Tier 1 (General) Application FAQ

Sworn Affidavit for getting a passport for your Child in India

2011-01-30T13:00:00.000-08:00

Purpose:

I had a kid recently. She was born in India and to get the passport for her, both parents have to submit the passport. Since one of the parent is away(me) I had to submit a sworn affidavit, from the Indian High Commission from that country. That is a mandatory piece of document that needs to be submitted to the Passport office in India, when we apply for the minor's passport.

What documents needed:

1. Just the passport of the parent(s) and a copy of the passport's first and last page.
2. Birth certificate original and copy of the kid (Although not asked)
3. Residence proof in UK (Not asked)

The process:

1. The 'Q' at India house near Aldwich theatre starts very early(Get ready for a whole day of waiting and choose a day other than Friday, as I saw a long Q)
2. Get a token and when you are in the passport office, you would be waiting in the 'Consular/Miscellaneous Services' Q.(I learnt that there was a chap who passed on that day, may be it was a chill factor)
3. On your turn (number in the token) you submit the copy of your passport and the document is verified with the original and the application form for an affidavit is to be submitted to the consular cell
4. You would be asked to return in the afternoon to comeback and sign the document in front of the consular, where the document is double checked by the consular and you sign in front of him on the application form.
5. You would be asked to come back again at 4.30 pm to collect the document, which would be a signed copy from the consular and that's it.

Lessons:

1. Since the office was supposed to open about 9.15 AM, I was standing on the other end of the office (I did not know where the passport sell was!) When I came to check the passport cell around 7.45 a.m, I was blown by the fact that there were almost 60 individuals in front of me and the Q was growing. So as soon as you reach the India Office, stand in the Q
2. Be prepared for the chillness in the early morning hours and you have to stand in the long Q (There is no priority service for parents with kids or elders) So if possible avoid such situations.
3. The passport office can accommodate around 100 people, but there will be more than 100, so you may have to spend the day standing.
4. Sometimes, the Q system will not be followed. Especially the end of the day, when the affidavit is to be handed out to individuals. It is first come first serve basis.

Is there a way for paying the fees, if there is a payment failure, without the application being rejected?

2010-03-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

Important HO contacts:

Charging Dept (Home office) 01142072918
Customer Service (Home Office) 01142072966
Email: charging.workpermits@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
Fax: 02081963248.

Explain your observation and authorise them to resubmit the payment.

Lessons:

Before you send the documents to Home Office, ensure that you have advised the bank of such transactions. The banks have a separate department for fraud protection, unless notified they may block the transaction.
It is also advisable to track the transaction, to ensure that things are on track.

Can I use fixed deposit for maintenance proof?

2010-03-28T06:31:00.000-07:00

One of the most common question, when it comes to show the maintenance fund proof, is whether we can use a Fixed Deposit?

The fixed term deposit CAN be used as a maintenance proof, provided, accompanied by a letter from the bank.
The letter should state that the amount can be liquidated or en-cashed at any point of time, apart from the following details:

The letter should be on the official letter head of the bank
Name of the Fixed Deposit holder,
The Fixed Deposit account number, if any
The start and end date of the Fixed deposit
The bank account that the Fixed Deposit is associated with

Note:
1.The original Fixed Deposit should be attached to your supporting documents list
2. If the Fixed Deposit is not in English, you need to translate it and attach both the original, as well as the translated copies

Can I use uplift ratio for extension application, while working in the UK but the salary credited in a different country?

2010-03-27T01:48:00.000-07:00

Scenario:
Some of you may be working in UK. Your salary would be in a different country than UK. But when it comes to extension of HSMP/Tier 1, you are confused whether you can user the uplift ratio or not as the salary is credited in a different country!

Answer:

You can't claim the points, using uplift ratio in such scenario.

The following para from Tier1 guidance clearly says so:

130. The country in which the applicant has physically undertaken the work, rather than his/her nationality, the currency payment is made in or the country in which payment is made, determines the income band against which we will assess the earnings.
131. Where an applicant has earnings from more than one country, the points based calculator will apply the appropriate uplift ratio for each country in which the relevant earnings were made in order to provide a total UK equivalent value of earnings.

Why one should enter the UK, within 28 days of getting the Tier 1 Visa?

2010-03-26T02:36:00.000-07:00

Note: This statement is true on 26 March 2010

There is a qualifying period to complete in most of the categories for getting the ILR.

It runs either from - the date on which you entered the UK with a visa in the relevant category; or, if you did not enter the UK with such a visa, from - the date on which you were first granted permission to remain in the UK in the relevant category.

If you entered the UK with a visa several weeks or more after the date from which it was valid for use, you may need to apply for an extension of stay to complete the relevant qualifying period.

Please do not apply more than 28 days before completing the qualifying period. If you apply earlier than that, your application may be refused.

