Progress towards a UK work visa

‘fully engaged with the process of getting a UK Tier 1 work permit now, supplemental to my Dutch DAFT application.  The requirements are straightforward but the execution is miserable.

Tier 1 of the Points Based System is designed for “knowledge workers” to immigrate to the UK.  It requires no sponsors and is based on achieving a 75 point threshold.

For me, this is a combination of degree, stable bank resources, salary above threshold, and a few minor factors.  So far, so good.  I engaged a consultant on contingency who is assuring that my packet is acceptable and complete, and the process of assembling the original documents is slowly converging.

The graduate degree, for example, needed to be the actual degree that I was handed when I walked across the stage.  Okay, I picked it up when I was in Seattle.

The bank resources had to be documented by actual mailed bank statements, with the closing date no more than 30 days prior to the application submission.  Barclays is generating it, for 10 pounds, plus one pound per page, plus a 10-working day shipping to the Netherlands.  My fingers are crossed.

Salary has to be verified by original pay slips totaling more than 26,000 GBP gross pay.  Further, there must be an original bank statement showing a corresponding deposit to the net pay on each payslip.  This is a real challenge for two reasons.  The expat contract divided my pay between two banks so that my family and I both had money during my assignment.  Worse, the payslips are euro-denominated while the bank deposits are in dollars.

I’m not giving up, but this is all a real challenge.  And it all keeps me from the real work of planning the project and organizing the resources that the grant is funding.