CoS assigned with wrong subcategory - help!

[Glady09]

Could you please share how things turned out eventually?

My Employer has also issued a COS under the wrong subcategory. Would you advise that I can still apply for the Skilled worker visa (switching from graduate route) and the Home office will contact the company regarding the ISC

[Affeti]

Hi there,
May I please know the current status of your application? It will greatly help to understand the timeline of the process. Thanks a lot.

As for my application, the HO contacted my employer and asked to pay the ISC as we chose the wrong subcategory. My employer paid it immediately, and the application is still under process. I know that when errors like this delay the decision making process. It's been about 2 months since my submitted my application, and about 4 and half weeks since the ISC was paid. Crossing my fingers.

[Affeti]

Hi there,
May I please know the current status of your application? It will greatly help to understand the timeline of the process. Thanks a lot.

As for my application, the HO contacted my employer and asked to pay the ISC as we chose the wrong subcategory. My employer paid it immediately, and the application is still under process. I know that when errors like this delay the decision making process. It's been about 2 months since my submitted my application, and about 4 and half weeks since the ISC was paid. Crossing my fingers.

Hi Guys, could you please let me know if your visa was approved? Thanks a lot!

[AddyL]

Hello everyone, my case is similar but a bit more complex to what have been reading from here. My employer issued me with wrong subcategory visa. I submitted my application without realising the mistake. HO contacted my employer for ISC, mind you, my employer intend to sponsor me for 5 years initially as they believed I’m exempted from ISC. When HO contacted my employer and they realised that they need to pay ISC, my employer want to reduce the years from 5 years to 2 because they can’t pay ISC for 5 years. I called the HO to seek advice on this issue but their helpline is not helpful. My employer has added sponsor note on my CoS thru SMS explaining to HO that they made a mistake with the subcategory and they want the end date change to 2 years so they can pay ISC for 2 years. At the moment we are waiting for HO to response if this is acceptable or I might need to apply for a new visa with a new CoS. Anyone with ideas should advise me on this please.

[Frontier Mole]

You will need to find another way to contact the Home Office. Placing information onto the notes of a COS after the visa application has been submitted is not going to readily work.
Caseworkers do not refer back to the COS once it has been examined initially.

[AddyL]

I really appreciate your response Frontier Mole, I have however do the following after my sponsor add the sponsor note.

A). I contacted an immigration Lawyer and he advised that I should write a letter (he helped me write the letter) and include it in my application via evidence uploading section.

B). I have uploaded the letter along with a copy of my updated CoS (the one with sponsor note as my sponsor provided me with a copy after including the sponsor note).

Do you think this will work or there’s another thing I need to do. Your advise is greatly appreciated…..Thank you

[Frontier Mole]

I think you have taken reasonable steps to address the position however through no fault of your own I have a feeling they will reject your application or worse still refuse it. The original COS can not be readily amended in the way your sponsor is attempting to do so. Fingers crossed they accept the notes and allow the changes.
I hope it works out.

[AddyL]

Thank you Frontier Mole for your prompt response. I’ll like to ask this follow up questions. How do you think my sponsor can address this with HO…Your reply is greatly appreciated

[Frontier Mole]

The sensible and pragmatic way would be to withdraw your application and get a new COS - however that might come with serious drawbacks and consequences.
The things that should be considered include
When does your current visa expire
Does your sponsor have another COS in hand
If you are already beyond your visa expiry date withdrawal of your application will leave you basically without leave and no real way to pull back from there.
If you still have valid leave and your sponsor has a COS in hand then you should perhaps go for the withdrawal.

[Frontier Mole]

If the worst of all things apply - your visa has expired and your employer does not has a spare COS - best to let it play out

[AddyL]

Thank you very much Frontier Mole…On my Graduate visa I still got over a year on it. I accepted the cos from my company because of the new UK policy on dependant. My fear now is that if I withdraw my application and apply for new one my visa will not longer be cover on the visa as HO will treat it as a fresh application after 11th of March….Thank you

[CR001]

Thank you very much Frontier Mole…On my Graduate visa I still got over a year on it. I accepted the cos from my company because of the new UK policy on dependant. My fear now is that if I withdraw my application and apply for new one my visa will not longer be cover on the visa as HO will treat it as a fresh application after 11th of March….Thank you

Is your sponsored job in the care sector?

