Home Office Visit

[janinah]

Hi All,

Our company currently sponsored 5 employees, 2 other on the process waiting for UKBA reply. Today, suddenly they came us but our director asked next week as we were leaving for friday special prayer. Anyway, they asked to attend all the sponsored employees to be present on that day. We are really curious, what actually they wanna check or ask us. Someone says, they will interview everybody, some say will check papers. Though, hopefully our all papers ready, still nervous little bit.

So, if you guys have any experience of facing these kind of Home Office visit or interview, could you please share your experience, information....

Thank You guys in advanced....

[Frontier Mole]

What type of business is it?

They do different things dependent on the business activity.

The fact you have two applications pending says they are not happy about something.

[janinah]

The business is medium sized Wholesale...£26m turnover & 120+ employees...one emoloyee just applied last week. Another employee who is working with us more than 2 years, applied for visa almost 6 months, but couldn't received the reply from ukba. Actually, he was student visa and during that time he applied for visa extension for student visa which was also pending at ukba. By the time, he got degree and company issue cos to sponsor him..if there is any problem... That may be his personal history, isn't it ?? From company point of view, they want to employee its existing part time employee who finished his degree as a full time...

[Frontier Mole]

I would very much be worried your Sponsor is about to lose their licence.
Given the circumstances of the individual you mention I believe he has employed deception in the past to gain a visa.
I also suspect your student workers would have either worked more hours than they should have or had no right to work at all.
The other issue is a medium wholesale business is unlikely to support 5 tier 2 roles.
Hence the interviewing of all tier 2 staff.
They don't just visit for no reason. They have far more intellegence sources now and will go through everything in great detail and don't expect a good outcome.
Sorry to be negative but the circumstances all point to a licence loss.

[janinah]

Hi,
The individual works always part time which was always permitted under his student visa...And, our company is not too small actually.. Its not typical wholesale shop...We deliver goods all over UK and Europe as well. As a company, we have different departments and different head and under them all teams... That is why from first our annual allocation is 10. Though we only used half of them so far.... Moreover i know business who are 1/20 of our size and sponsor 3/4 employees...
Anyway, i don't think these are the reason...they may only come to check papers or any other reason...
Thanks anyway for your reply...

[talk2ram28]

My friend was in a similar situation. 3 Cos were applied from Chennai.All of them were called for interview in Chennai as well as there was a home office visit to his employer. The home office basically checked the contract agreements/ visa status of existing employees. The main purpose of the visit is to check the core business of the employer and if the employer is following the rules and regulation for tier 2. At the end it was all fine and they got the visa and the company got cleared as well. It was a small company with 8- 10 employees for IT Consulting.

On the other hand there was another big company(250+ employees) having office in central london that was closed as they were misusing the tier 2 visa. They were sponsoring lawyers,teachers etc which was shut down.
As long as your employer has true intentions and have records to support that, home office visit is not an issue. It is their usual procedure.

[Frontier Mole]

I bet your all on business development manager or sales and marketing roles. Good luck with that.
And the student - almost certainly is under investigation for deception.
As I say likely licence loss.

We will know in about four weeks, let the forum know how it goes.

[janinah]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply...
Yea because of nature of the business, you only expect sales, purchase, marketing people needed... It's not service industry. Anyway, we have sales Manager, Marketing Manager, Financial Manager, Credit Manager, Transport Manager.
And, about that individual i don't know what he did other than works here. So, can't comment on that. I know he may have some personal issue... But those are not links with the company.. Anyway, thanks again for your reply...

I will sure inform you the outcome of the visit...

[janinah]

My friend was in a similar situation. 3 Cos were applied from Chennai.All of them were called for interview in Chennai as well as there was a home office visit to his employer. The home office basically checked the contract agreements/ visa status of existing employees. The main purpose of the visit is to check the core business of the employer and if the employer is following the rules and regulation for tier 2. At the end it was all fine and they got the visa and the company got cleared as well. It was a small company with 8- 10 employees for IT Consulting.

On the other hand there was another big company(250+ employees) having office in central london that was closed as they were misusing the tier 2 visa. They were sponsoring lawyers,teachers etc which was shut down.
As long as your employer has true intentions and have records to support that, home office visit is not an issue. It is their usual procedure.

Exactly, Know there is nothing wrong....as far i know all the papers in hand, though our HR manager went for holiday last month and will comeback end of next week. But, my another colleague just taking care his job...And, all the employees are working fine.. Out of 120 employees only 5 sponsored, may be 3/4 other students, rest of all british or european citizen...

