ILR this year - Wage Rate - Senior Carer

[John.C]

I have just heard a third hand anecdotal story which is hopefully complete rubbish but I hope the forum can help to clear this up.
The story is that a Senior Carer has recently been turned down for ILR (after working in the UK for 5 years) because her wage was less than £7.85 an hour.
My friend who is a Senior Carer is now panicking a bit. She is applying for ILR next month and her wage rate is £7.45 an hour.
I have performed several searches to try to get the answers have not found them yet.

Help!

Thank you!

[joebloggs]

http://www.freemovement.org.uk/2011/11/02/watch-out-old-work-permit-holders/

but

http://www.freemovement.org.uk/2012/02/08/good-news-for-old-work-permit-holders/


and

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2013/724.html

but more importantly these Filipino's could give her some guidance :wink:

http://www.kanlungan.org.uk/

[John.C]

Thank you Joe (the last link is a great one and is new to me).
We have managed to get through to our Immigration Advisor who has said: stop panicking! - £7.45 is above the threshold.

I think people do panic when the moment for ILR draws near. (sorry bout that!)

[Terpe]

I've helped 3 friends of my wife to ILR and all were recruited as carers under the old Work-Permit Scheme.
All of these were actually designated Senior Carer and were given some responsibilities for lower grade staff.
All were paid quite a bit more than most of the other carers. As I recall more than £8 per hour.

Means I can't offer any first-hand experience for the case you mention.

But thought it might be useful to bring your attention to the Home Office publication called Codes of Practice for Skilled Workers (http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/employersandsponsors/pointsbasedsystem/cop-skilled-workers.pdf)

Those folks I helped all complied with that document so the whole process was pretty straightforward.

It's quite a long and complex document but as a start take a look at page 5 under 'Thresholds' and look to the definitions of 'new entrant' and 'experienced worker'.
Next take a look at 'Table 4: Occupations skilled to NQF level 3' on page 162 for Senior care workers

Might be helpful in your understanding and provide some questions for the immigration advisor.
It's just that this hourly rate of £7.85 is mighty close to the current threshold for experienced senior care worker of £15,800
Not at all wanting to create unecessary concerns, just trying to help to identify possible areas where more clarification might be needed.

I do know that many of those work-permit folks who didn't manage to reach the new thresholds through no real fault of their own were able to overcome the challenge with appeals, so means there should be caselaw available to support most cases.

[John.C]

Terpe - I have been doing a lot of research since your last reply and your last paragraph is of great interest to me.
Could I ask you to have a quick look at this PDF (which is from the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities)

http://tinyurl.com/q83men4

On the face of it this document seems to solve all my worries! (and fits my case)

They say:
"Tier 2 migrants applying to settle in the UK prior to 6 April 2016........For senior care workers who have only held a Tier 2 visa, this will be £7.80 per hour. Those who entered on a work permit and then switched to Tier 2 will fall under the transitional arrangements and will need to be paid a salary of £7.02 per hour."

I am trying to get my head round this. Why would the Home Office be turning down ILR for Senior Carers who started on a work permit and earn more than £7.02, only to then allow the ILR on appeal? Is it just a lottery or is there something different about the applications that fail? Maybe the ones that failed were less than £7.02. Surely the timeline would mean that everybody who is applying for ILR just now would have started out on a Work Permit? Is that right?

If there is anyone else reading this who has had success or failure for a Senior Carer earning less than 7.80 but more then 7.02 please chip in and offer and thoughts that you have. Thank you.

If it is a Lottery....I think I am going to have a nervous breakdown.

[joebloggs]

i think that those who are coming up to apply for ILR were given the impression that after 5yrs it would lead to them being able to claim ILR, so i think if the person is refused because they don't earn the minimum rate and they appeal the judge could state the change was unfair to them ( i think this has happened :Erm:) so the gov might withdraw the refusal because they know they could lose

[Terpe]

Yes John, I agree with joebloggs.

Don't be fooled into thinking that UKBA are a 'fit for purpose' outfit and that all their decisions are correctly based on current immigration rules.
We have numerous members here who have fallen foul of wrong decisions (mean wrong refusals) simply because the caseworker made an error.

I'll take a look at that link you posted and see what I can dig out concerning the current status.
It's far better to present a solid backed-up application than go through the highly stressful process of appeal.