Salary Certificate format - Please check and comment

[amittal5]

Hi,

I am in the process of filing application for Tier 1. I am showing 10 months UK earnings (while on secondment) from Aug-07 to May-08 and 2 months Indian salary (June, Jul'08 ) as my uk assignment was over by the end of May'08.

I was paid a reference base salary plus perdiem (@ GBP 30 per day) which was non-taxable. I have got salary slips but I claimed my perdiem amount through "Expenses portal" which also included my travel expense (e.g. sometimes I claimed GBP 726.40 (Perdiem - 600, travel - 126.40). This amount always differed depending upon the period I claimed perdiem for.

I have asked my company in UK to provide me a salary certificate in the following format.
===============================================
This is to certify that XXXXXXX (Employee ID – XXXXX) was permanently employed by us from 17/05/2007 to 30/05/2008 as “XXXXXXXXâ€

[geriatrix]

Slightly off the topic - Have you confimed with BHC / UKBA whether Per Diems and foreign travel allowance can be considered as part of your salary??

Or maybe people with similar experience of working overseas can comment if this is do-able. I stand to be corrected but my limited understanding suggests that these things cannot be considered as part of the salary!

regards

[amittal5]

Slightly off the topic - Have you confimed with BHC / UKBA whether Per Diems and foreign travel allowance can be considered as part of your salary??

Or maybe people with similar experience of working overseas can comment if this is do-able. I stand to be corrected but my limited understanding suggests that these things cannot be considered as part of the salary!

regards

Nice to hear from you sushdmehta. I was almost certain that you would reply considering your active and helping nature.

Though I haven't verified this from BHC / UKBA or other people with similar experiences (as most of the people stop visiting this forum once they get their visa stamped ), I am relying on policy guidance in which they state

"108. We will only include allowances (such as those
for accommodation or schooling for an applicant’s
children) in the assessment of an applicant’s
previous earnings if they are part of an applicant’s
remuneration package and are not paid to reimburse
the applicant for money he/she has previously spent."

Clearly, perdiem component is a part of my remuneration and it was paid to me irrespective of the fact whether I actually spent the money or not. Thats why I have asked my employer to mention the same in the certificate.

Though I'll qualify with exactly 75 points even if BHC won't consider perdiem component, but I want them to include this money as well as its genuinely a part of my package.

I'll send a query to BHC as well. Let's see what do they reply. Frankly speaking, initially I was very confident about getting Tier 1 but after I read about the kind of rejection cases on this forum, I am a little doubtful. Especially, with those people who took such a rigor in applying (e.g., providing almost every document out of their shelves to BHC).

Cheers,
A.

[geriatrix]

Clearly, perdiem component is a part of my remuneration and it was paid to me irrespective of the fact whether I actually spent the money or not.

Would you be paid per diem if you do not travel? No, right? Then it is not part of your annual salary that the company is obligated to pay you.

I'll explain why - Per diem is an allowance paid by the company only when the employee travels to another location and since it is given to you only when a certain condition is met (travel) it is not part of your remuneration or salary.

Is the per diem declared on your payslips? If it is part of salary (as you say), then it has to be (irrespective of the way you submit a claim for it - online portal or on paper).


regards

[037]

no one helps me in there! cos they have got their spouses visas,

do u have any idea about sri lankan applicants from chennai

u r the only one helping in this site. pls tel me......

Slightly off the topic - Have you confimed with BHC / UKBA whether Per Diems and foreign travel allowance can be considered as part of your salary??

Or maybe people with similar experience of working overseas can comment if this is do-able. I stand to be corrected but my limited understanding suggests that these things cannot be considered as part of the salary!

regards

[amittal5]

Clearly, perdiem component is a part of my remuneration and it was paid to me irrespective of the fact whether I actually spent the money or not.

Would you be paid per diem if you do not travel? No, right? Then it is not part of your annual salary that the company is obligated to pay you.

I'll explain why - Per diem is an allowance paid by the company only when the employee travels to another location and since it is given to you only when a certain condition is met (travel) it is not part of your remuneration or salary.

Is the per diem declared on your payslips? If it is part of salary (as you say), then it has to be (irrespective of the way you submit a claim for it - online portal or on paper).


regards

Ahha...I see your point now. Then, can I show my reimbursements (medical, pdr and telephone) for Indian earnings? As they are not shown on the salary slips as well and I get a separate reimbursement slip to reflect the amount.

Though, the amount is credited in total into my bank account (i.e. for 40k salary + 15km reimb, 65k credited into my bank account in a single transaction).

I have got a similar Salary Certificate (as shown above) from my Indian employer for June and July'08. Do I need to attach salary slips and reimb slips along with the salary certificate? i.e., can I only provide salary certificate issued by the employer? This should avoid some confusion in case the caseworker ignores UK per diem, he/she can also ignore reimb slips amount as well.

Cheers,
A.

[antouk]

@amittal5,
to make it simple, only the amount which is shown in ur salary slip is considered by the HO. Per diem may not be considered for the reasons given by susdmehta.

as told above, for the reimbursements part, it can be taken for calculation only if it is shown in the sal slip.

