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Hi there,

I am submitting my ILR SET (O) in the next few weeks.

My questions are below:

1) In 2016 my employer was part of a merger whereby my old company was overtaken by new company. They took over my sponsorship and extended my Tier 2 visa. However, they may not have access to absence records from my old company so I only have my absences recorded from April 2016 till now. How do I account for the other 2 years where they don't have my absences on file? Will they just need to explain this on a letter?

2) I've read that you need to wait until you're within 28 days of your visa expiring to make the application but my qualifying period for continuous 5 years of residency was in October of last year 2018. My current tier 2 visa expires in October of this year 2019. Am I correct in saying that I'm ok to apply and not wait until my visa is almost expired as I've already hit the qualifying period for ILR?

3) Do I need to submit a cover letter of why I'm eligible to stay and how I contribute to society etc?

4) When listing my dates of travel, do I only need to put places when I was out of the UK? eg. I spent almost 2 weeks in Belfast at Christmas last year and I also spent some time in Cornwall but as that's part of the UK, do I need to include? So my travel dates will vary from my absence dates supplied from work and those dates will show when I was absent but still inside the UK but will differ to the dates given for my international travel? Should I include these too?

5) There is a danger I might be on the incorrect SOC code, what would the implications be if we were to change this? Would a new resident labour market test be required? Would it also make my visa invalid?


Thank you for your help!

1) In 2016 my employer was part of a merger whereby my old company was overtaken by new company. They took over my sponsorship and extended my Tier 2 visa. However, they may not have access to absence records from my old company so I only have my absences recorded from April 2016 till now. How do I account for the other 2 years where they don't have my absences on file? Will they just need to explain this on a letter?

Write a letter yourself explaining and listing your absence.

2) I've read that you need to wait until you're within 28 days of your visa expiring to make the application but my qualifying period for continuous 5 years of residency was in October of last year 2018. My current tier 2 visa expires in October of this year 2019. Am I correct in saying that I'm ok to apply and not wait until my visa is almost expired as I've already hit the qualifying period for ILR?

You can apply no sooner than within 28 days before reaching the 5th anniversary of your initial visa ISSUE date (assuming you are on a PBS route visa).

3) Do I need to submit a cover letter of why I'm eligible to stay and how I contribute to society etc?

No.

4) When listing my dates of travel, do I only need to put places when I was out of the UK? eg. I spent almost 2 weeks in Belfast at Christmas last year and I also spent some time in Cornwall but as that's part of the UK, do I need to include? So my travel dates will vary from my absence dates supplied from work and those dates will show when I was absent but still inside the UK but will differ to the dates given for my international travel? Should I include these too?

All absence outside the UK, excluding Northern Ireland.

5) There is a danger I might be on the incorrect SOC code, what would the implications be if we were to change this? Would a new resident labour market test be required? Would it also make my visa invalid?

New RLMT would be required. What is your current SOC and what SOC should you be on then? Do you meet the ILR salary requirement?

4) When listing my dates of travel, do I only need to put places when I was out of the UK? eg. I spent almost 2 weeks in Belfast at Christmas last year and I also spent some time in Cornwall but as that's part of the UK, do I need to include? So my travel dates will vary from my absence dates supplied from work and those dates will show when I was absent but still inside the UK but will differ to the dates given for my international travel? Should I include these too?
All absence outside the UK, excluding Northern Ireland.

So I'll only ist the travel dates I was outside of the UK (excluding NI and Scotland) and this will differ to the other absences provided by HR (which will include sick days etc and travel dates within the UK)


5) There is a danger I might be on the incorrect SOC code, what would the implications be if we were to change this? Would a new resident labour market test be required? Would it also make my visa invalid?
New RLMT would be required. What is your current SOC and what SOC should you be on then? Do you meet the ILR salary requirement


My SOC is currently 2472 and my other potential SOCs could be 2473 or 3545 but TBH could fit under any, there is not an exact match. My current salary is £35,500

Sorry I have a few additional questions:

1)" Date you first entered the UK"

When did you first enter the UK? (Required)
This is the date you entered the UK when the period of stay you are basing this application on started.
Day

To clarify, this is from when my Tier 2 sponsorship started, not the original time I entered to UK on my Tier 5 Youth Mobility Visa?

2) I will provide a declaration signed by me to confirm my consent for the Home Office to request verification checks


What does the declaration consist of, do I just make one myself or is there an official declaration form?

Thank you again!

1. The questions asked date you entered that the ILR application is based and not the date your visa started or your previous visa as Tier 5 doesn't lead to ILR.

2. Should be available at the end of the application process.

thank you!

As my qualifying period was in October 2018, do I just need to include international dates of travel from within 5 years prior to that date or should I do all dates up to and including now?

Hello, can someone please come back to me re. the travel dates?

Also, my salary increased as part of a normal annual salary review in October last year but my employer hasn't updated my CoS with the new salary- should I get them to do this online or is via text ok? Or should we leave it? Should we update the SOC code description so account for the salary increase (increased responsibility etc) or should we leave that the same? Can they also back date the salary increase as this did happen in October but was never flagged to HO and I want everything in line before the application is made?

Thanks again!