Tier 2 General visa working from abroad remotely

[aws2]

Hi

My friend is working in Tier 2 General visa since Nov 2019. He traveled to India in mid March 2020 for personal reasons and has to extend his stay due to multiple family emergencies (including COVID hospitalization of entire family and to take care of his parents who is still recovering from COVID). He is working remotely from India since March 2020 and his employer is aware of this. Is there any impact as he is working in India for UK employer for nearly 11 months.

[manci]

Is there any impact as he is working in India for UK employer for nearly 11 months.

No, except if and when he applies for ILR he'll have to meet the 5 year continuous residence requirement (allowable absences)

[vinny]

Probably have to rely on the pandemic exemption. Be pedantic. Include evidence from U.K. and Foreign Government sources, etc. of being unable to travel.

[Frontier Mole]

There is no exemption for employees to work outside the UK due to COVID. The sponsor should have reported your absence via SMS, failure to due so places your sponsors licence at risk.

There has been a recurring myth that voluntary absence from the UK under Tier 2 General because of COVID is sanctioned or acceptable.

Consider the position just under genuine vacancy, if the role can be performed for prolonged periods of time outside the UK that suggests it is not a role that needs to have an overseas worker in the UK.

[manci]

There is no exemption for employees to work outside the UK due to COVID. The sponsor should have reported your absence via SMS, failure to due so places your sponsors licence at risk.

Whilst the Skilled Worker route is for employers to recruit people to work in the UK in a specific job there is no rule or guidance prohibiting sponsored workers working temporarily from abroad provided this is arranged with the employer and they remain employed and paid by their UK sponsor. There could be a variety of reasons for this, such as business related or COVID related and compassionate as in this case .

The sponsor should of course comply with its reporting duties.

Consider the position just under genuine vacancy, if the role can be performed for prolonged periods of time outside the UK that suggests it is not a role that needs to have an overseas worker in the UK.

Unless an exemption applied at the time of recruitment the employer would have carried out an RLMT confirming that no suitable settled worker could be found to fulfill the role. Also, by not challenging the CoS and by granting the visa UKVI considered that the vacancy was genuine. Remote working is now common practice and it is not a consideration in the genuine vacancy test.

[Frontier Mole]

I am afraid the genuine vacancy test that you suggest that takes place at the time a COS is issued does not in fact take place. There may have been a genuine vacancy review if it was a restricted COS / defined COS.

The genuine vacancy test can undertaken at any point and re-tested at anytime. The usual point it is first considered is at the visa application, just because UKVI do not query it at that point does not imply acceptance of the roles genuineness.
Any sponsored role can be tested at any point while the migrant is employed and subject to Tier 2 / skilled worker route.

I accept remote / home working is the new normal however remote working outside of the UK is not. You suggest that temporary working outside the UK is acceptable, for a limited period of time but not for months on end.

Feel free to contact CIH for lines on voluntary overseas working, I believe they will deem it unacceptable.

[lolo2]

I think that cases like this have been recurrent in the last weeks in this forum, it seems that some Tier 2 visa holders are misunderstanding the Covid-19 rules for working from home, and putting in risk their immigration status.

There is another post where it was mentioned that these rules don't consider anything about working from home country, or staying in home country to look after parents, children, etc. while working for your UK sponsor.

I believe that it doesn't matter how compassionate the employer is, the problem is that the employee has not been present and working in the UK, which is the main purpose of the Tier 2 visa, and this case looks even worse because the person has been abroad for almost one year.

Again, I have not seen any provision for people in a situation like this. If anyone has read any official document on this matter, it would be great to be posted here. That would help to clarify this to all of us.

[manci]

The genuine vacancy test can undertaken at any point and re-tested at anytime

Of course, but just because the role can be performed remotely it is inconceivable that the vacancy, or the job, would be considered non-genuine.

Also, a Home Office decision on the genuineness of a vacancy can be challenged and overturned by the courts as in the recent (2019) case of Suny

If anyone has read any official document on this matter, it would be great to be posted here.

I don't think there is any official guidance.

Neither am i aware of any case where a skilled worker visa holder or the sponsor had been sanctioned by the Home Office because of working from abroad. If such a case arose, and was appealed, the tribunal or court will make a ruling.

[Tiger77]

Bottom line :
You can work remotely from anywhere as long as you employer is aware and updated the HO via SMS.
Two things to consider:
1. If absence is covid19 related it won’t form part of the 180day continuous residence requirements.
2. If it’s not covid 19 related, it will be counted as part of the 180 days

[manci]

You can work remotely from anywhere as long as you employer is aware and updated the HO via SMS.

The HO doesn't need to be notified in case of sponsored employees who are working from home due to coronavirus. See https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus ... -from-home

I would take this as applying to employees in the UK and would notify the HO in case of employees working from home outside the UK

[Tiger77]

Exactly
HO is only needed to be notified of the change of employment is noncovid19 related as appears to be in the case in the original post

[Frontier Mole]

You can work remotely from anywhere as long as you employer is aware and updated the HO via SMS.

The HO doesn't need to be notified in case of sponsored employees who are working from home due to coronavirus. See https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus ... -from-home

I would take this as applying to employees in the UK and would notify the HO in case of employees working from home outside the UK

As I have said - sponsored employees working outside of the UK is a material change of migrant circumstances. The advice I have seen is that a SMS note should be completed to indicate the worker is not currently working in the UK. The current contact address should also be reflected in the Sposor records.

As I have stated already please contact CIH for advice on the matter.

[afriley]

For what it’s worth my employer (a large U.K. university) advised me that short-term WFH abroad attached to annual leave doesn’t need to be reported via SMS as that’s not a permanent/long-term change to work location.

This might depend on individual circumstances of course. Mine was only 5-10 working days max attached to annual leave.

[aws2]

Thank you all for your response. In this case, the Tier 2 visa holder himself was admitted in hospital for nearly a month due to COVID along with his family members. He is continuing post COVID treatment, hence unable to travel.