Manka10 wrote:
I never said you don't need a letter at all, for absences less than 180 days in a year you can prepare a summary of days out of UK yourself, letter from employers is not required, absences of more than 180 days in a year will only be accepted if there is a compelling and compassionate reason
Source: personal as well as other's experience
not every rule can be written down in black and white
Also the letter of absences from employers rule never existed when Tier 1 came into being so no retrospective changes would be applied, more so since T1 is now closed
Thanks, Manka10.
I was referring to an employer's letter, I will of course provide details about my absences in the form and explain in a cover letter.
I thought this was not a T1 requirement. Actually the Tier 1 guidelines are very detailed and clear about which evidence is required for each attribute and gives many possible options, which is why I wondered whether I was missing somehting regarding the ILR guidelines.
The SET(O) guidance says: "From 13th December 2012 applicants in qualifying employment categories for ILR are required to submit documentary evidence of all absences from the UK, as specified in Section 6.3 of the form". Does T1 fall under "qualifying employment categories"?
Seems like it does because section 6.3 says that "evidence of all work-related absences (including paid annual leave) is required from those applying under Tier 1". The possible options for evidence are: letter from employer, letter from applicant - but only for compelling or compassionate reasons, medical/birth documents and letter from travel companies. This suggests that the only relevant evidence for me would be letter from my employer.
These guidelines indicate that evidence is required regardless of the length of absence. I understand that according to people's experience this is not the case, but since I can't find any reference to this rule I'm thinking maybe it's better to be safe than sorry...
In any case thank you for your help!
