new form - evidence for unpaid leave?

[thatsy]

"You have stated you were out of the UK in order to terminate your employment in your country of origin, therefore, this absence was not related to your employment in the UK.."

I wonder if you'd got a different response had you said you went back on holiday or to be with family & friends. Worth a try.

Sorry I didn't realize the thread had moved on and others had suggested the same.

[humanvoid]

I wonder if you'd got a different response had you said you went back on holiday or to be with family & friends. Worth a try.

Yes, I guess it is better than saying employed but still leaves enough room for speculation.

[M2008]

Please give email of settlements team

[humanvoid]

Please give email of settlements team

Here is it:

SettlementOpsPolicy@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

[gaboon_viper]

hi

please help i am very very confused

i took 2 months in feb08 and 2.5 months in april12. total 126 days out in 5 years.

i am on tier1 general. i am due in Feb13. self employed director

do i need to show some proff. or just write dates and reason... holidays, family.

your help will be greatly appreciated

thanks

[M2008]

Please give email of settlements team

Here is it:

SettlementOpsPolicy@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

I have Send email to above ID as below, does it make sense?

I will put reply from home office

Hi Support,
Could you please clarify below rule regarding calculating continues period for Tier 1(General) category who are applying for ILR from 13th Dec 2012

Rule say for Tier 1 (general)
Absences must be for reasons connected with the applicant’s purpose for being in the UK or for serious or compelling compassionate reasons. Evidence, as specified above, must be provided for compelling or compassionate reasons only

Please provide answers for below Tier 1 (general) applicant’s scenarios.

1) What are types of Absences related to applicant’s purpose for being in the UK?
2) Does absence due to holiday breaks continues period in UK?
3) Does absence due to visiting family outside UK breaks continues period in UK?
4) Does absence due to holiday along with unpaid leaves breaks continuous period in UK?
5) Does absence due to after loss of Job and going on holiday or visiting family outside UK for period of 60 days breaks continues period in UK?
6) What are the reasons for absences may breaks continuous period in UK?
7) What are reasons which are NOT ‘compelling or compassionate reasons’
As per definition of tier 1 (general) “The Tier 1 (General) category allows highly skilled people to look for work or self-employment opportunities in the UK. Tier 1 (General) migrants can seek employment in the UK without a sponsor, and can take up self-employment and business opportunities here” -> As per new rule does tier 1(general) migrants can only be absence from UK for compelling or compassionate reasons only?

[gaboon_viper]

very confusing i had 126 days out on tier1 general. i am self employed.

any comments

thanks

[humanvoid]

I have Send email to above ID as below, does it make sense?

I will put reply from home office

Hi Support,
Could you please clarify below rule regarding calculating continues period for Tier 1(General) category who are applying for ILR from 13th Dec 2012

Rule say for Tier 1 (general)
Absences must be for reasons connected with the applicant’s purpose for being in the UK or for serious or compelling compassionate reasons. Evidence, as specified above, must be provided for compelling or compassionate reasons only

Please provide answers for below Tier 1 (general) applicant’s scenarios.

1) What are types of Absences related to applicant’s purpose for being in the UK?
2) Does absence due to holiday breaks continues period in UK?
3) Does absence due to visiting family outside UK breaks continues period in UK?
4) Does absence due to holiday along with unpaid leaves breaks continuous period in UK?
5) Does absence due to after loss of Job and going on holiday or visiting family outside UK for period of 60 days breaks continues period in UK?
6) What are the reasons for absences may breaks continuous period in UK?
7) What are reasons which are NOT ‘compelling or compassionate reasons’
As per definition of tier 1 (general) “The Tier 1 (General) category allows highly skilled people to look for work or self-employment opportunities in the UK. Tier 1 (General) migrants can seek employment in the UK without a sponsor, and can take up self-employment and business opportunities here” -> As per new rule does tier 1(general) migrants can only be absence from UK for compelling or compassionate reasons only?

Looks pretty good, especially the last question, but I do not expect them to explain or at least give examples for what sort of absences are ok for Tier1 General. It is a common wording, very broad and open to multiple interpretations, not like with compelling or compassionate reasons where they give some ideas to people.
It seems to me they just want to treat Tier1 General same as Tier2 migrants.

Thank you for helping out with this. I am sure there are lots of Tier1 Generals desperately waiting for some resolution.

