Application as an overstayer, Advice needed...!

[Raj_Tron]

Hello Everyone,

I was recently made redundant while being in Tier-2 (General) visa, I have received a letter from the UKVI saying my leave to remain has been curtailed to 11th August, 2014 from November 2015. But fortunately I got a job offer in July, 2014, however the company at the time did not have Licence to sponsor me and they immediately applied for a licence to go through the sponsoring process.

Since my job (Software Engineer) comes under the shortage occupation list, they were not required to take a RLMT, however due to some delay in submitting the documents for the licence, the first application was rejected, but after finding out they applied again immediately and submitted all the documents on time. But due to this delay, my current visa expired (which is the curtailment expiry date). I now have to apply as an over-stayer which I believe I can still do, if I apply within 28 days from the expiry date, but the licence is taking more time than usual and even the grace period of 28 days is coming to an end in less than 2 weeks. It’s been 3 weeks since the 2nd Sponsorship licence was made and a week since we submitted all the documents for the licence.

My questions are:
1. Is there any way I can apply within the 28 days grace period if the company does not receive their licence Or CoS on time?
2. Or would my application be accepted if I applied After my 28 days grace period from the curtailment date?
3. Am I right in thinking that I can apply within the 28 days after the expiry of my curtailment date?

Please help, any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
Raj

[physicskate]

Hello Everyone,

I was recently made redundant while being in Tier-2 (General) visa, I have received a letter from the UKVI saying my leave to remain has been curtailed to 11th August, 2014 from November 2015. But fortunately I got a job offer in July, 2014, however the company at the time did not have Licence to sponsor me and they immediately applied for a licence to go through the sponsoring process.

Since my job (Software Engineer) comes under the shortage occupation list, they were not required to take a RLMT, however due to some delay in submitting the documents for the licence, the first application was rejected, but after finding out they applied again immediately and submitted all the documents on time. But due to this delay, my current visa expired (which is the curtailment expiry date). I now have to apply as an over-stayer which I believe I can still do, if I apply within 28 days from the expiry date, but the licence is taking more time than usual and even the grace period of 28 days is coming to an end in less than 2 weeks. It’s been 3 weeks since the 2nd Sponsorship licence was made and a week since we submitted all the documents for the licence.

My questions are:
1. Is there any way I can apply within the 28 days grace period if the company does not receive their licence Or CoS on time?
2. Or would my application be accepted if I applied After my 28 days grace period from the curtailment date?
3. Am I right in thinking that I can apply within the 28 days after the expiry of my curtailment date?

Please help, any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
Raj

This was a particular problem a few years ago - licenses were taking 6-8 months to process (unlike now), so many people's visas were expiring before they could make an application. In those cases, some people sent their applications without CoS info and supplied the info later. However, as the reason for the delay is not the fault of the UKVI, this could very well not work.

[Frontier Mole]

Apply for your tier 2 visa with a covering letter from your employer.
UKVI will place your application on hold until Sponsor licence is decided.
You can not work in the meantime.

[Raj_Tron]

Thank you very much for your reply.

I thought about applying and explaining the situation through a cover letter, but since I am applying in the 28 days grace period I am afraid it might be rejected as I do not have the right to appeal this time.

I am crossing my fingers so that they receive their Licence and my CoS on time to apply, but wanted to know what other options do I have, is it better I go through a immigration lawyer just to be on the safer side?

Any advice regarding the rejection part?

Thank you

[dan883]

Thank you very much for your reply.

I thought about applying and explaining the situation through a cover letter, but since I am applying in the 28 days grace period I am afraid it might be rejected as I do not have the right to appeal this time.

I am crossing my fingers so that they receive their Licence and my CoS on time to apply, but wanted to know what other options do I have, is it better I go through a immigration lawyer just to be on the safer side?

Any advice regarding the rejection part?

Thank you

are you just waiting for the COS or is your company still waiting for licence??

[Raj_Tron]

The company is still waiting for the licence, we applied 3 weeks back and gave all the documents they requested last week. So I am not sure how long it will take, just want to make sure I have an alternative plan to apply in case they do not get the licence on time. It feels unjustified because of this delay I might have to go back

[Frontier Mole]

Follow my advice and you will at least have possibility of staying beyond the 28 days.
If you go home you will be subject to the one year cooking off period.
The turn around time for tier 2 licence application is expected to be no more than six weeks and is with all the correct documents.

[Frontier Mole]

LOL just re read the post. For cooking read cooling.

[Raj_Tron]

Thanks Frontier Mole,

I was going to go through the same process you mentioned, all I want now is time and this is one way of buying that extra time till this Licence and CoS is sorted. But I believe even with this process I can only get 7 days after the application is submitted as they will not keep the application for longer than that.
Hopefully it won't come to that.

Thanks again for your advice!