IT Consultants as Referees

[jas]

Hello,

I am preparing for my naturalisation application and have requested two of my colleagues for reference. Both of them are IT Consultant but not members of BCS. I have read through the list of acceptable referees and won't know any one outside of IT for more than 3 years. Please could someone advise if IT Consultants would be okay. By the way both are British Citizens.

Thanks in advance.

[ilrsuccess]

As far as I know if they work for a well known company such as in Insurance, Banking and I.T the referee should be ok

[jas]

ilrsuccess, one of them works for well-known IT company and other one for a small time company. But unfortunately both are not members of BCS.

[Wanderer]

I think the BCS is generally regarded as a bit of joke organisation, I'm in IT and know literally 100's of IT consultants and I don't think any are in BCS. PCG yes, but not BCS

[th]

I wouldn't take the risk of losing the application fee *only* because of the invalidity of the referee. As it had explicitly listed the qualified referee, in your case BCS is mandatory. One example is you can get the chartered accountant as the referee but you can't just get someone who is in an accounting role to do so without the professional qualification.

I am in the IT field as well so I ended up using one IT consultant as the second referee purely as a BC who is 25 or older, and using my boss as the director of a limited company as the first referee (he is not BC but it does not matter).

[jas]

I have my ex-colleague who works for an IT company as a Manager. Would that be okay instead of someone with BCS membership? Thanks.

[th]

I don't think so but if you are struggling with this, email HO and if you reply with okay, then you may want to attach the email printout together with your referee form. I still believe it is not worth taking the risk, in my opinion.

I have my ex-colleague who works for an IT company as a Manager. Would that be okay instead of someone with BCS membership? Thanks.

[jas]

th,

thanks. But the HO list of acceptable referees mentions that Manager of VAT registered company is acceptable. So this ex-colleague of mine who is Manager in this IT company would be acceptable, won't he be?

[th]

jas, I had a discussion with a few colleagues before on this. Some raised the question if the definition of manager is as below?

1. People manager, ie: having direct reports.
2. Technical manager, ie: IT manager with no direct reports.
3. Just a job title with the keyword "manager".

We all tend to agree that this is indeed asking for a people manager at the level so it would be on the "professional" level.

th,

thanks. But the HO list of acceptable referees mentions that Manager of VAT registered company is acceptable. So this ex-colleague of mine who is Manager in this IT company would be acceptable, won't he be?

[djb123]

jas, I had a discussion with a few colleagues before on this. Some raised the question if the definition of manager is as below?

1. People manager, ie: having direct reports.
2. Technical manager, ie: IT manager with no direct reports.
3. Just a job title with the keyword "manager".

We all tend to agree that this is indeed asking for a people manager at the level so it would be on the "professional" level.

There is a 4th option - the manager of the company (ie the boss). The words used are 'of a company' rather than 'in a company' which might make this the more likely option.

[ilrsuccess]

Hello,

I am preparing for my naturalisation application and have requested two of my colleagues for reference. Both of them are IT Consultant but not members of BCS. I have read through the list of acceptable referees and won't know any one outside of IT for more than 3 years. Please could someone advise if IT Consultants would be okay. By the way both are British Citizens.

Thanks in advance.

Jas here is a list of acceptable professional referees and YES they have to be members of BCS.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary

^ list of refrees

[jas]

ilrsuccess, Thanks. I have asked my ex-colleague to be referee who is a Manager in a well known IT company. I hope that will be okay. I couldn't get any one who is on BCS register.