[M2008]

Got Reply from Home office

Dear Sir,

Details of all absences from the UK must be provided on the SET (O) application form, and must have resulted from either business reasons, or for compelling or compassionate reasons.

Tier 1 migrants do no need to provide a letter from their employer regarding the business related absences, as many Tier 1 migrants are self-employed. They must however provide the specified evidence of absences that were for compelling or compassionate reasons. These would be varied, but examples would be natural disaster, preventing travel following a holiday, or the death of a close relative.

Absences due to annual leave would be covered by the policy, but absences of unpaid leave would need to fully explained and would not necessarily be disregarded. This would be a decision for the caseworker to make, given the explanation of the absence.

Absences due to the applicant travelling to see family and friends whilst unemployed would break the continuous period for ILR, as they are not work-related or for compelling or compassionate reasons.

I trust this clarifies the situation.

[humanvoid]

Got Reply from Home office

Dear Sir,

Details of all absences from the UK must be provided on the SET (O) application form, and must have resulted from either business reasons, or for compelling or compassionate reasons.

Tier 1 migrants do no need to provide a letter from their employer regarding the business related absences, as many Tier 1 migrants are self-employed. They must however provide the specified evidence of absences that were for compelling or compassionate reasons. These would be varied, but examples would be natural disaster, preventing travel following a holiday, or the death of a close relative.

Absences due to annual leave would be covered by the policy, but absences of unpaid leave would need to fully explained and would not necessarily be disregarded. This would be a decision for the caseworker to make, given the explanation of the absence.

Absences due to the applicant travelling to see family and friends whilst unemployed would break the continuous period for ILR, as they are not work-related or for compelling or compassionate reasons.

I trust this clarifies the situation.

Thanks M2008 for posting reply, looks like with new changes, they will be treating Tier1G as Tier2, which is not quite legitimate as there is nothing like this in immigration rules. It is just their guidance which must be based on immigration law.
So Tier1Gs need to come up with some pretty good reasons and explanations but still will be at the mercy of CW.
I think it is a good case for debate.

[cs95tdg]

Got Reply from Home office

Dear Sir,

Details of all absences from the UK must be provided on the SET (O) application form, and must have resulted from either business reasons, or for compelling or compassionate reasons.

Tier 1 migrants do no need to provide a letter from their employer regarding the business related absences, as many Tier 1 migrants are self-employed. They must however provide the specified evidence of absences that were for compelling or compassionate reasons. These would be varied, but examples would be natural disaster, preventing travel following a holiday, or the death of a close relative.

Absences due to annual leave would be covered by the policy, but absences of unpaid leave would need to fully explained and would not necessarily be disregarded. This would be a decision for the caseworker to make, given the explanation of the absence.

Absences due to the applicant travelling to see family and friends whilst unemployed would break the continuous period for ILR, as they are not work-related or for compelling or compassionate reasons.

I trust this clarifies the situation.

This response indicates that Tier 1 General applicants who are self-employed (I.e. do not get annual leave, but take unpaid holidays in-between contracts to visit family/friends etc...) would almost certainly break their continuous residence required for ILR. Bad news indeed!

[M2008]

Absences due to the applicant travelling to see family and friends whilst unemployed would break the continuous period for ILR, as they are not work-related or for compelling or compassionate reasons.

-> unemployed means no work....how can they say 'as they are not work-related '

I like reply for home office email and ask furthur questions....please give your questions and feedback

[1up2down]

After reading reply from UKBA,my understanding is...if you are on T1 General & been outside the UK whilst unemployed (apart for compelling or compassionate reasons) you would break the ILR continous requirement.

It would be helpful if people who had PEO appointments under T1G in the above category after 14/Dec/12 to share their experience!

[Bildor]

I strongly believe that there is a conflict between the guidnace and the immigration rules.


http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... es/part6a/

Part 6A (255AAA) section a& b clearly states that :


(a) "continuous period of 5 years lawfully in the UK" means residence in the United Kingdom for an unbroken period with valid leave, and for these purposes a period shall not be considered to have been broken where:

(i) the applicant has been absent from the UK for a period of 180 days or less in any of the five consecutive 12 month periods preceding the date of the application for leave to remain;

(ii) the applicant has existing limited leave to enter or remain upon their departure and return except that where that leave expired no more than 28 days prior to a further application for entry clearance, that period and any period pending the determination of an application made within that 28 day period shall be disregarded; and

(iii) the applicant has any period of overstaying between periods of entry clearance, leave to enter or leave to remain of up to 28 days and any period of overstaying pending the determination of an application made within that 28 day period disregarded.



