Visa Questions

[tealin]

I don't usually like putting important personal stuff up online, but I need answers to some serious questions, I'm short on time, and none of the official channels are working for me.

I have a UK visa which is valid for five years starting November of last year. I put off arriving in the UK because a truly amazing and unmissable job came along, which was short-term enough it wouldn't make much of a dent in my time there, and would open major doors for me overseas. Unfortunately* this job is going well over schedule, which leads me to a vague sort of loophole in the visa rules. The UK Border Agency's website states:

During the continuous residence period, you cannot be outside the UK for more than 180 days in any consecutive 12 months. Absences must be for a reason that relates to the reason for your stay in the UK, or for a serious or compelling reason such as serious illness.

The extended project schedule has me staying here more than 180 days past my visa's start date, which might put me in the danger zone re: The Rules, so I have some serious questions:

1. Does the "continuous residence period" start from the active date on the visa, or from my entering the country?
2. My absence is because of work, which is the same as the reason for my stay, so does that affect things at all?
3. Is an extended contract sufficiently 'compelling'?
4. I have the opportunity to go over for three weeks in February; would this be advisable? (I'd like to know well enough in advance that I'm not buying a last-minute trans-Atlantic plane ticket, but y'know, needs must.)
   

I've asked these questions of WorldBridge, the private company that handles UK visa matters in the States, and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, to which they forwarded me.  After two weeks without a reply from them I phoned the British Consulate in San Francisco and got a phone menu which basically told me to look at the website or ask WorldBridge and gave me no way to speak to a living human (pressing 0 just took me back to start).  So I turn to you, The Internet, my faithful friends and crowdsourcing rogues: Does anyone have any experience with UK visas, communicating with the impenetrable fortress of UK government institutions, or any other insight into my questions?  Quips referencing Mycroft Holmes are not helpful but will be appreciated regardless.

*from a strategic perspective – the job is still great and the people delightful, it's just getting complicated now

Comments

[zooey_glass]

Here via copperbadge.

I don't have a definitive answer but my experience has been that they have been much more punitive about this recently. I know of at least one case of a student with a Tier 4 visa being refused re-entry into the UK after leaving the country to go on holiday. The advice we're now given is that being outside the country for more than 4 weeks can constitute a visa breach. I don't know how the not being in the country yet will affect this, but since they are now so arsy it is REALLY worth getting a definitive answer on this one. Also, get documentation on that answer - take names of who you speak to, note times, get stuff in writing if possible. My s-i-l nearly got refused a visa at the last minute because someone in the office she was dealing with didn't know the actual rules, and my m-i-l had to resort to printing off the material on the UK BA's website and bringing it into the office before it got resolved. *sighs*

[tealin]

Point taken -- I've been trying to conduct as much of this by email as possible in order to have a written record, and intend to get testimony from my current employers that they really need me to stay this extra time really a lot, and basically cover as many bases as I can imagine. Being pretty familiar with the political situation around immigration these days thanks to Radio 4, I figure there is no such thing as too paranoid when it comes to this stuff, so it's reassuring(?) to get confirmation that this is not a crazy thing to do.