Anyway, you know still its normal to be nervous...thanks anyway for the reply...

[The Station Agent]

These jobs don't sound like they meet the RLMT.

[physicskate]

These jobs don't sound like they meet the RLMT.

But if they all switched from Tier 4 or Tier 1 PSW? Hmmm this smells funny to me...

[The Station Agent]

It's what happens when you let employers issue their own work permissions; some of them will abuse it. And only later will some of them get caught out. Tier 2 is meant for highly-skilled jobs that can't be filled from within the EEA. Warehouse workers? Do me a favour.

[janinah]

I bet your all on business development manager or sales and marketing roles. Good luck with that.
And the student - almost certainly is under investigation for deception.
As I say likely licence loss.

We will know in about four weeks, let the forum know how it goes.

Hi Frontier Mole,

As I promised, the update news... Yesterday we received reply from ukvi that they happy to maintain our rating as A rated organisation...

To be honest, after the visit we were hoping same kind of result as that visit was successful and they were happy on that day...
Anyway, thanks for your help...

[Frontier Mole]

Out of interest what part of the country is the business based?
Just the county will do.

[janinah]

Our company has couple of branches... But main office at Barking and trades normally south east and south west of England.....

[nothappywithukba]

Hi all, we have a scheduled home office visit at my work place in the next couple of weeks and wondered from the below post if anyone have any idea of which question they may possibly ask.

So far we are compliant in everything and nothing seems to be amiss.

Kindly give input all those who have had visitations please and all who have any idea.

Many thanks

Hi All,

Our company currently sponsored 5 employees, 2 other on the process waiting for UKBA reply. Today, suddenly they came us but our director asked next week as we were leaving for friday special prayer. Anyway, they asked to attend all the sponsored employees to be present on that day. We are really curious, what actually they wanna check or ask us. Someone says, they will interview everybody, some say will check papers. Though, hopefully our all papers ready, still nervous little bit.

So, if you guys have any experience of facing these kind of Home Office visit or interview, could you please share your experience, information....

Thank You guys in advanced....

[janinah]

From my experience, they will ask all sponsored employee for atleast half an hour 1-1 interview and company director for couple of hours. All employees will be asked personal question starting from day one in UK to up to date... What education, experience, job, hours, pay, tax, how got this job, any interview etc etc. And, for director how company employee & sponsor... Step by step procedure, checks, keep documents upto date etc all.

[kakool]

I am not an expert recently joined this website which is very helpful and I'm sure all the seniors are very expert. I would like to share my experience, we are a small company with 25 workers (2 tier 2 holders) there was a home office visit in April 2015 they spent half an hour with company director to check the paperwork and never asked to interview any employee. as per my experience its a routine check after renewal the license and nothing to worry about if everything is genuine.

Thanks!

[Frontier Mole]

There are different types of visits, some are tick box exercises to ensure that the business is operating and doing what it is expected. They will be short and not particularly invasive. An hour to an hour and a half type things. Sometimes announced sometimes not.

Others are due to specific reasons based on information held, intelligence checks or due the business sector risks. These are not likely to be announced, will be two or more officers in attendance and will be highly invasive. Staff could be interviewed, detailed inspection of staff files, bank accounts, recruitment details etc etc. they can and do take several hours to complete depending on staff numbers and the ongoing findings.
They are more than likely to have enough information to suspend the licence even before they turn up. If the Sponsor fails to cooperate then that strengthens their case even more.

There is not much of a middle ground, there are no random visits, every visit is either designed to clear a risk profile or meet the need of specific policy. No one gets a renewed licence that has never been visited before as an example.

Abuse trend visits are very common. They have a list of things that set off the alarm bells and the Sponsor will get visited. Hit one of the triggers and you can be sure of an invasive visit and be prepared for a long day at the office. Classic cases are roles that do not fit with the business, PR roles in a curry house... Sales manager in a corner shop, marketing manager for a bed and breakfast guest house. It is a thing called the genuine vacancy test, they are pushing hard on those things.

[kakool]

@Frontier Mole..Thanks for the explanation which will definitely benefit other users. I just shared my experience and they might came for a reason though. but I was told by the HR that was routine check after license renewal and that's what they said to the management, so I shared my experience and as I said if everything is genuine, and paperwork is up to date then nothing to worry about but if someone is abusing the system then they can expect anything.

many thanks