Hi,
Recently I applied for UK Tier 2 General visa from Chennai, India. In following post i will try to mention things I came to know and procedure I followed to get the required documentation.
First of All - go through gov.uk website for instructions and references. It is pretty well documented.
From official website, the documents you must provide are
To apply for Tier 2 Visa , you need to have a valid Job offer from one of the licensed sponsors, also you need to be paid Appropriate salary (Min 30,000GBP at the date of this post ) to be eligible for certificate of sponsorship.
Once you get the offer, your sponsor will be apply COS (certificate of sponsorship) for you. It will be usually applied before every month 5th and allocation date will be 11th. If your sponsor applied after 5th, you have to wait for another month.
COS consist of your annual salary , start date & end date of employment and information on Resident Labor Market Test.
I heard allocation of COS mainly depends on RLMT and Appropriate Salary (but I'm not sure), and COS is valid for 3 months only, And it can be used for single visa application only.
English requirements
For English requirement ,you either need IELTS for UKVI or Certificate from NARIC stating your Degree is equivalent to UK bachelors/Masters/PhD degree.
If you are like me who wrote IELTS Academic / General, Please note that It is not a valid proof for your visa application, you have to write IELTS for UKVI for which they charge extra for same test and with few more cameras and invigilators. Also check approved English language tests
once I learned painstaking fact that IELTS Academic is not a valid, I started exploring another option - NARIC certification.
Go to NARIC visa and immigration, create an account and start application. you need to upload the following
NARIC has a shitty deadlines. In website they mention turnround time is 10 working days but they usually take another 3-4 days to verify documents, so apply before 20 days to get your certificates on time.
Maintenance funds for first month
Usually COS certified maintenance for you. Please check with your sponser
Tuberculosis Test
You need to get TB test from one of approved test clinics
I went to Apollo chennai. usually in any test clinic they will specify to book appointment before visiting clinic and be prepared to spent a day there. In apollo chennai they will give certificates at 4.30PM only , so you have to wait until that time even appointment at 10.00 AM.
criminal record certificate
Not all jobs require criminal record certificate , but check with your sponsor if you need one and ref this.
In India , you can get this certificate by visiting police station or from passport seva kendra.
I applied via passport seva kendra,
You just need to fill application and book appointment and visit passport seva kendra.For me it just took 2 hours to get the process done and they gave me certificate at the end.
Applying
Many websites and tutorials refer to visa4uk website to fill application, but gov.uk site refers to visa-immigration link, I applied via link from gov.uk site and pay the hefty fee (almost 1lakh - visa for 8 months health surcharge 400 GBP + Visa fee 560 GBP). for some reason I cant able to pay with debit card.
vfs-global biometric
Once application is completed, you can book an appointment in VFS global to submit biometric. I am able book appointment in next day.
Recently I applied for UK Tier 2 General visa from Chennai, India. In following post i will try to mention things I came to know and procedure I followed to get the required documentation.
First of All - go through gov.uk website for instructions and references. It is pretty well documented.
From official website, the documents you must provide are
- Certificate of Sponsorship
- English requirements
- maintenance funds for first month
- Passport
- tuberculosis test results
- criminal record certificate
- applying
- vfs-global biometric
To apply for Tier 2 Visa , you need to have a valid Job offer from one of the licensed sponsors, also you need to be paid Appropriate salary (Min 30,000GBP at the date of this post ) to be eligible for certificate of sponsorship.
Once you get the offer, your sponsor will be apply COS (certificate of sponsorship) for you. It will be usually applied before every month 5th and allocation date will be 11th. If your sponsor applied after 5th, you have to wait for another month.
COS consist of your annual salary , start date & end date of employment and information on Resident Labor Market Test.
I heard allocation of COS mainly depends on RLMT and Appropriate Salary (but I'm not sure), and COS is valid for 3 months only, And it can be used for single visa application only.
English requirements
For English requirement ,you either need IELTS for UKVI or Certificate from NARIC stating your Degree is equivalent to UK bachelors/Masters/PhD degree.
If you are like me who wrote IELTS Academic / General, Please note that It is not a valid proof for your visa application, you have to write IELTS for UKVI for which they charge extra for same test and with few more cameras and invigilators. Also check approved English language tests
once I learned painstaking fact that IELTS Academic is not a valid, I started exploring another option - NARIC certification.
Go to NARIC visa and immigration, create an account and start application. you need to upload the following
- OD / Original Degree Certificate
- Marks list / Academic Transcripts
- MOI / Medium of Instruction Certificate
NARIC has a shitty deadlines. In website they mention turnround time is 10 working days but they usually take another 3-4 days to verify documents, so apply before 20 days to get your certificates on time.
Maintenance funds for first month
Usually COS certified maintenance for you. Please check with your sponser
Tuberculosis Test
You need to get TB test from one of approved test clinics
I went to Apollo chennai. usually in any test clinic they will specify to book appointment before visiting clinic and be prepared to spent a day there. In apollo chennai they will give certificates at 4.30PM only , so you have to wait until that time even appointment at 10.00 AM.
criminal record certificate
Not all jobs require criminal record certificate , but check with your sponsor if you need one and ref this.
In India , you can get this certificate by visiting police station or from passport seva kendra.
I applied via passport seva kendra,
You just need to fill application and book appointment and visit passport seva kendra.For me it just took 2 hours to get the process done and they gave me certificate at the end.
Applying
Many websites and tutorials refer to visa4uk website to fill application, but gov.uk site refers to visa-immigration link, I applied via link from gov.uk site and pay the hefty fee (almost 1lakh - visa for 8 months health surcharge 400 GBP + Visa fee 560 GBP). for some reason I cant able to pay with debit card.
vfs-global biometric
Once application is completed, you can book an appointment in VFS global to submit biometric. I am able book appointment in next day.
