Tier 2 (General) - Secondary employment outside of the UK

[nartallo]

Hi all,

I worked on Tier 2 General visa for about 3 years and occasionally (e.g. several months long) I went abroad for work which I know is acceptable. However, nowadays my company wants me to work abroad more extensively ideally as a primary work. I might manage and convince my company for me to stay just above 180days/12months in UK in the next final two years before my ILR application. However my concern is the below statement on April2016 published calculating continous period guide (page 22):

"If the absences are connected to other employment outside the UK, which demonstrates the
UK employment is secondary, these are not permitted absences, and the continuous period
requirement is broken. Absences due to employment, whether related to the applicant’s job
in the UK or not, count towards the 180 day maximum each year."

My questions are
1) When it says "other employment", does that mean a different company, and therefore I should not worry about getting a direct refusal regardless the days count since I will be working for same business/sub-company and similar trade name?
2) the first sentence tells me if officer decides I majorly work for abroad, then I will get refusal regardless the absent days count. On the other hand second sentence tells me that, as long as I spend more than 180days/12 months in UK then I can still get ILR even though I work majorly abroad (e.g. visiting UK on holidays, and spending more weekdays abroad compared to UK)

Could you please advise which route I should take to manage completing 5 years period on Tier 2 that leads to ILR?

I would also consider suggestions such as officially quitting work in UK (my company is okay with that as long as I do work abroad), and before leaving UK I could switch to another category in UK that you will suggest as advantageous. For instance I could take parttime employment, do a volunteer job, establish a business or join to an existing business, or even consider taking a mortgage in order to improve my position to get ILR. I am open for suggestions. Unfortunately 10 years long residence cases does not seem to work since I came to uk on late 2010, and that has a 540 days requirement which is too low for me.

Thanks in advance for your help.