is my ilr application still 'straightforward'?

[jcraig]

Only a short time now till I can finally apply for ILR, these boards have been incredibly useful in organising everything, so thank you! I am planning to go myself to the PEO to apply, but I have just noticed a couple of irregularities in my application and would really appreciate any advice on whether these are likely to make the application not 'straightforward' at the PEO.

I am applying on the basis of FLR as work permit holder for 5 years, SET(O) form. Over this 5-year period I have been out of the country for exactly 180 days when using simple arithmetic to calculate. First question: I took 16 days unpaid leave a couple of years ago. Will this matter? I was paid the rest of the year so it's not a huge dent on my P60 (I have all five P60s for the past five years). Should I mention this specifically in my application or is this not important?

Second and scarier question: I work in a profession where you require a qualification, and I was 'employed' by my current employer to train (they paid me a relatively low 'salary' and the fees for my course). The Home Office eventually decided that for this period I should apply for a student visa rather than a work visa as I was not technically working but training, so that's what I did and I was granted a student visa.

Here's the stupid bit. After I finished my course and before I had my work permit/FLR sorted my employer had me start working as a 'trainee' along with the other people who were trained by my employer at the same time as me. Some of the other trainees argued that instead of being 'trainees' we should be paid the rate of a qualified worker as we had completed our course, which my employer eventually agreed to. They backdated all of our positions and salaries to when we started working as a 'trainee'. I think, and please tell me I'm wrong here, that I should have refused this and should have remained a 'trainee' till I had my work permit and FLR.

My question is: do I need to address this in my current ILR application given that it relates to a period before the FLR which makes me eligible for ILR? It is obvious from the P60 if you were looking for it that I was paid more than you would expect in the first year, although I can show my previous application as a trainee which was approved (however I was paid a bit more than that 'salary' over the period). Also, should I ask my employer to write in the letter my employment status over the period of my FLR rather than before this time? I really want to avoid any problems I can, but I also don't want to do anything dishonest.

I would really appreciate any advice on this as I'm really stressing out about it! Thank you so much in advance for any advice you can provide.

[jami]

issue of absences is no issue at all.
however second issue is serious one.

i have understood that in between your work permit you switched to student visa and after completion of course/training again switched to work permit. If that was the case than leave as student would break your earlier leave and hence 5 years qualifying period would not be complete.

[xyz123]

Give some dates as they will be useful.

Salary itself doesnt matter. How many hours were you working as a Trainee before WP and did you go over your allownaces as a student visa holder? If that is the case and HO decides to look at this in detail then you may have a big problem.

Seconldy i am assuming u have been on WP for last 5 years and are applying on that basis. Is this correct and that there has been no break in your WP visa?

[jcraig]

Thank you for your replies so far, although it is a bit concerning! What would the big problem be?

There is no break in the five-year Work Permit, I was on a student visa from about September 2004 (I can't remember the exact date it was issued but it covered my course) and then switched to a Work Permit in November 2006 (while the student visa was still running) so am applying for ILR in October 2011.

I don't know if I went over my student allowance (is that the 20 hours a week you were allowed to work at the time?), the Home Office were aware that at stages in my traineeship I would be 'working' but this was part of my training, mostly it was a full-time course and I didn't do any extra hours work when I was in full-time education. On average I definitely didn't work 20 hours a week through the course, nowhere near in fact, but when I started work as a 'trainee' I was working 35 hours a week. The Home Office were aware at the time that it was a very odd situation as the employer was paying me a salary but the Home Office decided that this was a scholarship, which in fact it was, so said that this would be okay for student visa.

Hope this is enough to clarify.

[mk357]

Thank you for your replies so far, although it is a bit concerning! What would the big problem be?

There is no break in the five-year Work Permit, I was on a student visa from about September 2004 (I can't remember the exact date it was issued but it covered my course) and then switched to a Work Permit in November 2006 (while the student visa was still running) so am applying for ILR in October 2011.

I don't know if I went over my student allowance (is that the 20 hours a week you were allowed to work at the time?), the Home Office were aware that at stages in my traineeship I would be 'working' but this was part of my training, mostly it was a full-time course and I didn't do any extra hours work when I was in full-time education. On average I definitely didn't work 20 hours a week through the course, nowhere near in fact, but when I started work as a 'trainee' I was working 35 hours a week. The Home Office were aware at the time that it was a very odd situation as the employer was paying me a salary but the Home Office decided that this was a scholarship, which in fact it was, so said that this would be okay for student visa.

Hope this is enough to clarify.

Hi, you got your WP in Nov 2006 and ever since you are on that visa. Before that you were on student visa and did not over work, so what is the confusion or problem then? I don't see any problem if this is the case. You would complete 5 years on WP visa in Oct/Nov this year why are you worried about the previous visas? unless you have broken any immigration rule/law.

[xyz123]

On average I definitely didn't work 20 hours a week through the course, nowhere near in fact, but when I started work as a 'trainee' I was working 35 hours a week. The Home Office were aware at the time that it was a very odd situation as the employer was paying me a salary but the Home Office decided that this was a scholarship, which in fact it was, so said that this would be okay for student visa.

Do you have this in writing that home office effectively allowed you to work up to 35 hours a week?

[xyz123]

Hi, you got your WP in Nov 2006 and ever since you are on that visa. Before that you were on student visa and did not over work, so what is the confusion or problem then? I don't see any problem if this is the case. You would complete 5 years on WP visa in Oct/Nov this year why are you worried about the previous visas? unless you have broken any immigration rule/law.

Problem is that OP might have broken immigration rule by working Full Time while on student visa instead of getting a proper work permit.

[jami]

even second issue is no issue. Since your case has been considered thereafter by UKBA and no objection was made working hours.

one should give complete facts in first post when starting a topic

[jcraig]

Well, Jami, that is definitely the answer I'm looking for. I'm hopeful that it doesn't matter because they have already considered the previous period of FLR when this happened (they didn't ask me about it at the time and I'm pretty sure that they looked at bank statements). I still however feel uncomfortable that I was paid as a full-time qualified worker while I was on a student visa, I think this was not right actually, although maybe I can argue that it was part of my traineeship if I need to and that on average I worked under 20 hours a week.

Re the other question, I didn't get anything in writing from the Home Office that they knew I'd be doing periods of work, I asked them to e-mail me to confirm it and they refused.

So I think I will ask my employer to just write a letter covering my work permit time and just forget the time before that. If any of you think I'm asking for trouble my doing this, please let me know.

Thanks again for your advice.