(b) Except for periods when the applicant had leave as a Tier 1 (General) Migrant, a Tier 1 (Investor) Migrant, a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) Migrant, a Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) Migrant, a highly skilled migrant, a businessperson, an innovator, an investor, a self-employed lawyer or a writer, composer or artist:

(i) the applicant must have been employed in the UK continuously throughout the five years, under the terms of their Certificate of Sponsorship, work permit or in the employment for which they were given leave to enter or remain, except that any breaks in employment in which they applied for leave as a Tier 2 Migrant, or, under Tier 5 Temporary Worker (International Agreement) Migrant as a private servant in a diplomatic household, where in the latter case they applied to enter the UK before 6 April 2012, to work for a new employer shall be disregarded, provided this is within 60 days of the end of their employment with their previous employer or Sponsor; and

(ii) any absences from the UK during the five years must have been for a purpose that is consistent with the continuous employment in (i), including paid annual leave or for serious or compelling reasons.

Please correct me if i am wrong but doesnt this mean that for Tier 1 Gerneral, as long as your absence does not exceed 180 days in any calender year, continuous 5yr period is not broken (a) ; and absence does not have to be consistent with purpose for being in the UK (b)

[M2008]

Moved to new topic to get more views

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... 279#751279

[cs95tdg]

Please correct me if i am wrong but doesnt this mean that for Tier 1 Gerneral, as long as your absence does not exceed 180 days in any calender year, continuous 5yr period is not broken (a) ; and absence does not have to be consistent with purpose for being in the UK (b)

(b) Except for periods when the applicant had leave as a Tier 1 (General) Migrant, a Tier 1 (Investor) Migrant, a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) Migrant, a Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) Migrant, a highly skilled migrant, a businessperson, an innovator, an investor, a self-employed lawyer or a writer, composer or artist:

(i) the applicant must have been employed in the UK continuously throughout the five years, under the terms of their Certificate of Sponsorship, work permit or in the employment for which they were given leave to enter or remain, except that any breaks in employment in which they applied for leave as a Tier 2 Migrant, or, under Tier 5 Temporary Worker (International Agreement) Migrant as a private servant in a diplomatic household, where in the latter case they applied to enter the UK before 6 April 2012, to work for a new employer shall be disregarded, provided this is within 60 days of the end of their employment with their previous employer or Sponsor; and

(ii) any absences from the UK during the five years must have been for a purpose that is consistent with the continuous employment in (i), including paid annual leave or for serious or compelling reasons.

I fundamentally agree. Note that point b) i & ii do not apply to Tier 1 G Migrants based on whats stated above. There still appears to be a disconnect in some of the rules themselves and what the SET(O) form asks.

For example under the Tier 1 General Migrant section of the rules it states the following:

(j) The applicant must provide the specified documents in paragraph 245CD-SD to evidence the reason for the absences set out in paragraph 245AAA, where the absence was due to a serious or compelling reason. (But if what is stated in point b) i & ii under 245AAA doesn't apply to T1 G Migrants then this evidence would not be required!)

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

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.

Independent to the above the SET(O) form still asks the following question, which now really appear to be irrelevant based on the latest immigration rule changes. So unless I've missed something, there certainly appears to be a disconnect between Immigration Rules & Application form.
D2. Please confirm whether you have been outside of the UK for any single absence over 3 months or one or more absences which amount to more than 6 month in total during the 5 year period:

[maliksab]

how about mine case where i have taken two unpaid holidays in 5 years stay in uk.

i have 15 days unpaid .........when i had my nikkah done (got married)

then i had 54 unpaid.........when i had wedding reception........


then have said in above email that family visit while you are unemployed which is certainely not case in my situation.


do you know if my holidays will be counted as "compelling or compassionate ground"//

[akash08]

Guys,

Just back from Solihull, PEO and got the ILR approval. I had exactly the same case like the topic maker. Came as work permit holder, changed to Tier 1 and went back to India to serve the notice period and came here and took the new job.

I never thought it can be a problem but the topic maker's enquiry with UKBA and their answer made me very worried yesterday night. Ok, as I suspected there was not a single question asked. Ofcourse I was not stupid enough to write all this detail in the form, i simply wrote business trip against the absence and this is not wrong. During your notice period, you do work, get paid (may not be in UK, so what?? They do not ask payslips 5 year back).

