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Sri Lankans in United Kingdom

Questions, timelines and warnings from people going to United Kingdom or already living there.

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Does my employer have to be on the sponsor register before I apply?

I have a verbal offer from a small company in Leeds, about 30 staff. They have never hired from outside the UK and they are asking me how it works, which is not reassuring. As I understand it they need a sponsor licence first, then they issue a Certificate of Sponsorship, then I apply. Is that right, and roughly how long does the licence itself take? They are asking whether I can start in six weeks and I do not want to promise something that is not possible.

NI@nimesha_s
Scam alert

Fake Health and Care Worker sponsorship, GBP 4,000 gone

Anonymous for obvious reasons. My cousin lost this money and I am posting so nobody else does. The setup: a WhatsApp contact claiming to represent a care home group in the Midlands. Professional-looking CoS document, a real care home name lifted from Companies House, and an invoice for GBP 4,000 described as a "sponsorship processing fee". Two things were wrong and we only saw them afterwards: 1. It is illegal for a sponsor to charge a worker the sponsor licence fee or the Immigration Skills Charge. If somebody asks you to pay those, it is not a real sponsorship. 2. The CoS number did not exist. You can check a certificate number, and a genuine sponsor will not mind you checking. The real care home had no idea their name was being used.

–Anonymous
Housing & living

Renting in Manchester without a UK guarantor

This is the thing that nearly stopped me and nobody warns you about it. Most letting agents want a UK-based guarantor earning around 30x the monthly rent. If you have just arrived you do not have one. What worked, in order of how much it cost me: 1. Offering six months rent up front. Accepted by two of the four agents I tried. Expensive but free. 2. A guarantor service. Roughly 5 to 8 percent of the annual rent as a one-off fee. 3. Company lets through the employer. Only if your employer already does this. Also: you will be asked for a UK bank account and a credit history you cannot have yet. Open the account in your first week, even a basic one, because everything downstream needs it.

TH@tharindu_j
General

Sri Lankan grocery shops near Birmingham?

Three months in and I have given up on finding proper pol sambol ingredients in the big supermarkets. Maldive fish especially. Anyone know shops around Birmingham or Coventry that carry Sri Lankan rather than general South Asian stock? The Indian shops have most things but not the same rice and definitely not the same chilli.

HA@hasini_w