanks a lot!

No one can give you the advice to lay low or otherwise as no one can guarantee anything. But as you said, this mistake was out of your control, and it seems to be a minor one. You can always tell your story if being asked and a reasonable officer should understand. I have not heard of anyone who faced an issue during my search in this forum for these types of minor mistakes.

Regarding the payment, if you refuse to get paid it may help to further support your reasoning in future.

Supplementary employment is allowed for sponsored workers for max 20 hours per week which was not exceeded.

Presumably the potential immigration offence you have in mind is breaching a condition of your leave. However, the official definition is ""Offence of knowingly failing to observe a condition of leave" which you did not do, You inadvertently breached the condition of your leave by undertaking a supplementary job that is not a shortage occupation and has a different occupational code from your main job for which you were assigned a CoS.

This is further mitigated by the fact that from your post it seems that the the employer of the supplementary job was also a sponsor in which case they breached their obligation to correctly perform a right-to-work check, which they admitted to the HO, and were therefore misleading you in thinking that you can engage in a supplementary job for them. From the sponsor guidance:

A sponsored worker should advise their new employer that the employment
is supplementary to the work they are being sponsored to do [which you no doubt did], so their supplementary employer can make the necessary checks recommended in our guidance for employers on illegal working


.

It is not the most heinous of crimes and they say honesty is the best policy. Before the seriousness of the case can be properly considered are you able to give more info

At the time you worked in the additional job what visa type were you holding?
Were you already an employee of the main employer?
Was the additional employment as a self employed person or under PAYE.
Have you issued an invoice for your work or received a payslip of any kind.

I am aware of you not receiving payment but that in itself is not a get out.

It is not the most heinous of crimes and they say honesty is the best policy. Before the seriousness of the case can be properly considered are you able to give more info

At the time you worked in the additional job what visa type were you holding?
Were you already an employee of the main employer?
Was the additional employment as a self employed person or under PAYE.
Have you issued an invoice for your work or received a payslip of any kind.

I am aware of you not receiving payment but that in itself is not a get out.