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My partner came to UK as a TIer 2 migrant and her most recent leave to remain has been issued as a Skilled Worker.

Her absences from UK in the five 12 months periods preceding ILR application will range between 50-70 days in each 12 months window. All absences are for holidays ....... with a catch!

Her work is such that she can work from anywhere remotely and it so happened that in a few instances she travelled out of UK before the date of her (sanctioned) annual leave commencing and worked remotely without the knowledge of her employer. Due to this, she cannot ask the employer to certify those instances of absences where her actual date of deparure from UK were days before start of sanctioned leave.

e.g.- Annual leave sanctioned by employer is 15Sep to 30Sep. But she travels outside UK on 04Sep and continues to work remotely (and without informing employer that she is not in UK) until 15thSep and then proceeds on holiday from 15th until the 30th when she travels back to UK! So from immigration perspective she is absent from 05Sep to 29Sep but from an employer's perspective she had sanctioned leave only between 15Sep and 30Sep.

Given that 245HH(B):

A letter from the employer detailing the purpose and period of absences in connection with the employment, including periods of annual leave. Where the absence was due to a serious or compelling reason, a personal letter from the applicant which includes full details of the reason for the absences and all supporting documents in relation to those reasons - e.g. medical certificates, birth/death certificates, information about the reasons which led to the absence from the UK.

has been deleted, is it possible to apply for ILR under the Skilled Worker route without any supporting letter from the employer certifying the 50-70 days absence in each year of the 5 year qualifying period?

I am unable to find a rule similar to 245HH(B) in Appendix Skilled Worker or Appendix Continous Residence.

Tier 2 ONLY required a letter confirming absences from work NOT absence from the UK
No employer will confirm what you did during your absences, how do they know ??? As you see the old rules required the applicant to provide reasons, NOT the sponsor

Anyways, Tier 2 route does not exist and rules have changed: indefinite-leave-to-remain/tier-2-set-o ... l#p2027888

Zimba wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 15, 2021 1:36 am

Tier 2 ONLY required a letter confirming absences from work NOT absence from the UK

Your assertion is contrary to what the immigration rule 245HH(B) prescribed while it was inforce!

245HH wrote:(B)A letter from the employer detailing the purpose and period of absences in connection with the employment, including periods of annual leave. ......

Tier 2 settlement rules never required the applicant to provide a letter for "absence from work" as you claim but "absence from UK" be it for duration of sanctioned / annual leave or be it for periods of "work related absence" (e.g. - overseas assignment).

Zimba wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 15, 2021 1:36 am

Anyways, Tier 2 route does not exist and rules have changed: indefinite-leave-to-remain/tier-2-set-o ... l#p2027888

The link to your post wherein you quote an extract from Appendix continuous residence is specific to subsections "Assistance with a national or international humanitarian or environmental crisis overseas" and "Absences for research linked to work" only! My query isn't regarding either of the two given scenarios. Even the OP of that thread has queried the context of your response there.

No, it is not. Annual leave is merely 'absence from work'. The only time your employer can confirm you were outside the UK is when they sent you on a business trip. Again the rules do not show anywhere that you sponsor must confirm any periods you were outside the UK. As I showed you that is unreasonable. 'Purpose' in that context can simply be 'annual leave. This advice was given to hundreds of past applicants without any issues. I repeat again the old rules do not matter they are not in force.

Your other claim is also inaccurate. Immigration rules/guides must be read and interpreted as a whole. I explained this to the OP in that thread which you conveniently ignored

indefinite-leave-to-remain/tier-2-set-o ... l#p2027992

My bad! You are right!! Apologies ..... this play of words in immigration rules and guidance is really confusing to some of us!

So while it doesn't spell it out as clearly as it did during the Tier 2 era, it appears that it is still expected for the applicant to provide a letter from the employer certifying "sanctioned / approved absence from work" corresponding to applicant's "absences from UK" if such absences include / involve "working days" (not just public or bank holidays or weekends) even when such absences are less than 180 days (in my parter's case 50-60 days) in a 12 month period . Is my understanding correct?

My advice has always been the same. Get a letter from the sponsor that says all absences from work was authorised by them. Works every single time.

As explained in original post, the problem with my partner's situation is that "absences from work" are less than the "absences from UK"!! So even if she gets a letter from the employer confirming "absences from work", there will still be a uncertified deficit in her "absences from UK"!

And we were wondering if the requirements under the new Skilled Workers route to settlement provide a relief from having to provide a letter from employer confirming "absences from work" since there is no specific requirement in immigration rules for Skilled Workers similar to 245HH(B) in erstwhile Tier 2.

Sorry, Jumping into the discussion. I always get the impression that it is absences from the UK and not only work absences and the reason I feel is every time you go out, you should take approval from the company and the company has to keep UK absences in their records like address of their sponsored employee and the other reason I feel is why immigration bothers about your sick leave or half day paid leave.

phoneafriend wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 15, 2021 6:09 pm

As explained in original post, the problem with my partner's situation is that "absences from work" are less than the "absences from UK"!! So even if she gets a letter from the employer confirming "absences from work", there will still be a uncertified deficit in her "absences from UK"!

And we were wondering if the requirements under the new Skilled Workers route to settlement provide a relief from having to provide a letter from employer confirming "absences from work" since there is no specific requirement in immigration rules for Skilled Workers similar to 245HH(B) in erstwhile Tier 2.

There is NO need for that letter to mention the dates or even be specific. Just has to say what I said above. This is mostly hyper-paranoid overthinking. The rules are not specific at all as repeated several time now

darpan86 wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 16, 2021 12:16 am

Sorry, Jumping into the discussion. I always get the impression that it is absences from the UK and not only work absences and the reason I feel is every time you go out, you should take approval from the company and the company has to keep UK absences in their records like address of their sponsored employee and the other reason I feel is why immigration bothers about your sick leave or half day paid leave.

Impressions do not matter. You need to point out to specific rules