Tier 1 General extension

[ukyjnh]

Hi

My Tier 1 general visa will expired on 8th Aug,2012. I need another 2 years extension and qualify for that.
Can I apply for extension on 1 April? If I do that, the new visa will start from 01/04.2012 to 01/04/2012 or from 08/08/2012 to 08/08 2014?

Or how many months in advance I can apply for extension?
In the border agency website, it is only mentioned at least 1 month before your current permission to stay expires.

"However, if you apply significantly more than 1 month before your permission to stay expires, and you want to apply for settlement later, you may not have accumulated enough total permission to stay"

I do not understand the word" significantly more than", means what?(3,4,5 or 6 months)

Regards

Chen

[thebionicredneck2003]

If you apply on 1st of April, it is illogical to assume that the visa would be granted on the same day as you would have to do biometrics and then your application will be considered.

Going by timelines, it is taking about 5 weeks or more from application date to the approval date.

No one can say for sure what date will be given to you, but to be safe, I think you should assume that your visa will start from the approval date and not assume that it will be granted from the expiry date which for you is August.

You can apply for your extension as early as you want or as late as you want provided it is before your expiry date.

The word "significantly" is subjective and no one can quantify it for you as processing times vary.
Basically, if you apply say 6 months before your visa expires, there is a high probability that you will have a shortfall for I.L.R and may need another extension as a result.

Hope this makes things clearer.

Kind Regards