ILR on sick leave

[CosmosS]

Hi,

Am I able to apply for ILR if I'm on half pay due to sick leave?

Or should I defer it until I'm back to work on full pay?

And if I can't apply on half pay - When I'm back to work on full pay, how many payslips of full pay do I need? Is it just a one month payslip of full pay before applying?

Thank you.

[manci]

Am I able to apply for ILR if I'm on half pay due to sick leave?

Yes, you can apply for ILR while on reduced pay due to sick leave if you are otherwise eligible. Consideration of your application will be based on your salary when you return to work, as stated in the employer's letter. (see migration rule SW 24(b). The letter should also confirm that you are on sick leave.

You only need to submit a payslip and a bank/building society statement covering your most recent month’s pay which should be dated no earlier than 31 days before the date of the application.

[CosmosS]

I am going to further discuss this with my previous employer but it appears that I have unauthorized paid leave according to them of 3 weeks duration. I know there is a conflict with the combination of unauthorized and paid so I don't know how that happened. My understanding at the time was that this was going to be regarded as authorized unpaid leave. Not sure how I ended up with unauthorized paid leave.


In any case, I will likely try and provide evidence that it was authorized and even payment back to change it from paid to unpaid leave because I was not supposed to be paid.

However, if they refuse to label it as authorized. How does the home office view unauthorized unpaid leave as opposed to authorised unpaid leave. The only official documentation that I could find was that unpaid leave should be of 4 weeks full time equivalent duration at most for it to not impact upon the application.

Many thanks.

[CosmosS]

I have asked a solicitor online who said that it is fine if they issue a letter confirming my employment details and salary without eluding to all leaves being approved/or no unauthorized leave. They feel that I'm overthinking and it is true that there is probably a degree of overthinking. However, I do trust the advice that I get from here more than anywhere else to be honest.

I am wondering whether I should just use the letter as it is as they suggested which contains no mention of leaves at all being approved or authorised or unauthorized. Or maybe I should speak to my employer again and show them correspondence that proves the leave can be considered authorized for them to state that I had no unauthorized leave on the letter. Rather than including a letter that does not touch at all on the subject of leaves. Many thanks. Just to give some context this was a previous employer with a 1 year job out of the 5 years so I do have other letters covering the 4 years which say that I have no unauthorized leave.

[CosmosS]

Hi,

I am about to submit my application.
The application form is out of date. It does ask you whether you are on paternity or maternity leave (for salary purposes I am sure). However, that specific bit does not include sick leave so i answered no. Although I am pretty sure its just an outdated application.

In any case, I got this on the document requirements on the application form:

"If you are currently on maternity, paternity, shared parental or adoption leave, you should provide the last payslip and bank or building society statement you received prior to the start of your leave. The statement must show the payment, as shown on the payslip. You must also provide payslips and bank or building society statements during the period of maternity, paternity, shared parental or adoption leave. The last payslip and statement must be dated no earlier than one calendar month before the date of the application."

I presume sick leave is in the same category. Should I follow that request on the application form and include payslips prior to commencement of sick leave (Which I do have and they include my full salary) or should I just follow the previous advice on the forum and only include my last payslip. The requirement does frankly seem to be stupid because someone could have gone on sick leave or paternity leave right at the start of their employment in which case they would not be able to produce a payslip with a full salary.

In my case (being on sick leave), should I include a payslip before the sick leave started that has my full pay, and all the payslips during my sick leave as the application form says? Or just the last one?

Many thanks

[CosmosS]

To give you a bit of an update.
My current sponsor letter did not contain a detailed absence history and only said that they were "not aware of any unauthorized leave" and that I was on sick leave and stated the date the leave started and said that the leave was "pay affecting". They included my normal salary which which meets the salary requirements according to the caseworker guidance and the salary tables in addition to other requirements as per home office guidance. The letter also contained my contract end date. The nature of my job means that a sponsor is unable to say "for the foreseeable future".

In terms of my sick leave and applying for ILR. The caseworker guidance says:

"An applicant may currently be absent from work for any of the following reasons: • statutory maternity leave, paternity leave or parental leave • statutory adoption leave.• sick leave • assisting with a national or international humanitarian or environmental crisis (providing their sponsor agreed to the absence for that purpose) • taking part in legally organised industrial actio

If the sponsor has stated the applicant is currently absent from work for one of these reasons or has returned from such an absence within the month before the date of application, they may currently be on reduced or nil pay. You must consider their salary on their return to work, as stated by their sponsor. You must also bear in mind the impact reduced or nil pay will have had on their PAYE records. You should ask the sponsor to confirm the dates of the absence or absence (if they have not already done so) and check earlier PAYE records if necessary."

I am almost certain it would have been fine with just the last payslip however because the caseworker guidance says "check earlier PAYE records if necessary", I thought I'd just include all payslips since the leave started and one payslip from before the leave started. I really do not know whether they need the payslips to view my PAYE records as there is this mention of "automated PAYE checks" coming in. But anyway I did include all the payslips as per above, just in case as not to delay the application with them requesting further information.

One of my previous employers said that I had "paid unauthorized leave" of 2 weeks duration and therefore just issued a generic employment letter that did not even broach on the topic of leaves at all. I just decided to use that letter without giving myself a headache with arguing with the previous employer.

I applied on a Saturday for super priority and got a decision in early morning Monday so must have been a straight forward application as it probably took not more than half an hour to process if they started their working day at 8 am.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for all the mods on the forum who are very knowledgeable and are up to date with all the latest immigration rules. I found that the quality of advice you get with solicitors online or via telephone is not always up-to-date or satisfactory especially if they're not that interested in immigration law, whereas I have found informal advice on this forum to be always consistent with the latest guidance/immigration rules from the home office.