Verification of work experience

[yodiyokun]

A colleague of mine just got his refusal letter from the HSMP team.
They didn't state the no of points awarded...they only said the BHC nigeria could not verify his work experience letters from his previous and current employers.

He can go for a review..but how does he tackle this?
the correct contact details are on both company letter headed paper used.
I am sure they dint confrm from his current employer... we would have been told if they did( Im certain of that since we work at the same place)....what can he do..
Its really confusing.
i have seen only one case similar on this board(maverick_76) but his was a bit different in that he used an old letter head, he requested for a review but he never said the outcome.

I'll appreciate any ideas on how to tackle this

Thanks

[Chess]

make sure that the 'Previous' employers exist and that they paid taxes etc

[yodiyokun]

Chess,
Please dont start....
He had only 1 previous employer be4 his current one and im very very sure they exist.
Now the issue is whether you believe me...??
and if you dont too bad isnt it??

J, see what I mean..lol

[Chess]

Chess,
Please dont start....
He had only 1 previous employer be4 his current one and im very very sure they exist.
Now the issue is whether you believe me...??
and if you dont too bad isnt it??

J, see what I mean..lol

Oga bro?


I meant make sure they have not gone bankrupt and that BHC in Naija can phone them and have a chat with them if necessary!!!!.

if they have gone bankrupt then specify this

[yodiyokun]

Thanks,
They are not bankrupt and not in receivership either..
They are well financially and pay their taxes... this kind of employers cant evade tax either..they are too much regulated.. they pay fines if they mess up..so they are careful..
Thats why its a bit funny to say they cant be verified....
At least at the current employer... the BHC has verified his employment be4 when he applied for a visit visa some time ago.

Please any one else with any other line of thot?
thanks

[maverick_76]

I had a similar case as my previous employer could not be verified. I had sent in a review stating the new contact information was in the cover letter of my application.

After the review BHC contacted my previous employer but my review request was again rejected stating that they could not contact my previous employers. This was really strange.

I had sent them another review, which met the same fate as the previous one. I feel once they reject you on the basis of non verification of work experience, they send back all your docs without keeping any records with them. So, it becomes impossible for them to go back and upheld the original decision.

[pantaiema]

In my opinion the best way to prove work experience is by showing document which is undeniable such us tax document, etc.

I think the HO, BHC and british embassy have learnt a lot that the document using headed letters, stamps, etc is too easy to fake or to make it.


I believe most of you understand what I am refering here.

Take acere

[Boom05]

Pantaiema, are you saying applicants should get their employer to attach tax documents or company registration document etc to prove that the reference letter is not forged. Getting the type of reference letter that normally meets HO requirement is difficult enough from most employer, especially if one is unlucky (in quote) to work in a large organisation where most issues/employee relationship are somehow impersonal. To now demand that an employer attach sensitive document as reference to an employee (who will probably leave on getting HSMP) might be asking for too much as the case may be. Then, most past employer dont really care about you, especially if staff turnover is very high in the company, nobody cares to go and check archive of dusty files for someone who left 5 or 10 years ago.


To Yodiyokun- I know from my personal experience that they do verify, and if one is lucky, the personnel staff (or whatever dept handling such issue in your organisation) would be someone that understand what is needed and would be able to give the appropriate answers. Some people find it quite uncomfortable giving (sometimes too its company policy) such personnel information to outsiders on the phone and that might cause some trouble if BHC called to know infos such as your current level, salary, whether the job is graduate level etc, especially when the verification is not in writing, its on the phone.

As funny as this might sound, available infrastructure do play some role, you can imagine what happens if BHC called the company when most telephone lines are down (this is not a strange happening in Nigeria, we know the state of some basic infrastrutures) but someone from another country e.g UK can not comprehend why a company can not be reached on the phone number on their letter head.

In my case, one of my previous employer switched totally from NITEL line (YODI you can attest to their reliability) to another telephone provider which means you cant reach them unless you are aware beforehand (i wasnt aware too) and as you might guess, it was those NITEL lines that was on the letterhead as at the time my reference was issued in April 2004 and the verification was done sometimes around February 2005. Now, what probably saved me was that the BHC official that made the call asked my Head of Human Resources (HHR)if there are records of my previous employer . My HHR simply faxed them the reference details my organisation received from my previous employers when I was newly employed.

