ILR Continuous Period/Tier 1 General/IT Contractor

[AndreyR]

Hello,

I'm an IT contractor (employed as a director with my own limited company, own 51% of shares), get my income through small salary and dividends. I'm on Tier 1 General route (entry clearance was granted in Sep 2010, entered the country in Jan 2011). I successfully extended the visa twice as salaried worker (submitted payslips, dividevd vouchers as well as a letter from accountants as employment evidence).

I'm going to apply for ILR in Jan 2016.

During 5 years I spent 359 whole days outside the UK - 71,72,55,77 and 84 per year. According to this document I'm fine with 180 days a year rule, but my annual absenses are in excess of 30 days, so I'm not compliant with the following:

Interim caseworker action – missing evidence

If an applicant is required to provide specified documents from their employer explaining their absences and fails to do this, and the absences do not exceed 30 working days plus statutory public holidays per annum (for example, such absences are likely to be consistent with paid annual leave), you can choose, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, to consider the application without this documentation.

All these absenses were about travelling and visiting my family/friends. They are composed from weekends/extended weekends as well as longer trips (the longest is around 30 days). If I exclude weekends (as per the guideline, longer trips will still sum up to more than 30 days a year). I've got stamped passports and all e-tickets saved, but this is pretty much all I have as evidence.

Q16 in the FAQ doesn't cover this case and even confuses me more:

absences must be for reasons connected with the applicant’s purpose for being in the UK

What kind of evidence should I provide? Has anyone got a successful application in similar conditions?

Andrey

[geriatrix]

Q16 also tells you to read 245CD-SD.
Read (b) and (c).

[AndreyR]

Q16 also tells you to read 245CD-SD.
Read (b) and (c).

Thanks for pointing this out.

245CD-SD Specified documents

The specified documents referred to in paragraph 245CD(j) are:
(a) For periods where the applicant was in employment in the UK, a letter from the employer detailing the purpose and period of absences in connection with the employment, including periods of annual leave.

Is it applicable or not? Technically, I was in employment in the UK. Do I need a letter from my limited company signed by me or my accountants?

(b) For periods where the applicant was self-employed or in business in the UK, or looking for work or setting up in business in the UK, a personal letter from the applicant detailing the purpose and period of absences in relation to those activities.

If "running own limited company" is included in "in business in the UK", this is clear.

(c) A personal letter from the applicant which includes full details of the reason for the absences and all original 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.

Questions are still here:
1. What are "original supporting documents" for travelling? Tickets? Boadring passes? Hotel bookings? Car rentals? Event tickets? Which is the minimal set of them (e.g. do I need car rentals?) Should I submit stamped passport(s)? All travel documents are electronic nowadays - I don't have any paper. Are electronic tickets still considered to be "original"?
2. What about family/friends visits (or combined trips)? I've got only flight e-tickets.
3. What if some of documents are not in English?
4. Do Crown Dependencies (Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man) and overseas territories (Gibraltar) count as absence?
5. Do I need to ask UK Border Agency for evidence they have? I don't think all stamps in my passport are readable enough to be a proof.
6. I've got around 60 trips during 5 years. Do they really want docs on all of them?

[jhm3]

Q16 also tells you to read 245CD-SD.
Read (b) and (c).

Thanks for pointing this out.

245CD-SD Specified documents

The specified documents referred to in paragraph 245CD(j) are:

(c) A personal letter from the applicant which includes full details of the reason for the absences and all original 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.

Questions are still here:
1. What are "original supporting documents" for travelling? Tickets? Boadring passes? Hotel bookings? Car rentals? Event tickets? Which is the minimal set of them (e.g. do I need car rentals?) Should I submit stamped passport(s)? All travel documents are electronic nowadays - I don't have any paper. Are electronic tickets still considered to be "original"?
2. What about family/friends visits (or combined trips)? I've got only flight e-tickets.
3. What if some of documents are not in English?
4. Do Crown Dependencies (Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man) and overseas territories (Gibraltar) count as absence?
5. Do I need to ask UK Border Agency for evidence they have? I don't think all stamps in my passport are readable enough to be a proof.
6. I've got around 60 trips during 5 years. Do they really want docs on all of them?

I agree this isn't clear, but my reading is that 245CD-SD (c) -- the bit about "original supporting documents" -- is meant to cover cases in which an applicant is justifying an absence or absences as being for "serious and compelling reasons" as opposed to having been "consistent with the applicant’s basis of stay." (Acceptable absences must fall into one of these two categories under section 245AAA of the Immigration Rules.) My reading is that if an absence is "consistent with the applicant's basis of stay" (including annual leave), a letter saying so, as specified in 245CD-SD (a) or (b) will be sufficient, but if it is claimed that an absence was for "serious and compelling reasons" (e.g., the illness or death of a family member, the birth of a child), then you would need to submit the relevant birth or death certificate or similar evidence to document that claim. That's why the examples given in 245CD-SD (c) are "medical certificates, birth/death certificates," etc.; it's not that they want to see all your boarding passes and hotel receipts for every single trip.