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Hi Ben
I put a ticket in about exactly this a month ago, yet to hear back...
As we know, learners *cannot* apply for extensions until their visas are nearly finished, so it's nearly impossible for most to have visas that cover more than a relatively short Apprenticeship. I cannot believe there is a policy intent to stop those with visas from accessing Apps, but you're right that this is what the current wording implies...
We had this conversation yesterday after it came up in the ESFA webinar. There are some types of visa that are very likely to get extended (barring extreme circumstances), but the student can't renew in advance. If they have a year left on the visa, but want to sign up for an 18 month apprentice, it would be absurd to turn them away. We were thinking of waiting until we had a real example to take to ESFA (it would be very rare for us), and challenging the policy as discriminatory.
Morning Steve Hewitt & Ruth Canham-James,
what do we make of the changes to the Immigration Status ruling in Version 1 (released a couple of days ago)? It appears most of what we were discussing back in June has been removed from the new rules, due to a 'restructure'. Do we think this is a mistake; or should we perceive P20.2 as encompassing this?
Look forward to hearing your thoughts,
Ben
Afternoon all,
I'm wondering if there has been any update on this situation? We have just been notified of an apprentice applicant in this position; they had a Visa and applied for it to be extended prior to its expiry date but it has now expired. Does this mean that they are ineligible until they receive a response to their extension request?
We will raise with the helpdesk but to save time I'm wondering whether anyone has already done this and received advice?
Thanks
Ian
On my eleventh (soon to be twelfth) "we are working on it and will get back to you in 10 days" email...
Here's the thing though. You started this learner, I presume, before 1 August and therefore the 23/24 (or earlier) rules apply, where the spiel about having applied being sufficient was still there, so they *cannot* say this learner is now ineligible.
Thanks for coming back to me Steve. Very frustrating these 'get back to you in 10 days' responses aren't they? Unfortunately the person is an applicant rather than a learner so they didn't start in 23-24. It therefore appears as if they would be ineligible until they get their Visa extension approved.
Ben Carter
VISA - Duration/Expiration
Created
We are aware that in the new funding rules (as was referenced on a DfE Webinar yesterday), an apprentice's VISA must encompass the duration of the apprenticeship (Page 8, P20.4). This area of the funding rules appears to contradict itself on Page 111 (P290), where under immigration status, the rules state:
"Any individual, or relevant family member, who has applied for an extension or variation of their current immigration permission in the UK is still treated as if they have that leave. Keeping this permission applies as long as the application was made before their current permission expired. Their leave continues until the Home Office make a decision on their immigration application.".
If an apprentice's VISA will expire during the apprenticeship duration, though they are able to apply/ascertain an extension prior to this expiration, maintaining permissions - is this apprentice still eligible for initial funding, or do we need to ensure the initial VISA encompasses the entire duration from the outset?
Kind regards,
Ben