Tier 4 to skilled worker visa

[Rs29229]

Hi everyone, need some advice and understanding on my situation. I am a PhD student with an extension of submission date till March 2023. (Last year 2021 November I extended it)
I then got a job offer and CoS with my start date of May 2022.
I applied for skilled worker visa in April 2022. Visa decision has not yet come. My HR has allowed me to join as the given date of 1st May 2022.
Please tell me is this okei or should I be worried. .my decision is delayed now 12th weeks and still pending. Please advice if I am okei joining on 1dt May as my advisor in uni said I can join once I submit my application. Please someone help. Feeling Very confused now.

[Rs29229]

My job and phd is with the same uni. Previous to application I was part time and now I am full time.

[sah10406]

I applied for skilled worker visa in April 2022. Visa decision has not yet come. My HR has allowed me to join as the given date of 1st May 2022.
Please tell me is this okei or should I be worried. .my decision is delayed now 12th weeks and still pending. Please advice if I am okei joining on 1dt May as my advisor in uni said I can join once I submit my application. Please someone help. Feeling Very confused now.

So the professional visa adviser at your university has explained that you can start work once you make the Skilled worker application as per Appendix Student ST 26.6, the HR at your employer who is sponsoring your visa has allowed you to start work accordingly two months ago, and your Skilled worker application is submitted and proceeding as normal.

Please clarify what aspect of this is making you so "very confused" that you are crowdsourcing "help" from the general public here, rather than the professional visa adviser and HR manager who you already have at your disposal?

[Rs29229]

I want to know what are the rules for students like us who are applying for skilled worker visa. If possible tell me the rules. I am not sure if this long period of waiting will have any negative impact now.

[sah10406]

I want to know what are the rules for students like us who are applying for skilled worker visa. If possible tell me the rules.

If you genuinely think the international student adviser has wrongly advised you about this and/or that the employer who is sponsoring your visa is employing you illegally, best query it with them.

Meanwhile, I quoted the relevant paragraph of the immigration rules in my previous answer, which I assume the adviser did too.

[Rs29229]

Thanks for sharing the rules. I missed to see it earlier. With the visa delays everyday I am feeling tensed. Yes. This is what the adviser had mentioned. Fingers crossed now.

[Rs29229]

Thanks for sharing the rules. I missed to see it earlier. With the visa delays everyday I am feeling tensed. Yes. This is what the adviser had mentioned. Fingers crossed now.

[csh1983]

Seems you have been advised wrongly by the both your university adviser and HR department. Unless you are within 3 months of completing your PhD programme at the date of your skilled worker visa application, you cannot start a full-time permeant role while waiting for a decision on your work visa application.

[sah10406]

Unless you are within 3 months of completing your PhD programme at the date of your skilled worker visa application, you cannot start a full-time permeant role while waiting for a decision on your work visa application.

If the end date of the course is more than 3 months hence, an employer can just adjust the contract to temporary, then upgrade it to permanent when the applicant gets their Skilled worker permission.

[csh1983]

If you have already breached the conditions of your student visa by taking a full-time permanent job, you cannot undo it by changing your employment contract at this stage. Furthermore, your university may withdraw your skilled worker sponsorship in order to protect their licence.

The best course of action for you may be to do nothing more and wait for your new visa.

[sah10406]

If you have already breached the conditions of your student visa by taking a full-time permanent job, you cannot undo it by changing your employment contract at this stage.

OP's employer has a Skilled worker sponsor license that they are keen to protect. It seems more than likely that they have checked the issues around issuing the CoS and on OP starting work, as they would with all employees. They appear to have done the very common workaround by making him a temporary employee behind the scenes, perhaps based on a probationary period. If OP is genuinely concerned that they did not do this, and really believes that both the university and the employer may using them to be facilitate illegal working, their best course of action is to query it with HR.

Furthermore, your university may withdraw your skilled worker sponsorship in order to protect their licence.

I assume you mean Student visa sponsorship? Unless the university is both the Student visa sponsor and the Skilled worker sponsor.

Either way, given that both the employer's HR and the university's advice service have given the same advice on this, it seems very highly unlikely that either party will be minded to withdraw sponsorship.

OP, you are clearly anxious about this matter, so best double-check it with HR. If their reaction is "Oh my God, you are right, we need to suspend your work immediately", you can take it from there, perhaps making a complaint to both the university and the employer. But this all seems very far-fetched.

[Rs29229]

Seems you have been advised wrongly by the both your university adviser and HR department. Unless you are within 3 months of completing your PhD programme at the date of your skilled worker visa application, you cannot start a full-time permeant role while waiting for a decision on your work visa application.

Yes , i had this confusion. Hence asked here. waiting now.