SOC Code Confusion

Hi,
Hope everyone's doing okay in the 2nd UK lockdown. I am in a bit of a difficult situation with regards to my Tier 2 extension and I realise there are a few posts around salary thresholds but the more I read, the more I get confused about things.

So I started as a grad with my current employer in September 2017 and got my Tier 2 in January (as I started working on my Tier 4). I started off on a £26.5k. However, mid last year I switched roles and went into a different area of business as a junior data scientist, which is actually not relevant with the role I started with and is significantly more technical. My SOC Code was 3545 and it remained the same even during my transition mainly because the position was under Commercial Marketing as a broader department. My main concern is, I took a significant pay cut moving into the role and am currently on £29k, which is lower than both the minimum threshold mentioned overall (£30k for experienced) and the minimum experienced threshold for my SOC code (£34.5k). My company's HR and legal teams didn't even realise this until I raised it and I haven't been told anything yet on what is meant to happen as my process was meant to start next week. I was wondering if anyone has been in this position before and if the experienced threshold is dependent on how long you were in that SOC code vs how long you have been in your current role for? My company stopped any pay rises or promotions on my level and a level above (i.e. any juniors or junior manager level people) due to Covid and thus not sure if a salary increase would be possible until next year anyway.

Would appreciate any clarity/guidance on this.

Thanks!

If you changed jobs/roles, which it seems would have been under a different SOC than 3545, rlmt and a new CoS and visa application would have been required, at the experienced rate stated in the SOC.

What your initial job title under SOC 3545 when you switched to tier 2?

You only benefit once from the new entrant rate and that is when you switched from tier 4 to tier 2. Any job/SOC changes after that, regardless of when it occurs, has to be at the experienced rate of the SOC as a minimum salary.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration ... illed-work

Thanks for your reply! As I mentioned above, my soc code remained the same even during the change of roles. I was a Graduate Trainee in Marketing as my initial role and went onto become a Junior Data Scientist but soc code remained the same. Would that mean that I need to be paid the min threshold for the experienced rate to be able to extend the visa?

Thanks!

You need the experienced rate for an extension and likely a change in SOC as 3545 is not relevant to your current job.

What you have described might result in an HO investigation especially a large sudden salary increase.

Hi,

I am genuinely concerned about the approach my employer is taking so I wanted to learn if I am right to have a concern. I am currently on Tier 2 General Visa and my visa is due to be extended soon. My employer has just realised (after I flagged it) that I am being underpaid to be eligible for a visa extension (my current soc code is 3545) and I am now being told because I had a job title changed, it should have been changed to 3539 when I had a title change and they are trying to ‘amend’ the code. The job tasks under 3539 soc code is not even remotely similar to what I do. I am a Data Analyst in a Data Science team and do coding and modelling for commercial/marketing departments. I also have two masters degrees and I am a bit worried that the RQF level in the 3539 is level 4 as opposed to the one for 3545 (level 6). Not sure if this is an issue but can someone explain to me how this could even work or is even legal?
Many thanks!

Hi, could anybody please help me with the above?
Many thanks