Tier 2 General - Waiting for sponsorship and need guidance.

[supreme_pat19]

Hi. Need urgent advice please would be really helpful.

My company applied for Sponsor License on 4th Sep'09 and its been more than two months now and we still have not received anything back from HO due to high number of applications. My PSW visa to stay in UK expires first week of Jan'10. I am assuming we will receive license in the end of Nov'09 and then within a week i'll apply for Tier 2 Geneal visa (i.e around first of of Dec'09).
But I am not confident enough as I am not sure whether its legal to stay in UK or work if one has already submitted the visa application but have not received any response from HO. Am i allowed to stay while waiting for a response from HO? Or is it better to have the COS and go back to the native country and apply from there? I am reluctant to do the latter cause my employer might not like me staying away from work for god knows how long.

I will be applying Tier 2 general visa as a Software Engineer with a salary of £22050 (experience of 2 yrs with the same company) and as I have gathered from other forums that this might not be enough and might lead to refusal. Is this really the case then end of the day there is not point appling as i would be refused and would have overstayed if applying from UK. Please suggest??

Please help,
Thanks

[tier210]

CoS shouldn't take long. Mine took 1 week. Ask your company to contact HO and find out what's happening.
If you apply via post you will stay legal until a decision is made so dont worry. Even after the decision is made you get 28 days to appeal just in case if its not in your favour and that time is counted legal.
My advice is get an appointment at PEO and get your visa extended at PEO.
best of luck

[tvn_ramesh]

My company applied for Certifacte of Sponsirship on 4th Sep'09 and its been more than two months now and we still have not received anything back from HO due to high number of applications.

Supreme:

Do you mean COS or Sponser License? in case of later it is bound to take that much time but in case of CoS, you shd get it in a max of 1week; CoS is the only fastest process in this the whole Tier2(G) Visa processing...

I think your employer can check the status of the CoS application on the System where they applied;

Goodluck mate

[supreme_pat19]

thanks tier and ramesh...i really appreciate it but i need answers to other questions as well please. Can someone help me in this regard??

P.S: Sorry i meant Sponsor license not COS before

[ap007]

HI,

If you apply by post and send the application out before your current leave expires, then its fine. For as long the application is decided, you can legally live here and the same immigration rules apply which you had before you sent the application form out. (If it allowed you to work, you can continue to work).

Make sure the Job code your HR selects while raising the Certificate of Sponsorship reflects the work you will be doing and make sure your job is paid to the appropriate rate as set out in the codes of practice document. (If your salary is going to be, say 23k, divide this figure by the number of hours you will work per year and make sure that value is above the UKBA codes of practice appropriate rate).

Hope this helps,

Good Luck

[supreme_pat19]

thanks ap007....

I had a look in UKBA Code Of Practise document ans as per that document, i should as a 'software Engineer' have a salary of £30K which is insane, how can u expect to have that much salary. Am i right??
Mine as of now is £22050. I dont think my company will increase my salary to that extent.
What do you guys suggest should i not apply for Tier 2 General then as ultimately it will lead to refusal due to this norm??

Thanks in advance

[Arjun_123]

Hi supreme_pat19,

I hope u r clear about Sponsorship Licence and COS from replies above.

but i am very sorry to say that if you are a Software Developer and your salary is 22050, your application is likely to be rejected. coz according to the UKBA Code Of Practice listing your salary should be bit more higher.please see the following link.
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... actice.pdf

try to match your job Title and daily responsibilities to the descriptions given and your salary should definitely be equal or more than the minimumum pay requirements for the closest match. if not your application will be rejected(sorry about it).dont loose hope, you can try talking to your company , explain them the situation and ask for a pay rise to reach the minimum pay requirements.

@All plz let us know if i am any wrong.
All the best with you aplication supreme. keep us updated.

[ap007]

Just another suggestion,

Try to go through all the other job codes which closely relates to your field of work and you may be surprised to find there are many job codes which have overlapping descriptions but have "major" differences in appropriate salary rate requirements.

I personally know a friend who applied with one job title and his application was rejected becase his pay was 22k and according to code of practice it should have been 30k. However, he has re-applied with another job code/job title now, for which the requirement was just 21K and his salary is already more than that! Please note that in his case post was advertised with both the job titles.

But in your case, I think your company doesnt need to advertise the post?? so you might be able to try and find another closely matching job code and apply using that..

Good luck

[supreme_pat19]

Thanks guys for you replies.
It seems like I have no option now besides going back as even though I apply with some other job code there is no guarantee that this visa will be granted and I might overstay.

[eager2learn]

Is there any way to know what is the progress of the sponsor license application? my sponsor has applied for their license a week ago and my tier 2 visa on current work is finishing after around 2 months(14th Feb). Add to that the time required to get COS. If it takes more than 2 months, I will be in trouble.

In case they dont receive a response before my visa expires, do I have any option other than leave the country? I guess if I leave , then it will not be counted as continuous employment any more when I am going to apply for ILR?