Urgent advice needed - 15 days left on visa

[hayat2014]

Hello

I am on Tier 2 General Visa expiring on 01 of September 2014.
My sponsor company "X" was taken over by another company "Y". Both companies have Tier 2 General A Rating Licence.

Company "Y" applied to home office change of circumtances mentioning X is taken over by them. Home office after few days requested some more documents (Sale Purchase Agreement, Solicitor letter etc). These documents have been sent to home office.

My visa is expiring in 15 days and i have no clue what should i be doing other than waiting? i am not sure if the home office will make the decision in time then my sponsor apply for new COS and assign me.

I want to ask you guys what are my options now to be on the safe said and do not overstay my visa.

Thanks in advance

[FaeLLe]

If you have an application pending your residence period will not be broken.
But if for some reason your application is refuse you are in trouble and will have to leave the country.

[hayat2014]

Dont have application pending, still need to apply but waiting for the homeoffice to process the documents sent by my sponsor. Any other advice on what can i do can I apply without COS number?

[manci]

Wait for the time being, but if the matter is not resolved between Company Y and the HO by Friday 29 August suggest you submit a grant of leave application by recorded or special delivery on Saturday 30 August without a CoS number, explain the circumstances in a covering letter and ask the HO to hold your application until a CoS is assigned. This is assuming that your role (job SOC code) remains the same after the takeover.

[Frontier Mole]

Get your current company to issue a COS for your extention as if there were no change in circumstances. Until the merger / takeover is confirmed by UKVI the licence remains valid and active.
As both companies hold a licence thar will happen at the confirmation of merger / takeover is that your existing company tier 2 staff will be btought into the new company licence under TUPE.
In essence your existing company licence will become dormant and the new company licence will assume responsibility for the tier2,s. There is no need for further COS to move to the new company.
Hope that helps.

[hayat2014]

Thank you for the reply, much appreciated.

I will get my original company to issue a COS and I will apply on 29th August via post special delivery. Hope the COS should be issued without problem we do have allocation of non restricted cos which is unused so just matter of filling the form and generating the number.

I am thinking to mention about the merger in a cover letter. so that UKVI are aware in case it happens (approved by UKVI) while the application is under process.

Is there any think else in this regards that I should make them aware of?

Kind Regards

[Frontier Mole]

The cover letter is fine. There is nothing else apart from the usual application requirements.
Good Luck

[hayat2014]

Hi,
Thought i give you update and also have a question.

Home office approved the merger this is what they emailed:

Thank you for your change of circumstances request in relation to the transfer
of sponsored migrants from Company X to Company Y following an acquisition.

We have now approved this request and the relevant team has been contacted to
update the below migrants leave to remain to Capita Secure Information
Solutions Ltd. Please ensure that you retain a copy of this letter for your
records.

Unfortunately the new sponsor did not have any CoS allocation left, they requested it same day and asked home office to process it on priority with a copy of my visa.

I have in the mean time sent my application with 2 dependents 28 of August without CoS with cover letter explain the situation.

Home office approved the request for addition CoS and my sponsor assigned it to me. which i have sent to home office via the Migrant change of circumtances form.

Only problem with the certificate of sponsorship is the work start date stated on it is 04-09-2014 and 04-09-2017. so there is a gap of 3 days between two CoS will it be a problem when processing my current application? or in future when in June Next year i will apply for ILR based on 10 year long residence?.

[Frontier Mole]

There is not going to be a problem.
You can not back date a COS hence they put today's date.
One question has the salary been checked to ensure it meets the experienced rate is met.

[hayat2014]

hi

Yes we did check it . we have these: ( we used the conversion table to convert SOC). does it look correct to you?