If that happens, we will not refund the fee and you will have to pay again when

reapplying.The qualifying periods are as follows: 5 years In the work permit holder, employment not requiring

a work permit, businessperson, innovator, investor, self-employed lawyer, writer, composer or artist, UK ancestry, Tier 1 and Tier 2 categories or routes. 5 years

P.S: The above statement is a snippet from the ILR guidance form.

Insurance while traveling to the UK?

2010-03-25T06:06:00.001-07:00

Insurance is to mitigate the risks!

What risks?
1. The flight booked may be cancelled
2. You may loose your passport
3. You may loose your baggage
4. You may not be able to travel, due to un-avoidable circumstances!

anything else?

To mitigate the risk, you take the travel insurance...

Is it Mandatory?
No rules as such for travelling to UK!

Common Mistake - Not submitting latest application form

2010-03-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

It is a lot of hard work required to read the Tier 1 General guidance, application, dependant's guidance and application forms. (Also the photograph guidance form) One of the common mistakes people do is that download the forms, print it out and start filling in the application forms without ensuring that the form is the latest one. While submitting the forms to HO, it is absolutely essential that you send the latest forms. Otherwise, the case worker might reject your application most of the time.

Suggestions:

Before sending the application forms, ensure that the form you filled in to send is the latest version.

No recourse to Public funds

2010-03-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

Almost all of the Tier 1 category Visa holders will have the title in their Visa (Vignette). So what does this mean?
We often see that people ask questions on what is a public fund and what is not.? We are confused whether the 'health in pregnancy grant' falls into a public fund or the 'maternity allowance'?

The answer to those questions are right in this document provided by HO
Public fund

What is a Subject Access Request? (SAR)

2010-03-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

Context:
We are all not perfect? Are we?
Some times, we may have forgotten the information that we have filled in or a consultant might have filled in the details that you might not know. When you plan to deal with such situations, one might have wondered how he/she can find out the information that HO has about him/her!

So there is an option that BIA has published on Requests for personal data

Premium Application service booking methods (In Country)

2010-03-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

There are three methods that one can follow to apply in-person in any of the Public Enquiry Offices.

Booking Online
Booking by phone
An immigration consultant can help, but it comes out of a cost

Most of the information can be found in Booking an appointment page

Lessons Learned:

The most common problem one may face is that he/she will not find an appointment to book online. This is a common issue, due to the demand for this service. The tip would be log in on Friday evenings or as many times as possible, if lucky there may be some slots available
Citing the same reason that the demand for the Booking by phone is very high, one has to try the line around 9.00 AM each day to get an appointment. It might be worth to note that booking by phone number is an 0870 number and the charges may vary for different service providers
The last resort would be to use an immigration consultant, who are able to grab some appointments(with an additional fee, on top of the application processing). Personally I would not prefer this route, unless it is critical

Photographs

2009-12-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

One may face problems, when the photographs are not to the specifications from HO as mentioned in the link below:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/applicationforms/pbs/193059

Lessons Learned:

The photograph should be as per specifications
They should not be older than a month, before the application is made
Should ensure that one does not attach the photographs, which were used previously(For instance initial HSMP/Tier 1)
Advisable to take the photographs from a local photo shop, such as Jessops, Thomson, etc.,
Place the photographs in a small sealed envelope, together with those of anydependants included in section F, and attach it across this space with a staple or paper clip at the right-hand side of the page/envelope.

How can you pay?

2009-12-16T11:45:00.000-08:00

Home office would first attempt to take the Fees for the application consideration. If the Fee payment fails for any reason, the application would not be considered.

Here are the fee payment methods and some of the lessons learned as follows:

Methods of Fee Payment:

There are 5 different options specified by home Office.

Cheque/Bankers Draft
Postal Order
*Credit card - Mastercard or Visa (including Electron)
*Debit card - Delta, Maestro** (including Solo)
Cash – but only for applications made at a public enquiry office; please do not send cash by post

* If you applying in person at a Public Enquiry Office and wish to pay by credit or debit card, the cardholder must be present in order for the payment to be taken.

** Maestro - We can accept any Maestro card if you are applying in person at a Public Enquiry Office but only Maestro cards issued in the UK if you are applying by post.

Lessons learned:

1. Cheque/Bankers Draft:

Considered to be a safe way, if you have a bank account.

2. UK Postal Orders:

Considered to be the safest mode of payment, but comes out with a price. One has to shell out around £10 for £250 of Postal Order. In total, for £820 one has to spend around £35.

3. Credit card:

One has to ensure that there is enough credit in the card.
Good to keep the company informed about the payments that are supposed to happen, so the frauds department does not block the transaction

4. Debit card:

Similar to credit card, but should ensure that you have enough money in your account
Inform the bank regarding the transaction

When one has decided to use credit/debit card for fee payment, one of the safest way to ensure safe payment for multiple application at the same time, is to provide different credit/debit card details for each application. So the possibility of blocking the card is eliminated.

Objective

2009-12-16T03:10:00.000-08:00

Learning from others mistakes is considered to be a valuable one than experiencing himself. So I thought to summarize some of the lessons that the HSMP/Tier1 guys faced, while extending their visa.