HR forgot to renew Sponsorship Certificate now I must leave!

[touchcloth]

I received a letter yesterday from the Home Office informing me that my Leave to remain has been curtailed and that I have to leave towards the end of May.
When I contacted my HR dept. they said that their previous HR director forgot to renew it & they only realised there was an issue this week upon which they renewed it but! the certificate expired in Nov 2013.
I had no knowledge of this and this letter came as a total shock & surprise.

The company does not want to lose / replace me and will aim to o everything to try to get me to stay. We have other Tier 2 workers in the same boat as me.

The letter states I have to submit a new application for Leave to remain.

I'd like to find out if I need to go through the whole process again ie. re-apply for my position, leave the country and wait for leave to remain etc. or is it a case of re-applying for LTR from within the country and stay on the same visa?

I was granted an extension last year and am now in my last year before I can apply for LTR but now it seems like I've lost all this time.

Thanks!

[wtmlive]

I'm not sure about the exact details of what you should be doing. Your HR department should help you with this. I don't think you have to leave the country, you can make a fresh application possibly with a new CoS. If you do leave, you might lose the years spent working here counted towards your ILR application, though I'm not sure of this.
Also there is a cooling-off period when you can't return to the UK before 12 months have passed since you left the country.
So, follow-up with your HR Department regarding this and hopefully you can make a new application that will be successful.

[TheSpread]

Sounds like your visa got curtailed but you get given time to post a new application. You said you have till May, is that what your letter of curtailment says? That's ample time anyway and this also means you are still here legally and have not broken any immigration rules. All you need to do is to get a certificate of sponsorship (hoping your employer still has their sponsorship licence?) from your employer and send a fresh application before the date your letter says you have to apply/leave by. If they no longer have their license then you will have to look for a new job/sponsor and send your application in before your current leave expires (according to your curtailment letter).

All the best!!

[touchcloth]

Thanks TheSpread & wtmlive,

I hustled last week & briefly, our HR managed to get a new COS. I had to re-apply & my application was submitted on Friday so here's to hoping

Appreciate you taking the time to respond to me in my then hour of need.