Successful Tier 2 application following a refusal

By Dr Lusine Navasardyan

Dr Lusine Navasardyan is Director and Head of Corporate and Business Immigration at RVS Solicitors. Dr Lusine studied at Yerevan State University and the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. She is also a published author and a member of the Bucharest Bar. As a Director of RVS Solicitors, she is instrumental to the operation of the law firm, and as Head of Corporate and Business Immigration, she helps our clients to forge new futures in the UK.

Our immigration solicitors have recently successfully assisted a Tier 2 (General) migrant in obtaining a UK visa and relocating here with his family. The migrant approached our immigration team after his application of Leave to Enter the UK as a Tier 2 (General) migrant had been refused.

The client was understandably worried, as he had managed to secure what he had described as his ‘dream job’. It was a well-paid position at a reputable firm, with good prospects of advancement. Unfortunately it also had a short starting date and the client was now worried that his job offer would be withdrawn, as he was facing the prospect of not being able to get to the UK on time.

The client, a highly educated professional had felt comfortable dealing with his own application, as he had previously worked in the UK and had completed his own application in the past. Therefore, considering the tight timeline, he decided to not spend time on trying to find the best immigration lawyers and made the application on his own. The application was refused due to failure to provide correct evidence in respect of Knowledge of English Language. His family’s application was also refused following his refusal, as their Tier 2 visa would have been dependant on his.

Our immigration lawyers assessed the refusal and quickly devised a plan to deal with the matter in the most efficient manner, ensuring that the client would not suffer any detriment in respect of his employment. After identifying what the next steps were and understanding the timelines, our lawyers contacted the client’s employer and secured their cooperation on the case, thereby also reassuring the client that his position was safe.

If you have been refused a PBS application, get in touch with our immigration lawyers in London now. Call us on 020 3372 5125 or fill in the online form.

What are the Tier 2 visa requirements?

To successfully obtain a Tier 2 (General) visa, you will need to prove that you have:

• A valid Certificate of Sponsorship from an A rated Sponsor Licence holder employer. There are some requirements to the Employer as well, when they issue the Certificate of Sponsorship and these include:
• The job should be of an appropriate skill level, which in most cases is at least RQF level 6, meaning that the skills required are at least of Bachelor Degree level; and
• The Employer should carry out Resident Labour Market Test where appropriate; or
• The position should fall under exemption from RLMT, due to the skill type or salary.
• Appropriate Salary. Which in case of an experienced employee like our client, cannot be any less than £30,000 or higher if the specific job has a higher salary requirement.
• Maintenance Requirement, which translates in demonstrating that the applicant has either held equivalent of £945 for at least 90 day period prior to the application (further £630 for each dependant), or for an A rated Sponsor Licence holder Employer to certify maintenance on the Certificate of Sponsorship. 
• Knowledge of English Language at minimum CEFR B1 Level. The requirement can be met by either sitting a qualifying test, proving that you hold nationality of qualifying English speaking country or demonstrating that a Degree completed on English is equivalent to at least a UK Bachelor Degree and meets the language Level requirement.

Reasons of Refusal

Our client’s initial application was refused because of a simple misunderstanding of the evidential requirements. Our client had completed a Degree in English language in a non-English speaking country. As such, he knew he had to get a NARIC confirmation of his degree level to meet the Language Requirements. What he had failed to account for was that NARIC provides different services for separate purposes. He had obtained a NARIC certificate that confirmed his degree being of an equivalent level as a UK Bachelor Degree, however there was no confirmation of the English Language level. The Home Office, therefore refused the application.

How we succeeded? 

After understanding the reasons for refusal, our immigration lawyers explained to the client where his mistake was. They worked with the client to get the correct NARIC documentation, ensuring that our client would now be able to demonstrate his knowledge of English Language in the required manner.

Having dealt with the immediate reason for the refusal, our team proceeded to analyse the application in its entirety, to ensure there were no other reasons or hidden issues that could lead to further refusal. What many applicants fail to understand about Home Office decision making process is that in most cases, once the home Office has found a reason that will lead to a refusal, they will not continue to assess the application for other criteria and will refuse it right away. This is an essential point, as many applicants think that if they correct the refusal point raised by the Home Office, their next application will succeed. Then they often have the second unpleasant surprise when the application is refused the second time. This leads them to believe that they have now been ‘blacklisted’ by the Home Office and they lose all hope of successful outcome. In fact, the matter is much simpler, as mentioned above. There were other reasons for refusal that were not assessed by the Home Office with the first application and as they remained unchanged, the second refusal followed.

For this reason, whenever our immigration solicitors are dealing with a matter that has been previously refused, no matter how much the client insists that they have been refused only for one reason, the matter will not progress until full assessment of the application is carried out.

In our client’s case, our immigration lawyers worked closely with the employer to instruct them on how to apply and get a new CoS based on an existing CoS, considering that the previous CoS our client had been issued with, was already used and could not be reused. They also assessed the RLMT to ensure that it had met all the requirements and could still be used.

We further requested the employment contract to ensure that the information on CoS and the contract matched, in particular in respect of the working hours and the salary, as this is another pitfall that many miss. The salary requirements for Tier 2 (General) are linked to the hours worked, therefore the minimum salary for the given position should be calculated on hourly rate basis and not taken as a lump sum. This means that if the migrant will work more hours then a higher salary will be expected on CoS.

The Maintenance requirement was met by certifying it vis CoS and issuing the requisite letter for the dependants.

Our client’s application was submitted and within days his leave was granted. He is now residing and working in the UK with his family. He is yet another happy RVS client.

To discuss your skilled worker visa with our London Immigration Lawyers, please contact us.