What is difference between valid, invalid, expired leave?

[lawabidingimmigrant]

Dear members,

Pls help clarify the below terms.

Valid, invalid, expired leave

Let's say you quit your job in country & travel during curtailment period out of country & apply for new employment on Tier 2 (General) in 60 days after conclusion of your previous employment. (Before cooling off period was introduced)

If you have around 3 months left on your curtailed leave, what is the status of your curtailed leave if you travel out of country during curtailment period - Is it a valid leave, invalid leave or expired leave ?

This will help me understand the below clause better:

Page 27/31 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... eriods.pdf

"The continuous period is maintained if the:

. applicant leaves the UK without valid leave, but re-enters with new entry clearance within 28 days of their leave expiry date"

In this case "leave expiry date" should be the date mentioned on the "Variation of Leave" (Curtailment letter) received from Home Office isn't it?

Or "Leave expiry date" is the date when you travel out of country during curtailment period? Pls clarify.

Thanks for looking.

[Frontier Mole]

If you leave the country while under the sixty day curtailment period your leave terminates at the point you leave the UK.
Your cooling off period would start on that date too.

You wont have 3 months curtailment as you suggest the max is 60 days.

[lawabidingimmigrant]

Just spoke to Croydon Contact Centre this morning.

Got the clarification I needed. As per the advisor, I have travelled outside the UK on a valid leave.

Page 27/31

"applicant leaves the UK without valid leave, but re-enters with new entry clearance within 28 days of their leave expiry date" -
Above clause is for visa overstayers as per him & not applicable to me.

Visa expiry date is the date on the curtailment letter.

Below clause is partially applicable:

"applicant leaves the UK with valid leave and re-enters the UK whilst that leave
remains valid, provided the absence(s) do not exceed 180 days in a relevant 12
month period."

As per the advisor, previous visa only gets invalidated on the day new entry clearance visa is issued which is automatically done when new visa is issued but since my curtailed leave had not expired and the total absence did not exceed 180 day limit in my case, this absence will be disregarded for calculating continuous period towards ILR.

He did put me on hold two times and got all the clarification himself.

There was no cooling off period applicable at the time I changed the employers. Hope this helps.

[Frontier Mole]

So you are outside the UK at the moment and changed employers?

[lawabidingimmigrant]

So you are outside the UK at the moment and changed employers?

No not now, this was way back in 2011-12. I'm planning to apply for my ILR next month. So just trying to ensure continuity was not broken when I changed jobs & ILR does not get rejected. Keeping fingers crossed.

[Frontier Mole]

Ok - perhaps you should have mentioned that.....
Good luck with your ILR application.

[lawabidingimmigrant]

Ok - perhaps you should have mentioned that.....
Good luck with your ILR application.

Thank you so much. I really hope things work out well with my ILR application next month.

I've got contradictory information from Business Helpdesk & Croydon Contact Centre on leave lapse as per Article 13(3) of the Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) Order 2000 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2000 ... le/13/made . Business Helpdesk says Article 13(3) applies to me from 1st Nov 2011 while Croydon Centre strongly disagrees & mentioned Article 13(3) applies after curtailment decision was made on 20th Dec 2011.

Strangely my curtailment letter issued on 20th Dec 2011 does not mention anything about Article 13(3) that now has to be included to warn migrant about travelling outside UK during curtailment period as per Page 145 in link below https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... .0_EXT.pdf

Croydon Contact Centre mentioned to me that till the curtailment decision was made by Secretary of State, Article 13(2) continued to apply to me (non lapsing leave). Existing Leave to Remain cannot lapse immediately under Article 13(3) just because you were required to travel outside UK unless your passport was marked with Leave REVOKED when leaving the UK which was not marked on my passport or Secretary of State gave you a notice in writing that leave was curtailed.

So as per them I have not broken continuous period for ILR during change of employment as I left UK with valid leave to remain (before decision was made to curtail leave) & applied for new employment within 28 days of previous leave expiry as below.

End of first employment: 21/10/2011
Travelled outside UK: 01/11/2011 with valid Leave to Remain till 30/04/2013 (Article 13(2) continues to apply)
New Restricted CoS issued: 15/12/2011
Curtailment decision made on: 20/12/2011 (As per Croydon Office, Article 13(3) applies from this date since I was outside UK)
Curtailed Leave expiry date: 18/02/2012
New entry clearance application: 21/12/2011 (< 28 days from leave expiry which should be 20th Dec 2011 as per Croydon Office)
New entry clearance granted: 17/01/2012
Re-entered UK: 11/02/2012 (7 days before curtailed leave expiry date 18/02/2012

As per them, I've maintained continuous period as documented in
Page 27/31 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... eriods.pdf

"If the applicant’s leave expires (in my case it got lapsed on 20th Dec 2011 when curtailment decision was made & I was outside UK) whilst they are outside the UK and they apply for entry clearance within 28 days (I applied for new entry clearance on 21st Dec 2011 which is less than 28 days from leave expiry), the applicant’s continuous period is not broken. In this circumstance, if they successfully get a new grant of entry clearance (granted on 17/01/2012), the period spent outside of the UK will count towards the 180 days allowable absence (My total absence during this time is 101 days < 180 days). "

Hoping for the best with my ILR application next month.

[manci]

Your employment terminated on 21 Oct 11, you left the UK on 1 Nov 11 and your leave was curtailed to 60 days on 20 Dec 11. You applied for new T2G entry clearance on 21 Dec 11.

Your sponsor had to report the termination to UKVI within 10 working days. if you had attempted to re-enter the UK after UKVI was informed of the termination, and they entered it on the system (which Border Force Officers have access to), you would have been denied entry even before the date of the curtailment decision. This is probably what the business helpdesk meant.

IMHO this change of employment doesn't make you ineligible for ILR provided you meet all other requirements.

[lawabidingimmigrant]

IMHO this change of employment doesn't make you ineligible for ILR provided you meet all other requirements.

Thanks so much Manci for the re-assurance.