I want to help a Filipino friend to come and work in the UK - please help!

[wasabikun]

Hello all,

My name is Vanni, I'm originally from Italy and have been living in London since 1998. I have this good friend of mine from the Philippines, she ran into some family trouble and would like to come to UK to live and work. She doesn't have any family in UK, I'm her only contact here. Despite being non-British myself and having a wife from Colombia, I still know very little about the process of obtaining a work Visa, more so as I can see it greatly varies from country to country.

She has a two-year diploma in Computing. Would that be enough foundation to request a work Visa to work in UK in the IT field, perhaps something as simple as a PC shop assistant for a start? Does she need to have a firm job offer before she comes over to UK? Would it be easier for her to come over here with a student Visa (for some IT/computing course) and then convert it to a work Visa once she finds a job?

I am myself running an IT consultancy, so potentially I could offer her a job as my IT assistant. However IR35 scrutinizes such actions very carefully and if they were to find her activities are not directly related to my current employment (a software developer contract for a bank in the City) and cannot be justified, it could be trouble for both of us.

I would greatly appreciate if you could post some advice, or some pointers to start my research of a solution. I would be so happy for her if she were to be here by Xmas.

Thanks a lot in advance,
Vanni

[joebloggs]

nope her diploma would not help her, she would need a degree at least if she was trying for tier 1 visa.

maybe a student visa, that would allow her to work upto 20hrs a week not that much good and she would have to pay international fees

as for you applying for a workpermit (tier 2) and employing her , you would need to apply for a license, then you would have to advertise the job for at least 2 wks and have a really good reason why any european was not suitable who applied for the job

do you have your own company set up ?

probably a student visa is the only way

[wasabikun]

Hi joebloggs,

Thanks for your reply. I have just heard from her, apparently she has just applied to have her passport renewed, and somebody told her it usually takes a year to get a student Visa for the UK. She is a bit depressed and would like to go the "easy way" and apply for a waiter job in Dubai. I have heard so many horror stories about unqualified workers in Dubai, I shiver at the mere thought of it...

I have my own limited company set up. Would that help?

Thanks,
Vanni