Tier 2 General - Maternity Leave

[kawshik84]

Hi,

My wife is on Tier 2 (General). She is going on her maternity leave from 1st of April. She is entitled to a statutory Maternity leave for 12 months and she wishes to take the entire leave for the period of 12 months.

Question 1. Is she entitled to take 12 months maternity leave?
Question 2. Does this have any impact on her settlement through Tier 2 or Long residency (her 10 years residency completes before 5 years on Tier 2)?

She is also planning to travel back to home country for around 3 months during the period of delivery.

Question 3. Is there a maximum time she is allowed to stay outside the UK (without effecting Tier 2 conditions and without any adverse effect on settlement)?
Question 4. Will there be any problems if she stays outside for over 180 days or is there a certain time limit that she can stay outside for? Of course she will be getting her maternity pay her in the UK and we don't want any problems with settlement or returning to the UK.
Question 5. Does the Home Office need to be notified that she is taking a maternity leave?
Questions 6. Is there anything else pertinent to this situation that we should be aware of?

Thanks,
K

[manci]

when does your wife's current T2G leave expire?

[kawshik84]

It expires in April 2017

[manci]

Statutory maternity leave is 52 weeks made up of ordinary maternity leave (first 26 weeks) and additional maternity leave (last 26 weeks) and your wife is of course entitled to this.

For the purposes of her eventual ILR application:
1.
absences on maternity leave on the 5 year route are treated as any other absence: max 180 days in any 12 month period calculated backwards from the date of the ILR application.
2.
for permitted absences on the long residence (10 year) route see p13:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... e-life.pdf

Her sponsor has to report to the HO within 10 days the reduction in her pay due to maternity leave and if there is a change in her contact details she should make this known to her sponsor immediately

[kawshik84]

Statutory maternity leave is 52 weeks made up of ordinary maternity leave (first 26 weeks) and additional maternity leave (last 26 weeks) and your wife is of course entitled to this.

For the purposes of her eventual ILR application:
1.
absences on maternity leave on the 5 year route are treated as any other absence: max 180 days in any 12 month period calculated backwards from the date of the ILR application.
2.
for permitted absences on the long residence (10 year) route see p13:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... e-life.pdf

Her sponsor has to report to the HO within 10 days the reduction in her pay due to maternity leave and if there is a change in her contact details she should make this known to her sponsor immediately

Thanks for your reply. I had the same understanding from0 reading the guidance. She is is OK to be leaving the country for 3 months without an issue. Her sponsor will definitely notify HO within 10 days of her maternity leave starting.