Tier 2 to GT transition

#1

Dear members,

My query is particularly from the members who’ve experienced this situation before. I’m currently in the UK on T2 ICT VISA, and going to apply for global talent stage 2.

Before applying - I want to know, how my employer can or will be informed on the changes for my VISA status. Can there be any complications around this transition? - Please share your personal experience, or any suggestions - it would be of great help.

Cheers
Dave

#2

As always - it is not legal advice, but my understanding is:

  1. Global Talent application consists of two stages.
  2. Stage 1 (which is TechNation endorsement) is not an immigration application, hence it has no effect on one’s immigration status and there are nearly zero chances one’s current employer will be informed.
    The only way an employer may find out about that is if one has provided a reference from an employer and this employer was contacted by the Tech Nation. Chances are rather tiny, but not zero.
  3. Stage 2 is an immigration application one is doing to the UKVI. It is fairly unlikely Home Office will contact one’s employer unless they have a good reason to check something. Therefore chances that employer will be informed are fairly low, but not zero.
  4. After one get’s visa I would expect the employer to be informed as they will be no longer obliged to follow Tier-2 visa formalities for a particular person. However I am not sure that is done at all, or done in a timely manner.

On the other hand, it is alarming that one has to hide such circumstances from the employer, especially when references from a current employer may be very valuable for the endorsement application. Why it is the case? What is the concern here?

#3

Many thanks for sharing your understanding, Alex.

My query was primarily confined around point no. 4, where current employer should definitely be informed but how?

There is nothing to hide, its just I’ve used the references from previous employers mostly.

Reg concern - Understanding when CoS gets cancelled upon VISA status changes and how HO will notify the employer. If its just me who needs to do that (definitely be the case) or HO will also be doing it in any timeframe. If HO is also doing the same, then what is the timeframe? - If you have any experience around this corner, and can add anything, it’d be great.

Cheers
Dave

#4

Sorry - I misinterpreted your question.
I am not aware of timeframes and whether they are observed. I think the best course of action would be to talk to the company’s HR representative and let them know that you have a new visa.

#5

Thats okay, Alex. I really appreciate your response, and agreed to your suggestion. Thank YOU!

Cheers
Dave

#6

Hey Dave,
In my case, it was just a manner of contacting HR. Once you get your new BRP card, you will have to go through the process of showing them your passport and new card, and they should take care of the rest. It was very straightforward in my case, and in many ways you are doing them a favor by freeing up a Tier 2 slot.
Good luck!

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#7

I 100% concur with @Pepe_C - I sent my HR a copy of my BRP after it arrived and they sent me an email acknowledging the change (and congratulating me for getting the new visa). That was about it.

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#8

I’ll second this, same process was for me. Company’s CoS certificate is not affected by employee’s visa status change

1 Like
#9

@Shreeniwas_Iyer @Alex_P I’m a newbie to this forum. Can i request if anyone can spare a 10-15 minutes for a quick call to clear my doubts on the procedures please? Any day / time of your choice is fine and would be of great help.

#10

@abdul do you feel comfortable asking here? I believe many people may have the same doubts and would benefit from being able to find it in forum!

#11

@Alex_P Indeed that makes sense. I’ve got 12+ years of experience in digital technology side, mainly front end & hybrid mobile apps. Plus a bit of backend in the early days of my career. I had played lead role in delivering UI solutions / UX for fortune 500 companies against unique use cases of migrating legacy applications in cloud. While going through the eligibility criteria for Exceptional talent below points keep confusing me.

  1. Can two of the reference letters be from different people in the same company?
  2. Should we give github activity details? Why am asking is each customer had private repo’s and might not be accessible outside, plus it will be a security concern as well. I’m forced to use separate github user created using client emails.
  3. what would be the proof to show innovation / unique development? Is it code base or reference mail/letter mentioning my contribution?
  4. Is the total 10 documents including reference letters or excluding it?
#12

  1. Yes it can be. 2 out of 3 of my reference letters were from the CTO and CEO of my present employer. That seems to have worked for me.

  2. I had a similar concern. What I did was to screenshot my github profile, which shows activity but doesn’t expose any confidential. i.e. it shows I did X commits and Y code reviews. However, if you are in doubt, please clear it with your Legal/IP team. In general, Legal teams are sympathetic to presenting data for immigration purposes, but I guess that depends on your company.

  3. It depends on your case. You need to show that the unique development occurred and that someone has found it useful. In my case, I was presented a trade-secret award by my company. My company’s IP team wrote a custom letter for TechNation visa specifically stating what the purpose of the innovation was and what was the benefit to the company. They also mentioned how often such awards are made (indicate the exclusivity of the award).

I don’t think code base alone would be overwhelming and noisy as a signal. So try to find something that shows that the code base is innovative and is in use - perhaps number of forks, or some evidence to its usage. If the code base is cited in internal or external wikis/forums, see if you can reproduce that content (with permission as necessary)

  1. 10 documents excluded the reference letters. Total is 10+3.
3 Likes
#13

Thanks Shreeniwas for sharing the details. I will start my paper works and shall come back if I get stuck anywhere.