Partner's T2 Unknowingly Curtailed

[TracyH]

Hi! I'm a UKC and my USA partner (non spouse) has been in the UK on a Tier 2 sponsored visa along with his 8yo dependent. He had a visa curtailed in the past, due to a sponsorship/visa change and got it all sorted out in short order within the 60 days (all good except he knew he couldn't get back into the UK so had to cancel our holiday together).

Last week he went on a business trip for a few days. When he got back he was detained saying his visa had been curtailed. He had no idea. His employer (fast on the phone) said they looked in their system and their license is still good and his visa still active. I don't know if this is a two-way system and that's what the HO sees but someone curtailed him.He was let go with a two week liable to be detained notice and a reporting date. Meanwhile long bank holiday has gobbled up a lot of time.

There is still no word from the Home Office (48h since start of the work week) as to why he was curtailed. He never got a curtailment notice to his address; the Border Force people said it was emailed in mid August -- the email used was not his, not his companies, not the visa processor - but to an old email address where he worked way back in 2009 during a short working visa period for another company. It is an address that bounces. I was just reading in the guidance that they MUST first try the mailing address unless a) they know he is out of country, or b) don't have one, etc. He never got one. And he never got one for his son either.

Can he be marked as an overstayer when he had no way of knowing and if it looks like it was their fault he didn't know? If he would have had the notice sent to his house, as they were supposed to do, he never would have stepped out of the country. Can their error be used to force them to reconsider sending/resending a curtailment or at least giving him the remaining period of what would have been the curtailment period? I'm very worried he's going to have to move away for a year before being able to come back (amongst all the other things it throws into the air!)

Thank you so much for any thoughts. I'm sitting with a rock in my gut just waiting as the short time ticks by, unsure of how to proceed because we don't know what the problem is....

[iworker]

I think it is a mistake where they still think he was with the previous employer and his visa was curtailed.
Instead of UKVI, his best bet is to check with his company the following 3 things. If he has the 3 things, then nothing to worry about.
company still has licence,
his cos is still active within company's sms system.
he still has job with the company.

[Djsuccess]

It appears he has a new valid visa with another sponsor according to your explanation. If that's the case, then I guess he will be fine. Once again it shows that the UKVI's database might not be up to date. So many people have complained recently about receiving curtailment letter after several months of changing jobs.
You will just need to provide information on his recent application and copies of his valid BRP

[TracyH]

There is a tremendous amount of confusion on the employers end and a monkey-wrench - It looks like the 'everything active' line is seeming more like it was meant to calm him down while he was freaking out at the airport in detention rather than actually represent reality.

What seems to have happened is that at some point in the near past (!?) - December - the little subsidiary companies all started a process (during a merger) to have all (there are only a few) visa sponsorship licenses moved to the new sponsor. Part 1 of that happened, but the licenses did not get shifted over to the new sponsor with the contracts. They are being very vague as to how many people this has affected (the actual company my partner worked for is a very small group but it's a very large set of companies so it's possible they dropped the ball on any/all of them). During all of this the new merged company put in a new HR dept and is using a new visa processing service so it's proving challenging to find out what's going on. His HR dept in his little company had no idea this was happening at all, as the ball was dropped before they arrived. And I think nobody thought to look because there are few visa holders (I think my OH might be the only one in his dept) and because nobody's jobs or contracts actually changed. There is probably an employment law problem in there someplace but right now that is a lower level focus issue. (It does make me suspicious that the employer's lawyers are looking out for them not him and perhaps we need a personal lawyer?)

My OH still has not been given a copy of his curtailment letter (despite contacts with the HO), and the lawyers now on it (hired by the company I think to fix this problem!) don't yet have any real information it seems despite two conversations with the HO yesterday. They have no copy of his record to examine what happened, what letter attempts were made as on the record, etc etc. Apparently some decisionmaking person is back today. The legal team has reached out to the Home Office to ask if they can do all the transfers now and/or do an emergency T2 application for my partner while he is still being allowed in the UK (until next Friday). On that date, if nothing has switched, he and his son have to arrive at the airport with their bags -- I guess to go back on a plan to Houston. (Make that a boat, since it is a declared disaster area).

I have little inclination to believe that the HO is going to be lenient with his company's MASSIVE error, though I would hope they could. Does anyone know of them doing that?

And I don't have a lot of faith that the employer's lawyers are going to really push the possible angles on the personal side (getting copies of things, really pushing the HO, examining the delivery issue as a route to delaying/gaining more time).

I'd like to pursue this delivery issue - sending it by email when they had his current address - which seems to violate their curtailment notification guidance. That would (I think) render the curtailment notice invalid and at worst case their guidance would give him the remainder of the 60 days (about 6 weeks) or reissue the curtailment (so a full 60 days). That would allow enough time to have his 'new' sponsor get a visa application in.

I'd want to reach out to the HO ourselves but he doesn't have his passport or BRP or even a copy of the curtailment letter for them to reference and discuss.

Thank you for exploring this with me.

[TracyH]

Sorry just to be clear - his HR dept was emphatic that he was still in the system, it's just my gut feeling that they were being reassuring etc - the legal team (which is not in house) is running on the assumption that it was a dropped ball that caused this trigger on the HO end. But still nothing from the HO. It's a mess.

[CR001]

If you are a British citizen, he could apply for an unmarried partner visa if he has evidence of 2 years cohabitation.

[TracyH]

Thank you for that! We haven't lived together yet, trying to currently work out when it's best to move kids in school and also requires closing and reopening my business but yes that is on deck and will have an eye to 'evidence retention' for the future.

On the other hand we have news on his status. HO has granted exceptional circumstances extension for my partner's stay for another 2 weeks and also is allowing a sponsorship certificate to be issued from the new company for him so that he can get a new T2 and dependent application in. They've also granted an exceptional circumstances allowance to not have to go out of country for the biometrics.

The best possible outcome considering it looks like a compromise acknowledging both employer and HO errors.

Thank you so much for providing such an information and support rich forum!

[CR001]

That is good news. Fingers crossed it all works out fine.

Please keep us updated.

[Djsuccess]

Thank you for that! We haven't lived together yet, trying to currently work out when it's best to move kids in school and also requires closing and reopening my business but yes that is on deck and will have an eye to 'evidence retention' for the future.

On the other hand we have news on his status. HO has granted exceptional circumstances extension for my partner's stay for another 2 weeks and also is allowing a sponsorship certificate to be issued from the new company for him so that he can get a new T2 and dependent application in. They've also granted an exceptional circumstances allowance to not have to go out of country for the biometrics.

The best possible outcome considering it looks like a compromise acknowledging both employer and HO errors.

Thank you so much for providing such an information and support rich forum!

That's a good news. The HR dept need to read the sponsor guidelines as mergers and acquisitions oftentimes affects licence status.
I hope they resolve this soon.

All the best