[AddyL]

Yes, my sponsored job is care

[Frontier Mole]

Given all the changes and increase in salary threshold you really don’t have an option but to try every single thing to get this application to work for you.

[AddyL]

Thank you

[Frontier Mole]

On the up side if it gets refused or rejected you still have time in hand with your remaining time on the graduate visa.
Wishing you all the best.

[thecatsaysmew]

Hi everyone,

Apologies for the delay in updating this thread as I had some trouble trying to log back in.

To answer most of the questions since I had last updated - the HO contacted my sponsor for the ISC, did not ask us to make any other changes, and just took much longer to make a decision. After the delayed payment of the ISC, it took almost two months but my Skilled Worker was granted.

So for all those who are worried about the sponsor choosing the wrong category at the time of application: IF and ONLY IF you don't have enough time to wait to withdraw and issue a new CoS, best is to do nothing and wait for HO to contact you. In most cases, the HO will see the wrong category and just provide you with the link to pay the ISC later. Then, the decision will take longer to arrive, but it will come.

Really hope this helps - and remember if you're switching over from the Graduate to the Skilled Worker, the category is Skilled Worker (ISC liable)! Tell everyone you know!

[Frontier Mole]

Glad you got through all the hassle and congratulations

[vinay_kp]

My situation is exactly the same as you except that I have submitted the application with the CoS with wrong tier category.

Hi, thank you so much for sharing your situation! I am so glad to hear that HO contacted the sponsor about the ISC and the ISC was paid. I also went ahead and submitted my application. Since I am in the UK and applied a few months before my current visa expires, I know that the decision can be delayed for a long as it needs to be and I will still retain my right to work etc. Thankfully I don’t have any travel plans ahead - hopefully you get yours on time. Thanks also for providing the timeline of how long you’ve been waiting. UKVI helpline was quite unhelpful for my sponsor as well because they kept saying we need to get another undefined CoS which can take up to 18 weeks to be granted!! With the graduate visa also being such a new thing, I think it’s important they remove the word “graduate” from the switching immigration category to avoid confusion.

Hi, is there any update with your situation? I am currently in the same situation.

[AddyL]

Hello Everyone,
I’d like to update everyone about the outcome of my visa. HO granted my visa after my company added the sponsor note on my cos (note: this was after I have submitted my visa application) that they want to reduce the years from 5 years to 2 years as they realised that they need to pay ISC and they can’t pay for the ISC for 5 years at the moment. However, before the visa was granted I did some underground work. First I uploaded a cover letter to my application informing the HO that both I and my company realised that the category we chose is wrong and the visa will now be for 2years and not 5 years as the company wanted to pay for 2 years ISC (note: this letter was drafted by an immigration lawyer).

Secondly, my company also call their help line and explained the mistake and the steps that have been taken.

Lastly, After the 8weeks that I submitted my visa application, I got an updated email from HO that they can’t decide on my visa as they’re waiting for my sponsor to pay ISC. I contacted my company and told them about the email from HO. My company checked their email and told me they’ve not received and link to pay from HO. So I went online to read about people that has encountered same issue. I then found out that there’s an email I can contact for the HO to send a new link to my company to pay the ISC for 2 years instead of 5 years I initially applied for. So I email the contact and explained everything that happened: from my company selecting a wrong subcategory, to how they decide to reduce the years because they don’t want to pay 5 years ISC. After I sent the email, I got a response after about 2 hours that the new link will be sent for my company to make payment for 2 years ISC. The new link was sent after 3 working days and my company pay the ISC. Two days after the payment was made I got a decision on my visa that it has been granted. I hope this help someone else too.

Two important thing I learnt is that you can use sponsor note to change/correct error even after you’ve submit your visa. As long as the CoS has not changed to used on SMS the sponsor note still work.

Also once you’ve realised there’s an error on your visa you can upload a cover letter to inform the HO about the issue. But this most be done in a formal way, I believed when you upload a letter the HO will hold on for a while to allow you to make the needed corrections before deciding on your application.