Tier 2 - Second job - Paid through PAYE but never signed a contract

[ds2016]

Hey,

I'm working in the UK as a data scientist (SOC 2135) on a Tier 2 visa. Some time ago I was invited by a friend of mine to do some work for his research project at one of the UK universities; it was a fairly small project on which I only spent ~30 hours over the course of a couple of months, and where I was doing pretty much the same data science work as at my sponsored job.

I got paid by that university through PAYE (it was a one-off payment below £1000) and received my P45 shortly after that.

What I am worried about now is that I never actually signed a job contract with them and so the only thing I have is that P45. I have a couple of questions:

1. Is it a normal thing that I didn't have a contract but still got paid through PAYE?
2. Can this be an issue when I apply for visa extension / ILR?
3. If the HO starts having questions how do I prove that I was working in the same SOC code and for less than 20 hr/week if needed?

Thanks.

[ds2016]

I can see that most posts on this board get at least some replies, so I was wondering if this is indeed such a weird case that no one knows what to say?..

[Frontier Mole]

You should protect your self with a letter from the Uni outlining your basic job role and the number of hours over what period you were paid for.

Without the above in place there could be an issue but in the great scheme of things it is no a knockout blow going forward. I am not expecting any issues at your future T2 extension or ILR application.

[ds2016]

You should protect your self with a letter from the Uni outlining your basic job role and the number of hours over what period you were paid for.

Without the above in place there could be an issue but in the great scheme of things it is no a knockout blow going forward. I am not expecting any issues at your future T2 extension or ILR application.

Thanks very much for clarifying this!

Another quick question if you don't mind. There is an opportunity for me to take on another small project, this time however from a university in the US. In the end they would pay around £700 into my UK bank account.

I am a bit confused by how safe it would be to do under a Tier 2 visa. It would be again the same type of work as in my main job and less than 20 hours a week. However, I remember reading it elsewhere that the supplementary work on Tier 2 must be taxed through PAYE and so has to be in the UK.

On the other hand, there is this £1000 tax-free allowance on sole trading / selling your skill, so I guess this wouldn't go under HMRC's radar anyway.

Is there something I am missing here? Any advice would be very appreciated.

[Frontier Mole]

Sorry maybe someone can point you to an answer. This is something I have not dealt with and is more of a tax issue rather than a Tier 2 problem. You are providing services outside of the UK, so it is outside the scope of Tier 2 as far as I can see but as I say not dealt with it before.

[ds2016]

Sorry maybe someone can point you to an answer. This is something I have not dealt with and is more of a tax issue rather than a Tier 2 problem. You are providing services outside of the UK, so it is outside the scope of Tier 2 as far as I can see but as I say not dealt with it before.

Ok thanks! If someone else could shed light on this I'd really appreciate it.

[ds2016]

One more thing... in a few threads I could see people saying that the second job has not only to be in the same profession, but also in the same sector. Is this indeed true? I can't see anything like this on gov.uk:
https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-general/second-job

If it is indeed the case - how do you define a "sector"?

In my case my main data science job is in the IT industry but the secondary project I mentioned was in academia - can this be an issue?

[CR001]

Same professional level and same profession as your main tier 2 job!! Not 'sector'.

Note that there is a difference between Supplementary employment at 20 hours per week and Secondary employment (which you need a sponsor and CoS for).

Page 54 and 55 in link below.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... 3_2019.pdf

[ds2016]

Same professional level and same profession as your main tier 2 job!! Not 'sector'.

Note that there is a difference between Supplementary employment at 20 hours per week and Secondary employment (which you need a sponsor and CoS for).

Page 54 and 55 in link below.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... 3_2019.pdf

Ok thanks! The posts I've seen about the "sector" must've been misleading then...

And yeah there is quite a bit of confusion with terminology here - this "supplementary employment" thing is actually called "a second job" in the link I posted above!