Immigrationboards.com

I want to get some help as I am not sure what to do. My case is pretty straight forward but the timing is giving me some concerns.

I am looking in to applying for permanent residency. I have been in the UK since 11 Aug 2000. I was a student for 5 years and since Sept 2005 I have been in employment on work permit (work permit visa stamped 26 Oct 2005). On 11 Feb 2008 I switched my employer and another work permit (+visa) was issued by the new employer and I have been in this employment since then.

Now I have got a new job offer and the new company wants me to apply for residency instead of getting work permit for me. However, they also want me to start as soon as possible. So they want me to apply for residency on 29th Sept which is the earliest I can apply for a same day service but also want me to give my resignation on 1st Sept to serve my 1 month notice period to the current employer so that I can start the new employment on 1 Oct.

So in short:
Resign from my current employment: 1 Sep
Apply for residencey: 29th Sep
Start the new job: 1 Oct

So I want to get some advice as to what should be my course of action and whether its ok to give resignation to the current employer before applying for the residency.

1 - Get Employer's letter before giving them 1 month notice. Cross your fingures on appointment day. If case worker needs any confirmation from your employer than you will be in trouble. Do not forget you are Work Permit holder until you get ILR stamp on your passport and Workpermit holders are not eligible to leave employment in this way. Are you confident that you will get same day appointment on 29th?

2 - Can you not book 3 weeks holidays with your old employer starting from 4th Oct and once you get ILR give them notice and joine new employer.

Last advice - ILR is more important than new job (I think). You have waited 5 years for this day. Make sure it goes as smooth as possible.

Thank you Sky_High for the reply.

1. I have contracted an immigration advisor for the application and they are going to apply on 29th Sep. I understand that If the case worker needs confirmation from the employer then I will be in trouble. For this reason, immigration advisor has suggested that I get the letter from the employer dated no later than 15th Sep. So my options are to either get the letter before resigning and ask them to post date it if they can, or try to convince them after resigning not to write my last date which will be 30th Sept. Technically I will still be their employee on 15th Sep. But I was reading guidelines for employers and I read about sponsorship management system which apparently employers use to inform HO about any changes but couldnt find as to when does the employer inform about the change, when someone resigns or after the person has left the company?

2. I haven't got that many holidays left for this year and once I resign then they may decide to cancel my holidays and pay for the entitled holidays left instead.

If this fails then the other option I have got left (I think) is to apply for Tier 1 (General) as I can get enough points. But I dont want to pay for Tier 1 if I can get ILR.

Just get your ILR first so that you are secure ... your new employer will wait. Most new employer says the same thing i.e. start as soon as possible. Trust me if you say u will join 2-3 weeks later they will agree ... so dont worry just get ILR before resigning ... tier 1 also takes time so thats no good and waste of money in ur case ....