near completed pack - queries

[WalSag]

Hello,
I have gathered nearly all the documents for my application. I have a few questions:
1. I worked f/t throughout the qualifying period but also took (and passed) quite a few professional qualifications. Am I right that these do not need to be included? I was self funding so did not rely on student grants or student loans
2. I had a couple of payrises in my past and present jobs. Do I need to include these in the table (section 8.38) or do I just input my start salary?
3. My current employers do not state a specific number of hours, but explain that people have to be ‘flexible’ according to the needs of the business. Do I just input the number of hours I generally work each week? It’s well over 40 hours and I am not doing face time!
4. When I move jobs, I generally arrange to have a 1 or 2-week break before starting my new role. As I have a job to go to, I don’t register at Jobcentre plus. Do I need to justify the gap between leave date and start date?
5. Do the Home Office contact employers about your application? My current and last employer won’t support it at all. At my last employer, HR spent the exit interview raving about how they were too many foreigners in the UK and London had become ‘a foreign country’, and how he didn’t mind seeing ‘Blacks’ when he was on holiday in Africa however they had no business coming to live in the UK. My current job’s HR is forever harping about the fact that I should show I am willing to integrate by getting a British boyfriend. He has himself in mind and whenever we go out ‘as a team’, I spend the whole time trying to dodge him, especially once he has had a few drinks. He’s always acted as if he had done me a special favour by hiring me and I should show him more gratitude. Since the referendum, he has become even more obnoxious. I initially found this website while using google during my lunchbreak at work, and when I clicked to go to it, I got an error message along the lines of ‘you have been banned from using this board’. So someone at work must have been coming here to post fairly unfriendly comments.
6. My current and last employers have repeatedly complained that ‘European passports can be easily forged so we have no proof of who you really are’. They often hint that I am too dark skinned and haired to be from that part of Europe and have repeatedly said that I looked like I was from South Europe, Latin America, or (shock, horror!) that I could be Jewish. I am a bit worried that if the Home Office contact them they will relay their ‘concerns’. Also, as I don’t drink, don’t go clubbing, and don’t date, I am regularly suspected of being Muslim (i.e. illegal migrant using fake ID).
7. I mislaid the contract for my current job during my last housemove. I am going to have another hunt for it but if it is mislaid, will the letter of offer and the P60s and payslips be sufficient?
8. Do the Home Office mind if you sell your application as a small parcel, rather than a letter? I made sure I included as many documents as possible for proof of residence and proof of employment so the whole pack weighs nearly 1 kilo.
9. For anyone who is thinking of sending their packs in the coming days, the Post Office have announced a strike on the 15th September. Good luck to you all!

[noajthan]

Hello,
I have gathered nearly all the documents for my application. I have a few questions:
1. I worked f/t throughout the qualifying period but also took (and passed) quite a few professional qualifications. Am I right that these do not need to be included? I was self funding so did not rely on student grants or student loans
2. I had a couple of payrises in my past and present jobs. Do I need to include these in the table (section 8.38) or do I just input my start salary?
3. My current employers do not state a specific number of hours, but explain that people have to be ‘flexible’ according to the needs of the business. Do I just input the number of hours I generally work each week? It’s well over 40 hours and I am not doing face time!
4. When I move jobs, I generally arrange to have a 1 or 2-week break before starting my new role. As I have a job to go to, I don’t register at Jobcentre plus. Do I need to justify the gap between leave date and start date?
5. Do the Home Office contact employers about your application?
...
6. My current and last employers have repeatedly complained that ‘European passports can be easily forged so we have no proof of who you really are’. ...
7. I mislaid the contract for my current job during my last housemove. I am going to have another hunt for it but if it is mislaid, will the letter of offer and the P60s and payslips be sufficient?
8. Do the Home Office mind if you sell your application as a small parcel, rather than a letter? I made sure I included as many documents as possible for proof of residence and proof of employment so the whole pack weighs nearly 1 kilo.
9. For anyone who is thinking of sending their packs in the coming days, the Post Office have announced a strike on the 15th September. Good luck to you all!

I assume you are a Union citizen.

Are you an A8 national?
If so, and you were working in UK during/before 2011, were you fully and properly registered under WRS?

1) Sounds like you fall into the worker category of qualified person.

Be careful, Q8.38 is part of Section 8 for those with a retained right of residence - not for you.
Skip it. (All of it).

2) See #1

3) See #2

4) It's a grey area; anecdotally, short gaps may be overlooked.

5) Yes, employer may be contacted to crosscheck and verify.

6) HO is clinical and dispassionate (if Kafkaesque). They don't operate on basis of unsubstantiated rumour and anecdote.

They are also more capable at sniffing out falsified documents than tipsy and/or frisky managers and HR staff ever would be.

7) Sounds like you need to get a fresh copy anyway.
But yes, the rest should be adequate.

8] It's a government department, they will be completely indifferent.
I'm sure its not the caseworkers who opens the bundles anyway (but without someone 'on the inside' who can tell).

9) And to you.

Pro tip: the current 'monster' form is not a mandatory, legal requirement.
You may use an earlier, simpler version of the form if you wish to go commando.
If feeling hardcore you could even apply by letter. But a form probably gives some structure.