Need clarification on Tier 1 Visa

[udaykanth]

Hi All,

I am planning to apply Tier 1 (General) visa soon and I currently hold Tier 2 visa. It would be great if someone could clarify on the below?

My Offer Letter stated that I am eligible for £xxx amount as part of relocation expenses and I have already got this amount. Below is the exact copy of what was written in the offer letter.

A one-off gross payment of £xxx as a relocation allowance upon commencement of employment. Such payment is not subject to deduction for PAYE and National Insurance Contributions as long as valid receipts are produced as evidence of such expenditure. If receipts cannot be produced, then such relocation allowance will be subject to pro-rata deduction for PAYE and National Insurance Contributions.

Could I include this amount in my previous earnings? I have read lot of other posts from other members related to this aspect and some of the responses stated that unless this amount is included in the payslips, they won't be considered as a part of earnings. In my case, this relocation expense is not included in my payslip but I have read in one of the rules stating that if the same is mentioned in the offer letter, it will be treated as a part of expense. One reason why I wanted to include this in past earnings is I am in the border of one group of salary range and if I include this I will get into the next one and get additional 5 points to get a total of 85 (minimum 80). Should I bother about this at all given that I have already got the necessary points? Will having this additional 5 points makes any difference at all (if the above is valid)?

Looking forward to your reply.

Cheers,
Uday

[chosenaik]

IMHO I would say that this would not count. As you didnt pay NI / Tax on this, so its not really a "salary / pay".

[udaykanth]

Thanks chosenaik for the confirmation. I thought the same.

[MPI]

as far as I know , additional points doesn't give you any advantage really. so stick to minimum if that's the hassle. Unless of course you were not certain about other areas and you wanted to get your points higher to safeguard yourself

Allowances count toward the salary if they are part of remuneration package. I am surprised though that they don't show that in you payslip. I am not sure if an offer letter can be used as evidence. Officially you should be paid whatever is in the payslip .

[udaykanth]

Thanks MPI, I was initially not sure about certain points like UK experience etc, now I am sure that I have 80 points that are needed for the application.

These amounts were paid to me as a direct credit to my account and haven't been reflected in the payslip. I will ask them whether these could be included in the payslip and anyway I guess this is not the most worrying thing even if they say they couldn't.