So, all people who are worrying, do yourselves a favour - do not worry and if possible, do not educate UKBA by repeated queries so that they can come up with these catches later on and create difficulties for future applications..

Wishing everyone all the best..

[cs95tdg]

Guys,

Just back from Solihull, PEO and got the ILR approval. I had exactly the same case like the topic maker. Came as work permit holder, changed to Tier 1 and went back to India to serve the notice period and came here and took the new job.

I never thought it can be a problem but the topic maker's enquiry with UKBA and their answer made me very worried yesterday night. Ok, as I suspected there was not a single question asked. Ofcourse I was not stupid enough to write all this detail in the form, i simply wrote business trip against the absence and this is not wrong. During your notice period, you do work, get paid (may not be in UK, so what?? They do not ask payslips 5 year back).

So, all people who are worrying, do yourselves a favour - do not worry and if possible, do not educate UKBA by repeated queries so that they can come up with these catches later on and create difficulties for future applications..

Wishing everyone all the best..

Congrats on getting your ILR! Based on what you've stated your 5 year residence consisted of WP + T1G. Can you confirm whether you applied using the previous SET(O) form or the form published last week? When you say you weren't asked a single question, I presume you mean any questions related to absences and that you didn't provide a employer letter to confirm your annual leave/business related absences while on a Work Permit & were not asked for one. Can you confirm?

[maliksab]

how many holidays you had in 5 years

[akash08]

Guys,

Just back from Solihull, PEO and got the ILR approval. I had exactly the same case like the topic maker. Came as work permit holder, changed to Tier 1 and went back to India to serve the notice period and came here and took the new job.

I never thought it can be a problem but the topic maker's enquiry with UKBA and their answer made me very worried yesterday night. Ok, as I suspected there was not a single question asked. Ofcourse I was not stupid enough to write all this detail in the form, i simply wrote business trip against the absence and this is not wrong. During your notice period, you do work, get paid (may not be in UK, so what?? They do not ask payslips 5 year back).

So, all people who are worrying, do yourselves a favour - do not worry and if possible, do not educate UKBA by repeated queries so that they can come up with these catches later on and create difficulties for future applications..

Wishing everyone all the best..

Congrats on getting your ILR! Based on what you've stated your 5 year residence consisted of WP + T1G. Can you confirm whether you applied using the previous SET(O) form or the form published last week? When you say you weren't asked a single question, I presume you mean any questions related to absences and that you didn't provide a employer letter to confirm your annual leave/business related absences while on a Work Permit & were not asked for one. Can you confirm?

I used the old form willingly (I had the new form filled up and ready if asked) after reading all these discussion.

Yes I did not provide any letter for any absence (I had them ready if asked) and not a single question was asked about any leave. The CW asked me on what date I started working for the current company and so I guess he can clearly make out that I had a long enough absence (35 days) when I was on work permit but he never asked any question about any absence.

[akash08]

how many holidays you had in 5 years

150

[thatsy]

Guys,
Just back from Solihull, PEO and got the ILR approval. I had exactly the same case like the topic maker.

Firstly, Congratulations.

Did you have any unpaid holidays? i.e., travel outside UK for which you were not paid in the UK. If so, what was the max you took at any one time?

Regards

[humanvoid]

So, all people who are worrying, do yourselves a favour - do not worry and if possible, do not educate UKBA by repeated queries so that they can come up with these catches later on and create difficulties for future applications..

Let me disagree here as we need to get educated, the better we prepared, the less chances we fall into a trap.

I used the old form willingly (I had the new form filled up and ready if asked) after reading all these discussion.

You applied under old rules that's why they have been "nice" with you.

Congratulations by the way.

[thatsy]

You applied under old rules that's why they have been "nice" with you.

Just want to point that he may have applied using the old form but not under old rules. The new rules took effect from Dec 13 2012. But, I do agree with your sentiment ... they will probably continue to be nice until Jan 3.

Here's an extract from http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... tion-forms

"In line with paragraph 34(i) of the Immigration Rules, we will continue to accept applications made on the previous version of these forms up to and including 3 January 2013. We will consider any application submitted on or after 13 December 2012 under the revised Immigration Rules regardless of which version of the application form is sent."