Promotion/New Job - Current Passport Expired

[mpanalito]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering if anyone has some experience or could give some advise in my situation.

I'm currently in UK under Tier 2, my current leave expires end of the year.

My company has promoted me to a more senior position, which is in a different occupational code, etc. They are now in the process of advertising and fullfilling the labour market tests and also getting a new COS, etc, etc.

It seems that everything is in the right track to submit application at the beggining of February. HOWEVER, I just realised that my passport HAS expired un August 2012 and for some stupid reason I was under the impression that it was valid until August 2013 and since I have not travel in the past 2 yrs etc

Anyway, nothing I can do now to change that. I immediatelly went to my embassy (I'm a SouthAfrican national) and they told me that the minimum turnaround is around 4-6 months to receive my new passport -no way to expedite that- so I applied for new passport already and they gave me a receipt showing the date, etc.

My question is if Home Office will acceot my application in February with an expired passport? I will show them the receipt I got for my renewal and I can also get a print out from the SouthAfrican embassy site which states that it is a minimum of 4 months....

I was reading that a passport is needed to verify identity, but since my latest leave to remain was done using a Biometric Resident Permit card (instead of old visas attached in passport)which is still valid until end of this year(I was told that a BRP can be accepted as an official identity document should I want to apply for a driver's licence, etc), plus in the expired passport there are all my old visas, etc so I'm sure they can see it is a document I have previously use and they have it on record.

Has anyone had any similar situations in the past? or any advise...

Thanks
Mik

[mpanalito]

Hi again, anyone who can perhaps advise?

[manci]

IMHO you will have no problem with the new grant of leave application.

The requirement, as stated on the form, is to submit a "current" passport, not a "valid" passport. In fact there are 4 circumstances when the applicant may not submit a current passport:

lost
stolen
expired - returned to national authorities
elsewhere in UKBA

Your passport has expired but you still (presumably) have it. However, it is implied in the above that having an expired passport would not be a reason for refusing the application.

Your BRP shows your current immigration status in the UK and you will have to submit it with the application. You'll have to do biometrics again and once your application is approved you'll get a new BRP.