Combination of Tier 2 General and Overseas Rep Visas for ILR

[nicholasv]

I'm currently living and working in the UK on a Tier 2 General Visa (have been on this category for just over a year). I have been offered a new role for a different company in my home country, which wishes to open an office/branch in the UK. They want to put me on a Representative of an Overseas Business Visa, which would involve me resigning from my current role, returning to my home country for two to three weeks (whilst they hire me and the Representative of an Overseas Business Visa is processed), and then return to the UK as their employee. They have then said that they would be happy to offer me a new Tier 2 General Visa after they receive a license, COS, etc., which would be further down the track.

Will this impact my route to ILR? Will I be able to count the previous year on my Tier 2 General Visa if I switch to this other via, and then potentially switch back to Tier 2? Or does the 5 years have to be on a single, continuous visa category?

Can't seem to find much info online regarding this! So thank you in advance.

[Casa]

A single, continuous visa category unless applying for ILR under 10 year long residence when all legal stay will qualify.

[nicholasv]

Thanks for your help!

If I was to switch BACK on to a Tier 2 however, would this count. See below:

“To qualify for indefinite leave to remain as a Tier 2 (General) Migrant, an applicant must meet the requirements listed below.

b) The applicant must have spent a continuous period of 5 years lawfully in the UK, of which the most recent period must have been spent with leave as a Tier 2 (General) Migrant, in any combination of the following categories:
(i) as a Tier 1 Migrant, other than a Tier 1 (Post Study Work) Migrant or a Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) Migrant,
(ii) as a Tier 2 (General) Migrant, a Tier 2 (Minister of Religion) Migrant or a Tier 2 (Sportsperson) Migrant,
(iii) as a Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) Migrant, provided the continuous period of 5 years spent lawfully in the UK includes a period of leave as:
(1) a Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) Migrant granted under the Rules in place before 6 April 2010, or
(2) a Work Permit Holder, provided that the work permit was granted because the applicant was the subject of an Intra-Company Transfer,
(iv) as a Representative of an Overseas Business,”

If I'm on a Tier 2 at time of applying for ILR, then the Sole Rep Visa and the time previously spent on Tier 2 should count towards the 5 years? As it would be a combination of the above categories AND I will have most recently been on a Tier 2?

[calavera99]

Hi Casa and Nicolas,

Even though I see that it has been a while, I have an important uptade for this thread.

I had exactly the same immigration history and I was granted ILR after.

I started working with Tier II genaral (2 years) and then quit my job, returned to my home country and applied for an Overseas Representative visa for another Job. Had that job for 2 years, and again changed to another job switching back to Tier II general with a new sponsor.

My solicitors initially told me that I was not going to be able to get an ILR since I changed to Overseas representative visa from outside of UK. However I insisted that I should be able to get ILR based on the point that Overseas representative visa and tier II are listed among the categories that you can combine with when applying with a Tier II eventually. And then my solicitor asked this to HO formally.

We received a positive response from the HO. They said even though I quitted my first tier II job and left the country, I came back with a new entry clearence before my first Tier II was curtailed and therefore contiunity is not broken ( as I did not have any time in which I didn t have a valid leave yo enter UK).

Subsequently I applied with my last Tier II with a history of 5 years (Tier II + Overseas Representative + Tier II) and I was granted ILR by HO last year. Now I applied for my naturalization and waiting for a response

Hope this helps

[calavera99]

is any of the admins read this, can you please pass the info I submitted to the OP as a private message or email?

I personally had spent so much time to get consultation on this and finally sorted everything out, I don't want him to make an uneducated decision before hearing about my case.

Thanks

[CR001]

is any of the admins read this, can you please pass the info I submitted to the OP as a private message or email?

I personally had spent so much time to get consultation on this and finally sorted everything out, I don't want him to make an uneducated decision before hearing about my case.

Thanks

The OP does not have private message access and it would be inappropriate for a moderator/admin to expose our personal email addresses to a stranger on the forum simply because you are asking for an email to be sent.

The OP also has not logged into the forum since 9th June 2017.

Kindly also refrain from digging up older topics.