Urgent - Do I need new offer letter for Tier 2 General Visa?

[Dinakaranjd]

Hi,

I am currently on Tier 1 PSW dependent visa, and working for A rated sponsor since July 2013 in the UK. This role is a permanent role and company agreed to sponsor my visa 3 month before my current visa expires, which is 6th July 2014. I have approached my HR to initiate process in January.

My HR has contacted the UKBA to find out under which restricted or unrestricted category I have to apply for CoS. The UKBA has confirmed that it is restricted CoS and I will need to go to India to apply for the new Tier 2 visa. However, before applying for restricted CoS, the company has to conduct RLMT and if they do not find any settled worker, than they can go ahead and sponsor me. Only 4 Settled worker have applied, and of which one was shorted listed, however, the person has refused for the role. So now the company is ready to sponsor me.

My questions are:

How do the company has to prove that they didn't find appropriate settled suitable worker for this role? If yes, does the HR have to mention a note in sponsors note or is there any other process that needs to be followed?

Does the company have to issue me fresh/new offer letter (though I am working since July 2013) or the initial offer letter along with the letter from HR will suffice.

Could anyone of you please help me and provide right guidance please? Tomorrow I need this piece of information before meeting the HR... Anyone respond please....

Regards,
JD

[Apam]

If your sponsor is A rated then they obviously should know wgat to do about RLMT. Luckily in your case, the settled worker didn't take the job, hence they can go ahead and assign cos.
Otherwise show them the latest tier 2 sponsor guidance(over 100 pages) on ukba website.

[Dinakaranjd]

Thank you for the reply.. but my main concern is that the company is asking me to resign and then only they will give me a new offer letter and CoS so that I can go to India n apply.... I am in a position where I don't know what are the rules regarding this. Could anyone please guide me? Looking forward for your reply.

[Dinakaranjd]

Anybody there??? please respond. It's very urgent for me to know to see what action I should take.

[Apam]

You are psw, you can apply for tier 2 in country abd don't need to go back to India for your application.
Whether to resign or not before they can offer you an employment letter and cos is not an immigration issue. It's upto your company and their policies!
You don't have to resign, not necessarily but if that's what you need to do to get a cos and new employment contract then probably that's it!
As I said you also need to know the rules by reading tier 2 sponsor guidance. Only then can you convince HR not to let you resign or go back to India for your application.
Let's hope your company is not using other means to frustrate you and give excuses to avoid assigning cos.

[iworker]

you need a un restricted cos, and u can apply within uk. the HR must have asked wrong question or must have understood wrongly.

[hassanh]

Hi Dinakaranjd,

You need a restrictive COS and will have to apply from Outside UK as you are currently on TIER 1 PSW DEPENDENT VISA. The "dependent" word might have been overlooked by Apam and iworker. Don't Panic and Confuse as your case seems straight forward. Your Employer had already conducted RLMT and they will put the details on the COS assigned to you. It does not matter whether you resign or not from your job as you will be going to re-employ anyway as this job will be considered to be a job where your employer needs a candidate from outside EEA.

As your employer is employing you through different route this time, therefore, they want you to resign first which is absolutely fine. They will then provide you with a new offer letter with a new start date along with an restrictive COS and then you will have to apply from your home country.

Make sure you meet the maintenance requirement and have the correct funds held in your account for three months or ask your employer to certify the maintenance for you by ticking the "certify maintenance for the migrant box" in the COS.

Finally, make sure you meet the English requirement as well. Either an accepted English Language Test or a UK degree from UKBA registered university or a degree abroad which is acceptable by UKBA (you can check on UKBA website whether your abroad degree is acceptable by UKBA or not). I hope my post will be helpful in your situation.

P.S: Other members please let Dinakaranjd know anything else I have missed. I have been always a silent reader of this forum and could not stop myself from registering this time when I saw this post was going to mislead somebody on a straight forward case. Furthermore, this forum literally helped me a lot in my visa extension case. This forum is a real minefield of information and I appreciate the efforts of the senior members who provide their knowledge to others.

Thanks,

[Apam]

Sorry, we certainly overlooked DEPENDENT.
Thanks for the correction.!
Your case certainly is straight forward. Nothing to do with dependent visa.
You need to make a fresh tier 2 application from your home country with restricted cos. As said above make sure salary is appropriate for soc, maintenance is sorted and English certificate or exams is ok.
Bear in mind ilr from 2016 is 35k salary.

[Apam]

Now back to your concerns; should you resign before they issue you cos and offer letter as said by your company!
-because you are psw dependent, you are not directly under employer sponsored immigration control like tier 2. There is no guidance in ukba that will answer your question. All you need is a restricted cos.
The company is trying to play it safe for you to resign probably so that they don't have to continue paying you salary during the time when you are back in home country for visa...eg just in case your visa takes a long time!!!
You can obviously speak to HR nicely about maintenance of current working conditions. At the end of the day, this is not an immigration issue but company policy! Alternatively you can take a paid or even unpaid leave(if allowed) to go home and apply for new visa.
Otherwise, best of luck with your tier 2 application.

[hassanh]

agreed with apam.

oh yes I forgot to mention about salary and job level. Make sure your job is at NQF level 6 and are paid appropriate wages according to SOC. You may be eligible for a reduced salary (new entrant) if you are under 26 at the time of making Tier 2 application otherwise you will have to be paid at Experience level salary. I am not sure if new entrant case (under 26 year) is applicable or not if you are applying from outside UK. Other members of this forum shall confirm this for you. And also your HR should know better as this is their task but do make sure they are putting the correct job title (SOC code) and appropriate salary on COS. Wish you all the best for your Tier 2 application.
Thanks,
Hassan

[Dinakaranjd]

Thank you so much Hassan & Apam for the timely response. I am very happy that you guys have responded. I will update here once I hear from my HR tomorrow.

Regarding the job code.. my job title is SharePoint Administrator and my job description that matches to the code of practice is 2132 - web designing & development. However the job title or the description doesn't mention SharePoint. In this case I'll need to use the nearest job code right? Please let me know if you would like me to send the job description. If yes, let me know your email ID.

[hassanh]

Hi Dinakaranjd,

Yes, you will need to use the nearest job code. Its job description which should closely match with the SOC not the job title. SharePoint is sort of website (collaboration website) as well so if job description closely matches with this code then you can go for it. I reckon title "SharePoint Developer" will be more suitable in regards to this code but as I said Job Title does not matter its the job description which should have a closer match with relevant SOC code description. No need to send us the job description as you and your HR department would know better which SOC code would be most relevant to your job responsibilities. I hope this will help.

Thanks,
Hassan