ILR success - employment & director + >3month absence

[emarketeruk]

I would like to share my experience of ILR. Applied under (HSMP+Tier1, 5 years [employed + self employed)]. Have been a high tax payer & my application should have been straight forward, but the only issue i had was my absence, specially 2 absence more than 3 months at a stretch for business purpose. I had two main challenges

1) Requesting discretion on my business absence, specially the 2 absence over 3 months at a stretch.
2) Convincing the senior immigration officer that my business trips for my own business in genuine.

As you can understand, if my business trips were for as very well reputed company & if i can get a letter from them, that would be straight forward, but when you are self employed, it’s very difficult & also important to provide proper evidence to convince the level 7 officer to exercise his discretion in my favour..

The bottom line is simple, my business trips were genuine & i believe i have been clear about proving this. approvals of such cases are very very rare & i am very lucky.

Documents attached: (specially to cover the absence period)
• Council tax docs from the entire duration
• Road tax / car insurance payments for the entire duration
• House ownership & mortgage payment statements / land registry for the entire duration
• Evidence of other investments in the UK + personal, business loan docs
• Digital TV, mobile bill, utility bills such as BT paid during absence period
• All payslips with bank statements clearly confirming payments of tax / NI during absence & full 5 yrs
• Letter from chartered accountant, confirming earning for the absence period & overall
• All P45 & P60 for all five years
• All five year personal bank statements confirming salary credit

Documents provided to prove genuine business & business trips:
• Company formation certificate (business is running for 25 months now)
• Letter from accountant confirming business turnover (over 100K), declared tax
• Letter from company letterhead explaining the absence as a director of the company
• All bank statements for the full 25 months
• Inward remittance statements from all international clients. (this is where my business absence was)
• company return to confirm more than 75% of the company revenue generated by international clients
• Letters from overseas clients confirming my presence requirements.
• letters frm business suppliers with invoices, business cards, printouts of all business meeting requests & lot more.
• company marketing materials used during overseas business development
• contracts signed as a result of my business absence & payments from those clients in UK business bank account
• Letter confirming all my overseas business revenues were paid to my UK LTD business + evidence
• Every invoice / travel slips / documents for business purpose & this was declared in company return
• For every document, i have provided a secondary evidence to prove the authenticity of each evidence
• evidence to confirm i have no business, personal connections in my home country (bank accounts closed few years before etc)
• And finally, i have only spend 3 weeks in my home country over the last 5 years & all my business trips were to a third country.

it took just 11 weeks, which i though might take longer. I hope this helps everyone & all the best for your future applications

[jami]

This a guidance for every one with longer absences due to whatever reason.
Wroth making sticky

[c0c0nut]

Congratulations!... hope I get the same luck as you did.. Cheers and enjoy life in the UK!..

[ps1234]

ILR Success with 450+ days absence with 2absence over 3months at a stretch

I would like to share my experience of ILR. Applied under (HSMP+Tier1, 5 years [employed + self employed)]. Have been a high tax payer & my application should have been straight forward, but the only issue i had was my absence, specially 2 absence more than 3 months at a stretch for business purpose. I had two main challenges

1) Requesting discretion on my business absence, specially the 2 absence over 3 months at a stretch.
2) Convincing the senior immigration officer that my business trips for my own business in genuine.

As you can understand, if my business trips were for as very well reputed company & if i can get a letter from them, that would be straight forward, but when you are self employed, it’s very difficult & also important to provide proper evidence to convince the level 7 officer to exercise his discretion in my favour..

The bottom line is simple, my business trips were genuine & i believe i have been clear about proving this. approvals of such cases are very very rare & i am very lucky.

Documents attached: (specially to cover the absence period)
• Council tax docs from the entire duration
• Road tax / car insurance payments for the entire duration
• House ownership & mortgage payment statements / land registry for the entire duration
• Evidence of other investments in the UK + personal, business loan docs
• Digital TV, mobile bill, utility bills such as BT paid during absence period
• All payslips with bank statements clearly confirming payments of tax / NI during absence & full 5 yrs
• Letter from chartered accountant, confirming earning for the absence period & overall
• All P45 & P60 for all five years
• All five year personal bank statements confirming salary credit

Documents provided to prove genuine business & business trips:
• Company formation certificate (business is running for 25 months now)
• Letter from accountant confirming business turnover (over 100K), declared tax
• Letter from company letterhead explaining the absence as a director of the company
• All bank statements for the full 25 months
• Inward remittance statements from all international clients. (this is where my business absence was)
• company return to confirm more than 75% of the company revenue generated by international clients
• Letters from overseas clients confirming my presence requirements.
• letters frm business suppliers with invoices, business cards, printouts of all business meeting requests & lot more.
• company marketing materials used during overseas business development
• contracts signed as a result of my business absence & payments from those clients in UK business bank account
• Letter confirming all my overseas business revenues were paid to my UK LTD business + evidence
• Every invoice / travel slips / documents for business purpose & this was declared in company return
• For every document, i have provided a secondary evidence to prove the authenticity of each evidence
• evidence to confirm i have no business, personal connections in my home country (bank accounts closed few years before etc)
• And finally, i have only spend 3 weeks in my home country over the last 5 years & all my business trips were to a third country.

it took just 11 weeks, which i though might take longer. I hope this helps everyone & all the best for your future applications

Well done, emarketeruk!!!! This was great and very helpful. I had my fingers crossed for you

I feel that evidence of severing connections to home country, no business trips to home country etc were a little overdone, but you have to be commended on your diligence in acquiring all possible documents to help your case.

[emarketeruk]

thanks guys.. i was aware my application was a bit overdone in terms of documents & evidence. But when you have a case where you have to rely on caseworker discretion, i strongly felt that i cant getaway with the obvious docs such as bank statements, payslips & a latter etc.. after all, when i expect someone to make an exception for me, i better make sure i submit exceptional docs than the norms..

also, i was aware, if my case were to be granted, it can be approved only by a level 7 officer (director level) immigration officer, therefore i cannot get away with it easily ie.. so i rather be safe than sorry..and i am glad it worked..

all the best for all waiting..