Tier 2 General ILR Absences Letter

[maverick278]

Hello gurus,

Need some clarity for my application. I had originally entered the UK in 2011 under Tier 2 ICT established staff category, and successfully switched to Tier 2 General category in Nov 2014 in country. However, I had changed job again with a different sponsor in Jun 2018.

When I started applying for my ILR earlier this month, I stumbled upon the "absences letter from previous employer" nightmare. Now, the Employer I had worked for is an A rated sponsor and is a very big organisation. My overall absences from the country with my previous employer is below

Exit Date Entry Date No of Days absent
01/12/2015 11/01/2016 42
24/03/2016 28/03/2016 5
24/06/2016 03/07/2016 10
20/07/2016 25/07/2016 6
25/08/2016 06/09/2016 13
15/10/2016 23/10/2016 9
04/06/2017 13/06/2017 10
24/08/2017 12/09/2017 20
19/04/2018 28/04/2019 10

Consolidated absences per year with my previous employer is below

Year No of Days Absent
2015 31
2016 54
2017 30
2018 10

None of these absences are work related though. They are either pleasure trips across Europe or my yearly sojourn to India. I have been desperately trying to get the leave of absences letter in the prescribed format (I had taken one from one of the threads on this site who got their application approved) from my previous employer. At first, they flat out refused stating that it is not part of their policy to issue such letters. After literally begging for months, they eventually provided me with a leave letter instead.

However, that letter was marred with inconsistencies - mostly because they said they won't include weekends and holidays as part of this letter, and also one account of bereavement leave of 5 days which for some reason isn't part of their records, and at times the number of days they stated in the letter is wildly inaccurate - in short, if I attach that letter, it would seem like I had unauthorised absences from the country as there are breaks between the dates I am out of the country.

I had secured the required letters in the prescribed format from my current employer. They were even kind enough to reach out to our company lawyer to check on this - however he has come back and said it is a mandatory document without which the application stands a good chance to be rejected.

My overall absences are split across my current and previous employers as below

Previous employer
2015 31
2016 54
2017 30
2018 10

Current employer

2018 28
2019 46

However, only 20 (2018) and 27 (2019) are vacation days. Rest are business travels. All these dates are already vouched for by the current employer including reasons.

I am already eligible to apply, with further delays in the offing owing to this unfortunate situation. I am still desperately trying to get that letter from my previous employer. I have my Tier 2 general Visa till May 2020, so I have time to wait but with Brexit, new legislation et al, I do not want to wait indefinitely and miss the boat completely.

So my queries are below

1) What is the bare minimum they should vouch for should they accept to at least provide me with some form of absences letter without any dates in there

2) Is there any merit in using the leave letter with missing dates (some dates are altogether missing as I once had a trip across the channel on Easter break for which obviously there are no records) and explaining that they do not have records for the days - I have my passport stamps proving that I am out of the country, I also have salary slips for each of the months I was absent showing that I have had no deductions in pay, I also have P60s, P45 for all years in question, as do I have bank statements

So in the unfortunate event of my previous employer refusing to provide me with any letter at all, do I stand a chance to argue my case with any of the other collateral, or I should just accept the fact that this document is all too important and there is nothing I can do to overcome it?

Any pointers from you experts would be deeply appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Som

[aman90]

Employer Letter not required for less than 30 days of absences.

[maverick278]

Thanks but in 2016 I had a total of 54 days including weekends and holidays

[aman90]

Thanks but in 2016 I had a total of 54 days including weekends and holidays

And hence you need an absence letter for that period alone from ur previous employer. For the days you were out of the country due to work.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... pdf#page61

257 to 261

[maverick278]

Thanks but in 2016 I had a total of 54 days including weekends and holidays

And hence you need an absence letter for that period alone from ur previous employer. For the days you were out of the country due to work.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... pdf#page61

257 to 261

Thank you mate but I had no business travel with my previous employer. Every one of those days are personal days off. I had 30 days of paid time off and 54 days includes weekends and bank holidays as well. Since there were no business travels, they are refusing to provide me with any letter

[aby00156]

You don't have to give the reason for taking off. As long as your employer is aware and you did not breach any immigration rule, you should be fine.

Just put a start date and end date of the period you took off from work. (which you booked with your employer).

