Unpaid guaranteed bonus (kept in provison) in Tier-2 General

[jms]

Hi,

Can someone please help me with my issue with Tier 2 extension.

My employer applied for Tier-2 visa in Mar 2014 with £25000 pa as tota sal (£20000 pa as basic + £5000 pa guaranteed bonus) and the visa was approved for 3 years. i.e. valid until Mar 2017. There was a contract made between myselfy and employer where £5000pa will be paid in 5 years in arears. So,15k (for 3 years) is kept as provision. I had nearly 4 annual increments on top of £20000 in this 3 years period and my current salary is 31k. No updates to UKVI made via SMS since 2014. I applied for Tier 2 extension with this 31k salary (no guaranteed bonus this time) which is more than the required sal for my job as per soc code. But, UKVI kept my application on hold and sent complex letter.

My questions here are:
was there anything wrong done by my employer or by me in my situation ?
Is it quite normal to get those complex letters in these days ? and if UKVI come for a visit / audit, what might they question us re salary etc..? Are there chances for them to visit us? If so, do they inform us?
If UKVI think that this is not the right way, do they cancel sponser license stright away and refuse my application ?

Thank you for reading,

Kind regards,

[jms]

Can anyone help me on this please ?

[hitsis]

Salary might not be the reason.Annual increase of 2000 is not significant.
What is your SoC code?

[jms]

Hello hitsis,

thanks for your reply. My job SOC code is 2139: IT consultant

Kind regards

[jms]

Hello Experts,

I would appriciate if you can give me your ideas or advises to my situation please. Its a bit urgent to me as we are expecting UKVI visit in the next week.

Thank you,

Kind regards

[mspr335]

It might be more to do with the bonus part. if it is mentioned in COS that bonus is 5000 Per annum , I think 15k should have been paid with in three years. can you check the old COS and the latest COS. are there any significant differences between both of them ?
updating the SMS is also one of the key thing that UKVI might be looking at .

[jms]

Hello mspr335,

Thank you for your reply.

No, there were no significant changes in old and new COSs except the salary. Everything was same.

I think its not mandatory to let UKVI know about annaul increments and change of addresses. I knew that they have to do report on salary reductions, job changes, COS code changes etc.. But, as per our contract 15k is payable in areas in 5 years.

Any other advices / comments from experts..

Thanks again,

kind regards

[Wanderer]

This sounds well dodgy to me, I think your employer is up to some tricks here.

[mspr335]

If 5000 GBP is mentioned as guaranteed bonus as per COS , then it should have been paid each year . A separate contract between employer and employee to pay this ( 5000 * 3) over 5 years is something that UKVI would not be aware of . Ideally you should have received a gross salary not less than 75,000 over three years and paid the tax on this income. If you haven't received 75,000 over 3 years , it might fall under salary reduction category. As you have already mentioned that there were no updates to SMS since 2014 , It might have been flagged as something not in compliance with the rules and sponsor responsibilities.

[Mysterio]

Any updates on how the UKBA/UKVI audit went through ? Did you manage to get the visa extension ?