[amittal5]

@amittal5,
to make it simple, only the amount which is shown in ur salary slip is considered by the HO. Per diem may not be considered for the reasons given by susdmehta.

as told above, for the reimbursements part, it can be taken for calculation only if it is shown in the sal slip.

Thanks for the clarification antouk. Its very much clear now.

Now my question is, if I have a salary certificate from my employer on company letter head clearly stating Gross and Net earnings (monthwise) for the period I am claiming points for.

And I also provide contact details of Finance/HR deptt. within my company who can corroborate the details separately, then do I need to submit salary slips as well???

I know its clearly mentioned in the policy guidance that
" (We consider that payslips and letters from an
employer are from the same source and an applicant
should therefore not provide a combination of these
two types of document.)"
But do VFS guys (who I believe haven't read policy guidance) ask for salary slips in particular at the time of document submission?

I am asking this because my employer(s) consider per diem as a part of salary and they are ready to give me the salary certificate with Gross (sum of base + perdiem/reimb) and Net earnings.

Cheers,
A.

[antouk]

Now my question is, if I have a salary certificate from my employer on company letter head clearly stating Gross and Net earnings (monthwise) for the period I am claiming points for.
And I also provide contact details of Finance/HR deptt. within my company who can corroborate the details separately, then do I need to submit salary slips as well???

This shud be fine. VFS guys cannot mandate anything. they r jus agents appointed by BHC.

But do not forget to attach the bank statements along with it. And most importantly, the amount mentioned in ur letter shud match the bank sal credits. Be very cautious in this respect, bcos i know a case where they rejected the visa jus bcos payslip had a mismatch by few pence.

[NutanRaj]

Per Diem includes non taxable living expenses...Which is legal in UK...for the first 2 years period after your employer has to pay the full salary...

In Income tax returns there is section for foreign company employees where they can claim this facility...on this logic many non UK companies are getting Tax benefits...

Here we no need to travel to gain Per diem...Travel benefits comes under Travel expences which you will not include in your total salary(Gross)

Many of my friends who cam from India applied HSMP by keeping perdiem amount and got 100% success..

All the best...

[amittal5]

Thanks for the clarifications again.

I have matched the Net Salary amounts as mentioned in the Bank statement and salary certificate.

I have now decided to:-

1) Provide UK Employer's Salary Certificate (for 10 months) + Salary Slips + Perdiem payment slips (as the amount has been credited separately).

2) Current Employer's Salary Certificate only (as the Net amount matches with the bank statement).

I believe at worse, BHC will ignore my UK per diem component, and aven after that I qualify for 75 points (including 5 points for UK experience as UK earnings then would be approx. 19K GBP > 16k GBP).

I feel much more confident about the application now. My finance deptt. has informed me that the salary information is confidential and they won't disclose it to any third party (verification agency) unless I ask them explicitly to do so, which I will do. Even then, I haven't mentioned any specific person's extension no. in the certificate as my colleagues are mostly outside smoking . So, I'll provide my company's board no. to BHC and advise them to ask for Finance deptt.

Hope this should work.

Cheers,
A.

[geriatrix]

no one helps me in there! cos they have got their spouses visas,

do u have any idea about sri lankan applicants from chennai

u r the only one helping in this site. pls tel me......

It has been suggested to you before that it is not a wise thing to hijack a discussion with a query irrelevant to the ongoing discussion. If you conisder yourself Highly Skilled, please think and act like one. And respect what others suggest to you.

I can appreciate your anxiety but no one here can tell you whether your husband's application will be accepted (or rejected) and how much time it can take. Every application is judged on its own merits and therefore timeslines can vary. And it shouldn't be difficult for a Highly Skilled individual to figure out that only the local BHC post where an application is submitted can advise on current processing times. People here cannot do anything more but share timeslines of their own applications based on their personal experience - which they have done. Why don't you make an effort to search on your own for such postings where people have posted their timelines? There are loads of such posts and I am sure there would be some about Chennai also.

regards

[taniaferoz]

please help me with my question.

as per the policy, home office require two pieces of documents from seperate source.

the suggesyed: 1. salary slip & 2. bank statement.

In my case my employer is a bank and the employees salary is deposited in the staff account at the bank only. what will be my required docs?

is it okay for me to submitt my salary slips and bank statement? I think it is but not sure.

please help

[geriatrix]

Cluttering the board with duplicate posts doesn't guarantee immediate reponses but does manage to annoy people on this forum. Read this will be useful.

please help me with my question.

as per the policy, home office require two pieces of documents from seperate source.

the suggesyed: 1. salary slip & 2. bank statement.

In my case my employer is a bank and the employees salary is deposited in the staff account at the bank only. what will be my required docs?

is it okay for me to submitt my salary slips and bank statement? I think it is but not sure.

please help

Being employed in a bank doesn't mean that you can't use bank statements as an independent evidence. It is but natural that bank employees will have salary accounts in their own bank.

Bank statements are issued by a "bank" and not by an employer (even though a bank is an employer). And hence bank statements will always be treated as evidence from a "bank". Nothing to worry about.

regards