Work permit granted

I recieved my work permit. The HR department at my job submited the application on 10 Nov 2008. The permit was issued 11 Dec 2008 and HR notified me today. The wait was longer than anticipated, but not awful.

I am in the UK for the holidays looking for a place to live, setting up a bank account, etc. After the first of the year I will head back to the states to apply for the visa. Hopefully that will only take a few days. Once the visa comes in, it will be back to the UK.

I will be submitting the visa application to the NYC office and will update you on how long the process takes.

Congratulations!  The HR office at my job is applying for mine after the holidays (for a job starting August 1).  I've been really nervous (not for any good reason), so it is nice to hear positive stories!

Based on the experiences of others on this board (myself included) I definitely don't think you'll get a visa turnaround in a few days. I had my work permit all in order and I've been waiting for more than a month for my visa/passport to be returned to me by the LA office. Quite a few others seem to be delayed as well....so might be wise to allow yourself a bit more time for the process. Good Luck!

I recieved my work permit. The HR department at my job submited the application on 10 Nov 2008. The permit was issued 11 Dec 2008 and HR notified me today. The wait was longer than anticipated, but not awful.

I am in the UK for the holidays looking for a place to live, setting up a bank account, etc. After the first of the year I will head back to the states to apply for the visa. Hopefully that will only take a few days. Once the visa comes in, it will be back to the UK.

I will be submitting the visa application to the NYC office and will update you on how long the process takes.

It looks like people who have used courier services are getting quick turn around times. Did you use a courier service? I am still in the UK, so I have not started the process yet.

An expiditor/courier service should always help and it at least gives you someone to call and beat up on if there are any delays.

A lot of delays appear to be clearing up though there does seem to be somewhat of a backlog still.  Things really did grind to a halt around October and then the Tier2/5 training seemed cause issues until the start of December and then the Holidays finished off the rest of the year.

Nope, my UK soon-to-be-workplace fedexed me all the appropriate documents and I posted them along with the application and supporting documents myself.

If i had known it would have taken this long (34 calendar days and counting) I would have gone to the UK on a tourist visa to start work/settle down and come back within 6 months when things are less holiday hectic and aided by a courier.

I'll keep you posted on my situation. Good luck with yours!

It looks like people who have used courier services are getting quick turn around times. Did you use a courier service? I am still in the UK, so I have not started the process yet.

It is illegal to work on a tourist visa, so if you had done this your application would have been prejudiced.

I'm aware of that but my work visa is also an intra-company transfer situation. I've been able to work there before for extended period of time since my work visa for the other country I live in is still valid, and i'm still technically an employee there. It was considered an extended business trip and was legal since I was getting paid by a foreign rather than UK employer. Certainly wouldn't be doing anything to jeopardize my visa situation or my company. 

It is illegal to work on a tourist visa, so if you had done this your application would have been prejudiced.

The problem is that with the advent of Tier 2, the government has been tightening up significantly on business visits. If they think you're doing more than the allowed work for a tourist visa, they will bounce you.

There is a fine line between conducting business and working.  Conducting business is allowed as a business visitor, working, even if you are getting paid abroad, is technically illegal.  So attending business meetings, attending conferences, advising, etc. are allowed, pretty much everything else is essentially not allowed.

IOs have always been hesitent to bounce people who come as "business visitors" but aren't, because it is generally bad for business relations, but I highly suspect we are going to see people questioned on how they can be coming over for "months" at a time and not performing work.  Especially since for Visa nationals they are specifically introducing the business visitor category with certain requirements.

My T2 (ICT) entry clearance took about a week through the NY consulate, I have no complaints about the process.

However, when applying for the sponsorship and such, the home office did want to make sure (as I was in the UK at the time) that I wasn't doing anything that could be seen as "work" per se, and we were warned that a rep from the home office could come around to take a look at the office while processing the application.  So we were really careful about what I did while I was there.

I've been able to work there before for extended period of time since my work visa for the other country I live in is still valid, and i'm still technically an employee there. It was considered an extended business trip and was legal since I was getting paid by a foreign rather than UK employer.

This was probably illegal.  I wouldn't shout about it on an open forum.  Just be thankful you have the visa.  Just over a month is pretty good going.

Vicky