5 yr work permit and indefinite leave to remain

[Movado]

I've just been talking to the home office. I will be applying for settlement shortly and I wanted to know which date to count the 5 year period from. Is it the date you start working or the date stamped in your passport.

The lady at IND told me I had to use the date I started work but surely if this was the case then the application form would have a space to fill in work start date. I mean this is really important and given that most people who go to apply for settlement in person are checked just the passport, employer's letter and bank statements/pay slips.

Also can someone please respond to my thread about bank statements and payslips.

[Dawie]

Unfortunately the people who work at the Home Office, especially the one's answering the phones, are not always right and sometimes give wrong advice.

The correct date to use is the date of first entry stamped into your passport.

[olisun]

The correct date to use is the date of first entry stamped into your passport.

You mean the first day of entry into the UK ?

[Dawie]

Well if you're splitting hairs. But I think anyone would consider "date of first entry" and "first day of entry" to be the same thing. Either way, the entry stamp in your passport indicating the first time you entered the UK on your work permit/HSMP visa is the date from which your ILR clock starts ticking and therefore the date you should use.

[eyesonly]

what about a case when one starts working on a student visa (in the last couple of days of student visa expiry after completing the course) while the application for a work permit is still under considerantion and the person then subsequently receives a work permit. In this case, one is in UK all the time so there is not date of entry. Will it be the date one starts working or the date when the work permit/visa is issued?

[Dawie]

I would think that it would be the day that your new limited leave to remain visa was issued.

My reason for this being that when you obtain entry clearance from outside the UK your leave is only activated or counted from when you enter the UK for the first time on that visa whereas when you obtain limited leave to remain from within the UK, this leave begins as soon as the visa is issued because you are already in the UK.