Legal Advice for Domestic Workers
Our following Advice is NOT applicable to those who will apply for Entry Clearance to enter the UK as an Overseas Domestic Worker on or after 6 April 2012. The reason is that from the 6 April 2012, those who enter the U.K. on a Domestic worker Entry Clearance will no longer be permitted to change employers after they have arrived in the U.K.

An application for further Leave to Remain as a Domestic Worker can only be made 4 weeks before the expiry of the Leave and not any earlier, unless there are good reasons for an earlier application, for example your employer intends to take you with them overseas, if they are going away on holiday and you have less than six months of Leave left in the UK.

Generally, the Embassies of many countries would not grant a visa if the applicant has less than six months of Leave in the UK. Therefore, it becomes essential that the domestic worker obtain Further Leave to Remain of more than six months before applying for a visa to travel with her employer overseas.

Before an application for Further Leave to Remain is submitted, you must ensure that the following documents and information have been included in your application. The Rules state that the burden is on you the applicant to ensure that your application form is correctly completed and signed by you together with the required documents and fees. Failure to do so would render the application invalid and may either delay your application, or possibly lead to a subsequent refusal of your application if the Home Office were to receive your correct application after the expiry of your Leave.

On occasions, the Home Office may write to you after you have lodged your application and requests further evidence or information within a certain deadline. In such cases, you must ensure that you meet the Home Office’s deadline or the Home Office may consider your application on the available evidence that you have already submitted with your application. This may lead to a refusal of your application on the ground that you have failed to submit the requested evidence within a reasonable time. If you need more time to prepare and submit the requested evidence, you should always write to the Home Office to request additional time to forward the evidence.

The completed FLR(O) form with your 2 recent passport photographs attached to the form. You should also provide for each of your dependant applicants 2 recent passport photographs, which should be included in your application forms.

The photographs should be in colour, recent (within the last month), and approximately 45 millimetres high and 35 millimetres wide, the size of a passport photo. Each photograph must show the individual’s full face clearly against a light background.
With the advent of the new FLR (O) form, the Home Office now operates a new procedure in accordance with Regulations 3 and 4 of the Immigration (Biometric Registration) Regulations 2009. Anyone applying for an extension of stay in the UK in the categories for which the FLR (O) application form is specified must apply for a biometric immigration document, otherwise known as an identity card for foreign nationals. This also applies to applications at the same time by any dependants of the main applicant.
It means that you would be required at the appropriate time, to attend a designated address set by the Home Office to have your photograph and fingerprints taken for the purpose of your extension application.
If you have any dependants who are under the age of 16, the Regulations require your dependants to provide a record of their fingerprints and/or a photograph must have them taken in the presence of a responsible adult who is the child’s parent or guardian, or another person who for the time being takes responsibility for the child.

Where dependants of the main applicant are also required to apply for a biometric immigration document, all applicants will normally have their fingerprints and/or photograph taken on the same day. This means that you and any children applying with you will normally be expected to attend together. If there is any reason preventing you from accompanying any child under the age of 16, you must nominate the responsible adult who will be accompanying them.

The responsible adult accompanying any child under the age of 16 will need to provide an acceptable form of identification, such as a passport or driving licence. If that person is not the parent or guardian of the child, they must have a letter confirming that they are a responsible adult who has a close connection to the child and has been authorised to accompany him or her.

The Home Office usually changes the application form every now and then. Do check with the Home Office before completing and sending off your application.

Your current Passport. You should include your expired Passport only if your last Leave to Remain or Entry Clearance (for first time applicants in the UK) is on that expired Passport.

If you have lost or your former employer has withheld your passport with the visa endorsement, you should seek written confirmation from the British Embassy that issued you the visa, and include the Embassy’s letter in your application.

Your updated statement of current terms and conditions of employment signed by you and your employer. This should include full details of your duties. Do bear in mind that your job title should be Domestic housekeeper, and not Au Pair because, under Immigration Rules, Au Pairs are considered as a different category from Domestic workers. Your Employment should also be Full Time. You should also include a copy of your employer’s passport and the page containing proof of your employer’s right of residence in the U.K. if he or she is not a U.K. citizen

The Home Office has the practice of refusing those who are working Part Time, or doing more than one employment, or those applicants who are registered as “self-employed” for tax reasons. Our Advice is that the Domestic Worker must not engage herself in more than one employment as this would run the risk of breaching the Immigration Rules which states that the domestic worker should be working for “A Private Household”.