[midhatten]

Not sure this is helpful, but a few things stuck out to me (i'm dealing with a similar issue, so have been reading up). Pages refer to this guidance document for case reviewers: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... 9.0ext.pdf

1) are you calculating for whole days or total travel days? according to guidance only whole day absences should be counted (p. . This shaved quite a few off from my calculations

2) have you calculated which of these are working days? According to guidance, the case worker can use discretion if the absences do not exceed 30 working days + public holidays (p. 13) This shaved quite a few off my calculation!

3) For periods before 11 Jan 2018, the consecutive 12 month periods are based on your application date (See example on page 9). I guess in theory you could be strategic with your application date!

Hope this helps - I'm also working through this with an unhelpful previous employer so let me know if you have a different interpretation!

[maverick278]

Not sure this is helpful, but a few things stuck out to me (i'm dealing with a similar issue, so have been reading up). Pages refer to this guidance document for case reviewers: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... 9.0ext.pdf

1) are you calculating for whole days or total travel days? according to guidance only whole day absences should be counted (p. . This shaved quite a few off from my calculations

2) have you calculated which of these are working days? According to guidance, the case worker can use discretion if the absences do not exceed 30 working days + public holidays (p. 13) This shaved quite a few off my calculation!

3) For periods before 11 Jan 2018, the consecutive 12 month periods are based on your application date (See example on page 9). I guess in theory you could be strategic with your application date!

Hope this helps - I'm also working through this with an unhelpful previous employer so let me know if you have a different interpretation!

Cheers mate. When have you booked your appointment? Let me also check out your inputs to see if I get somewhere comfortable

[midhatten]

Cheers mate. When have you booked your appointment? Let me also check out your inputs to see if I get somewhere comfortable

Haven't booked yet - I hit my 5 year mark in Feb, so just just trying to figure out if I need to chase anything down now. Let me know how it goes!

[maverick278]

Cheers mate. When have you booked your appointment? Let me also check out your inputs to see if I get somewhere comfortable

Haven't booked yet - I hit my 5 year mark in Feb, so just just trying to figure out if I need to chase anything down now. Let me know how it goes!

Thanks mate, I will definitely update this thread!

If I alter my application date to 12/1/2020 and only take in whole days of absence, I get the below with far fewer days

Year from	Year to	total days of absence	Working days of absence
12/01/2015	12/01/2016	40	25
12/01/2016	12/01/2017	33	18
12/01/2017	12/01/2018	26	17
12/01/2018	12/01/2020	68	47
--------------	----------	---------------------------	--------------------------------

Which kinda falls within the discretionary period I suppose if I go by the guidance where they have said 30 working days and public holidays to apply any discretion? Also, what is this whole rolling basis? Should I be computing like above? As in, take all days out and club it within the same? How will they apply discretion for this period? However, I do have letter for all but one absence during the rolling period of 12/1/2018 to 12/1/2020 as I changed employment in June 2018 and I had only 6 days of absence from 12/1/2018 to June 2018 with the previous employer for which they wont provide me with proof.

So should I go ahead and book this date and go through? Anyone else have had any similar issues?

[KenBossini]

I applied for my ILR over two years ago. I have had only one employer. They refused to give me a list of holidays on the letter. However, they did mention that I did not breach my holiday limit and that I never had any unreported absences. That worked for me. I think the case worker just needs to have this sort of confirmation from all your employers. Try and see if you can get a similar letter from your previous employer. Anyway, looking at your holiday numbers, they seem quite reasonable and your application should be fine either way.

Regards,
K.

[maverick278]

I applied for my ILR over two years ago. I have had only one employer. They refused to give me a list of holidays on the letter. However, they did mention that I did not breach my holiday limit and that I never had any unreported absences. That worked for me. I think the case worker just needs to have this sort of confirmation from all your employers. Try and see if you can get a similar letter from your previous employer. Anyway, looking at your holiday numbers, they seem quite reasonable and your application should be fine either way.

Regards,
K.

Thank you so much. Yes I am trying to get a similar letter stating there were no unauthorised absences and that my leaves were approved as per prevailing policies. Hope to get that soon enough

[maverick278]

Dear all,

Many thanks for your help in this, I got my ILR done in Croydon and the decision arrived in under an hour for me which I thought was ridiculous!

I did get my absences letter from my previous employer though - I contacted my current employer’s immigration lawyer who deemed it as a mandatory document, cheekily enough I asked him to send a correspondence to my previous employer and that instantly helped me land the letter I needed! May be that can help...

Good luck to all who are in the same boat...

[midhatten]

Congrats - that's awesome!