Doubts about Previous Earnings for Tier 1 Visa

[ankitgoel26]

Hi All,

I am planning to apply for Tier 1 visa from Bangalore, India. I want to clarify my doubts about previous earnings:

1. As per the visa application guide "Points are awarded for your previous earnings from work for a period of up to 12 months out of the 15 months preceding your application".
My doubt is that does the 12 months period needed to be consecutive(without break) or not? For example: As of Dec 2010, can I show previous earning for months Oct 2009 to Jun 2010 plus Sep 2010 to Nov 2010, or else does it have to be consecutive12 months like Oct 2010 to Sep 2010?

2. VERY IMPORTANT: I was working on an overseas assigment in UK through the work permit sponsored by my company until Oct 2010. I am currently in India. During my assignemnt in UK, I received salary in both UK salary account (overseas maintanance allowance, basket of allowance, etc) and Indian salary account (basic salary, PF gartuity, bonus, etc).
My doubt is that can I include both Indian and UK salary for calculating previous earnings points. I will sum up the total salary recived in UK with the adjusted total Indian salary (by the correct uplift ratio = 5.3). I doubt that since I was not physically present in India, I cannot show the Indian salary in my previous earnings.
This is very important to understand because otherwise I will not have enough preivous earning to apply for Tier 1 visa.

Your suggestions and help will be highly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Ankit

[ankitgoel26]

I was able to clarify the first doubt about 12 months period in the guidance policy. It clearly states that "The applicant can claim points for previous earnings in any single, consecutive 12-month period during the 15 months immediately before the date of applying."

Cheers,
Ankit

[mulderpf]

Firstly, your earnings have to be over 12 consecutive months, not any 12 months in a 15 months period (as you correctly seen from the guidance).

Secondly, you can use your Indian salary, but you cannot use the uplift ratio. The question you have to ask yourself is where you performed the work not where the money was paid (so if you are working in the UK and your money is paid to you in India, you must answer the question about where you earned your money as UK). So you can use your converted salary into pounds if you want, but you cannot uplift it.

[ankitgoel26]

Many thanks for your response mulderpf.

I was physically working in UK and I was getting some basic salary in my Indian bank account apart from my UK salary.

According to you, I can show my India salary (convereted into sterling pounds) but cannot uplift it. If thats the case, then its a good news for me

[mulderpf]

Great stuff! Of course you need to make sure that you have all the usual proofs for your application.

[ankitgoel26]

Ofcourse I will. Thanks loads