Your employer should also include a letter confirming that your employment is still continuing, and that he/she is complying with UK legislation on the National Minimum Wage. If your employer has not stated this in the letter, there is no need to panic because the Home Office cannot refuse your application on the basis that the employer has failed to comply with this request.

you should also include your own covering letter to the Home Office explaining a brief history of your stay in the UK since your last extension, especially if you have left your previous employer. If this is the case, you should explain in your letter your reasons for leaving your former employer. The Home Office generally allows a Domestic Worker to have a small gap between jobs, as it is only reasonable for someone who may have lost her job to take some time to look for a new job. However, you must ensure that this gap between your previous job and new job is not too large as the Home Office could refuse your application if you have a long period of unemployment before you begin your current employment.

If the passport that you entered the UK with has been lost or withheld by your former employer, see above. Do bear in mind that without evidence of your date of entry into the UK, you must in your covering letter advise the Home Office of your arrival date and place of arrival.

If you have retained your air ticket, do include the ticket in your application as evidence of your arrival in the UK. If you are unable to produce bank statements or payslips, it should not jeopardise your application because, under Immigration rules, the Home Office cannot refuse your application simply because you do not have bank statements or payslips, as long as it is clear that you can maintain yourself without recourse to public funds (i.e. your employer’s letter confirms he or she is responsible for accommodation, food etc). But the Home Office reserves the right to request from your employer evidence of his financial ability to pay your salary, which may be in the form of your employer’s recent bank statements. When this request has been made, you must ensure that your employer is well aware of it, and your employer must ensure that he forward his recent bank statements within the time frame which the Home Office has set, as well as to ensure that he can show sufficient funds in his account in order to persuade the Home Office that he has the financial means to pay your salary.

The basic rule is that it is always better to produce more rather than less evidence to support your Application, and each Application is determined on its own merits. So long as you are able to provide a reasonable explanation as to your lack of supporting evidence, the Home Office may still consider your Application in your favour.

Do bear in mind that you must not be working in a business because your status is that of a domestic worker in a private household, unless you have previously been granted permission to work as a domestic worker in a business. But if you are paid by your employer’s company to work as a domestic worker in your employer’s private household, do ensure that your employer’s letter to the Home Office clearly states this fact, lest the Home Office misunderstands your position and refuse your application.

The Home Office fees for your application will be £561.00 from the 6 April 2012,you’re your cheque or postal order payments should be made payable to “Home Office Leave to Remain”. The Home Office charges an extra fee for each accompanying dependant applicant (your spouse, and each child under the age of 18), and you are advised to check the relevant fees for your dependants on the FLR(O) form.

If you have a child who is now over the age of 18 with you and who was joined you as your dependent child, and has now turned 18 by the time of your extension application, your child should complete an FLR(O) application form in his own right and pay a separate application fee to the Home Office.

The Home Office application fees are usually changed in April of each year. So, do check with the Home Office before sending your application. Please do not send cash to the Home Office.

If you are paying the fees by cheque or card, you must ensure that you have sufficient funds in the account or the Home Office could return your application as invalid because of a short of funds in your account. If this were to happen after your visa has expired, you will become an over-stayer and any refusal of your application will not attract a right of an appeal against the decision.

If your Leave to Remain or visa has already expired, that does not necessarily mean that your application will be refused. If your Leave has already expired on the date the Home Office receives your application, you will lose your right of an appeal if the Home Office refuses your application.

Remaining in the UK after the expiry of your Visa or Leave is an immigration offence and your application will be subject to the discretion of the Home Office as to whether to grant you Leave to Remain. In such a case, you must put in more effort in your application and provide detailed explanation and evidence as to the reason for your overstaying. You must ensure that you provide a detailed explanation as to why you are making an out of time application, for example, if you have been very ill or that you have suffered abuse and exploitation from your previous employer. The Home Office has the discretion to consider and grant an out of time application if there are compassionate reasons for granting an extension.

As a final note, always keep copies of the documents that you send to the Home Office and send your application by Special Delivery.

May we wish you the very best in your application!

SUNNY LEONG & CO. SOLICITORS

29 March 2012

Premier House
112 Station Road,
Edgware
Middx. HA8 7BJ

Telephone: 0208 951 5656

Mobile: 07910 355 177

Email: sunny.leong@slsolicitors.co.uk

Tags: Domestic Workers, Entry Clearance, Home Office, Leave to Remain