Referee clarification

[arunsk]

Hi All,

I have gone through previous posts and list of acceptable professional persons but have few queries.
As per previous posts friends and colleagues can be referees.

I have two options,
1. Both of the referees are British Citizens. They were previous colleagues, one of them was my Manager and other is team member (having Bachelors degree in Engineering).
2. Use my manager as first referee (British Citizen) and has friends (Indian Nationality, has Bachelor/Masters degree in Engineering and one of them applied for Naturalization which is in process)

Do you see any issues with professions of the referees? I see 'Engineer (with Professional Qualifications)' in the list of acceptable professional persons so I guess this is ok.

Can I go with option 1 with both referees as British Citizens?
If I use option 2, is it ok if their application is in process?

Please clarify.

regards
Arun

[Tea_Rocket]

Your first referee can be a professional of any nationality. Your second one has to have a UK passport and must be either over the age of 25 or someone of professional standing as well.

I don't know if a Bachelor's degree in engineering actually counts as a professional qualification for the purposes of a naturalisation application. I think the Home Office would expect a professional engineer to be registered with some sort of engineering governing body. You'd need to check with your referee that that was the case.

So with all of that said, I would go with option 1, assuming that your former manager is the manager of a VAT registered company/limited company/VAT registered charity.

[arunsk]

Thanks for the reply.

From the form,
5.1 One referee should be a person of any nationality who has professional standing, such as
a minister of religion, civil servant, or a member of a professional body such as an accountant or
solicitor (who is not representing you with this application). The other referee must normally be the
holder of a British citizen passport and either a professional person or over the age of 25.

Based on this my Manager can be the other referee (first in my case), he is working in a VAT registered company.

Second referee with Bachelor degree is actually not registered with any Professional body. He has studied Engineering and currently working in a VAT registered company. This is generally the case with most of them in permanent employment. I understand the intention of being attached to a professional body is because they have something to lose should they misuse their position but most of them are simply working as employees.

Based on this, it looks like I cannot use him as second referee?

Has anyone faced issues by providing friends/colleagues who are working as permanent employees as referees?

regards
Arun