New Cos
Job Title: QA Manager
Job Type: 2133 IT SPECIALIST MANAGERS
Gross pay in pound sterling: 40000.00 For each: Year
Total Weekly hours of work: 39



Previous CoS
Job title: QA MANAGER
Job type: 1136 Managers, information and communication technology
Gross pay in pound sterling: 27300.00 For each: Year
Total Weekly hours of work: 39

[Frontier Mole]

All good. You should be fine.

[FaeLLe]

Congratulations mate, I would have been really tensed so can picture what you went through...

[hayat2014]

Thank you all , I got visa approval letter on Saturday 1 November 2014, please see my timeline here
http://www.immigrationboards.com/uk-tie ... l#p1106122

[hammjav]

I am glad to see that everything worked out perfect for you.

Well I am going through kind of similar situation. Let me tell you the background first.

I am currently on Tier 4 visa, before 31/12/2011 I had 20 working hours and I used to work for an accountancy practice (Till 31/12/2011). Now I have completed my masters and that same accountancy practice wants to hire me. They holds Tier 2 (General) A rated sponsor license but the problem is my current Tier 4 visa is expiring on 05/01/2015 and they have just applied for renewal of COS allocation (On 07/11/2014). Home office told them on the helpline that it can take upto 6-7 Weeks but considering the christmas holidays it might take longer.

Can anyone please guide me what is the best way to speed up the process of COS allocation??

[manci]

[quote="hammjav"]I am glad to see that everything worked out perfect for you.

Well I am going through kind of similar situation. Let me tell you the background first.

I am currently on Tier 4 visa, before 31/12/2011 I had 20 working hours and I used to work for an accountancy practice (Till 31/12/2011). Now I have completed my masters and that same accountancy practice wants to hire me. They holds Tier 2 (General) A rated sponsor license but the problem is my current Tier 4 visa is expiring on 05/01/2015 and they have just applied for renewal of COS allocation (On 07/11/2014). Home office told them on the helpline that it can take upto 6-7 Weeks but considering the christmas holidays it might take longer.

Can anyone please guide me what is the best way to speed up the process of COS allocation?
if they applied for an increase in their unrestricted CoS allocation that doesn't normally take 6-7 weeks, Ask them to check again or you can check yourself by phoning 0300 123 4699.[/quote]

[hammjav]

Thank you manci for replying so quick.

They have not applied for COS increase, their COS Allocation was expired somewhere in 2012 as per their SMS. Now they have applied for renewal of COS allocation. I myself called them yesterday home office told me that COS allocation increase request is currently taking around 5 week and COS allocation renewals is currently taking 6-7 weeks.

As of 10/11/2014 Home office was dealing with COS allocation renewal requests made on 25/09/2014.

Please advise..

[manci]

Thank you manci for replying so quick.

They have not applied for COS increase, their COS Allocation was expired somewhere in 2012 as per their SMS. Now they have applied for renewal of COS allocation. I myself called them yesterday home office told me that COS allocation increase request is currently taking around 5 week and COS allocation renewals is currently taking 6-7 weeks.

As of 10/11/2014 Home office was dealing with COS allocation renewal requests made on 25/09/2014.

Please advise.
Unrestricted CoS allocations are only given for 1 year (April to April). If they don't have any allocation for the current year they have to apply for an increase from zero to some number via the SMS. There is no such thing as CoS renewal (only licence renewal every 4 years).

[manci]

Thank you manci for replying so quick.

They have not applied for COS increase, their COS Allocation was expired somewhere in 2012 as per their SMS. Now they have applied for renewal of COS allocation. I myself called them yesterday home office told me that COS allocation increase request is currently taking around 5 week and COS allocation renewals is currently taking 6-7 weeks.

As of 10/11/2014 Home office was dealing with COS allocation renewal requests made on 25/09/2014.

Please advise.
Unrestricted CoS allocations are applied for and given only for 1 year (April to April). If they don't have any allocation for the current year they have to apply for an increase from zero to some number via the SMS.

[hammjav]

I think I must have missunderstood them, I will call them again today and get back to you.

Thank you so much for your help.