To answer the, 'how do you know' question, there is where Lady Luck must have been related to me , The Head of HR happened to be my senior manager some years back and he called to ask me why BHC wants info about me and issues concerning my previous experience and what I earn, he said he was curious because the BHC person called several times that day while he wasnt in the office. I told him of my HSMP application and that it might be related to it, since that is the only thing, im aware of, that relates me to the BHC at that point in time. He then called for my file and responded to the enquiries.He even joked about me joining the andrews. It was after this that i called a friend in my former office on his mobile when i couldnt reach him on the office line (of course i want to know whether they asked questions about me there too).It was the guy who now told me that they have changed the lines. Its not everybody that could be that lucky, the wrong person could have answered the phone.Can you imagine what could have happened if they couldnt reach the employer i spent 5 solid years with?

[yodiyokun]

boom,
Thanks for that expose.
I have a question though... was all this verfication done before your HSMP application was approved or when you applied for the visa at BHC.

Would really like to know that.

[Chess]

I know from my personal experience that they do verify,

I am not sure whether this applies everywhere. Interseting point though!

[MWazir]

I hope this does not offend anybody on this thread as I am only speculating what the case workers might be thinking.

All the instances on this thread where the work experience has been verified by the local BHC, come from the same country. Could it be possible that there is an internal policy to have a more strenuous examination if the applicants are from a certain place?

A year back more than a couple of Pakistani nationals complained on the forum that their degrees particuarly the Masters didnt get them the required points. I also remember reading about HK nationals having their documents verified by the local BHC as part of a pilot programme. Wonder what happened about that?

[yodiyokun]

mwazir,
I wouldnt know..but hey nothing is impossible.
But I doubt it cos a lot of people i know that got approved including my self didnt experience it.

Maybe its a new policy........

[Boom05]

I got news of the approval 2 to 3 weeks (not too clear now) after the verification incident and if you read my posting on EC, i guess that verification did contribute to the smooth sailing of my EC, no serious question were asked.

I dont know the yardstick they employed and i think Mwazir may be right to some extent. I think they usually push the onus of further proof to the applicant when they are unable to verify some documents which is why you also see people getting approval after 1 or 2 rejections. Of course, that too may depend on how much time a particular caseworker decides to spend on documents he/she do not find to be straight forward. I guess if he/she simply reject, the applicant willl be forced to provide further/better proof. This is evident in the reason given in some letters of rejection posted on the board in some cases.

[visionx]

Hi all

This was my 2nd application (under 28 within UK application) because 1st they rejected saying your job is not graduate level. I had 55 points for education, previous salary n age, but got 0 points in work experience.
But even in 2nd app, they refused based on same reason. So applied for review and also complained to senior manager in HO.

Yesterday received the rejection letter for 1st review. But this time they said HO (local embassy in India )tried to contact my previous employer in India for my 2nd application. But phone numbers given on letter head for the company were old (which I was not aware of) and those numbers were disconnected. So when local embassy tried to contact my employer they came to know that these numbers are disconnected. HO said in their letter that they contacted local phone exchange in my city and came to know that this company has not got any number registered for it. (It is possible because phones can be in anyones name). Because they could not verify my reference they refused my 1st review request.

Now I have got one more review left. I want to make sure this time they can contact my employer.
So my queries are
(1)If in my 2nd review request, if I give them new contact numbers for employers, will they consider it? (I contacted my employer and I have got new numbers now)
(2)What do they normally ask to employers? What sort of questions do they ask to verify my reference? I am asking this because after looking into this forum, I think I should contact my previous manager and should make him aware that british embassy would contact you and they would ask something like this. By the way, I only applied for 2 years exp.

Any reply regarding this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks
visionx

[MWazir]

visionx,

I see you have repeated a smiliar postin the forum in less than a few hours. As I saw the other thread first, I have responded there accordingly.

In future, please have patience and somebody will answer your queries. As this topic has not been initiated by you, I will not lock it.