The Student Room Group
Reply 1
Primarily, you should be coming to the UK to work, not to study. You must have been working in the UK prior to your course starting, and must continue working throughout your studies.
Reply 2
so you say it's impossible to get this status if I already have a conditional offer?
Reply 3
It's not impossible, but can be difficult. Most of it is discretion of the assessor when it comes to this. I may interpret the regulations differently to someone else.
Reply 4
Does anybody know how to get that migrant worker status? I called home office, they kept putting me through to other departments. None of them heard about migrant worker status. They adviced me to fill EEA1 form whis is: A P P L I CAT IION FOR
A REGISTRAT ION CERT I F IICATE
IIN THE UK BY
EUROPEAN ECONOMIIC AREA ((EEA))
NAT IIONALS AND THEIIR EEA OR
SWIISS NAT IIONAL FAMII L Y MEMBERS
RESIIDIING IN THE UK
OR
SWIISS NAT IIONALS AND THEIIR SWIISS
OR EEA NAT IONAL FAMIIL Y MEMBERS
RESIIDIING IIN THE UK
(sorry for that:wink: I just copied that from the front page of application)
Anyway, Boarder Agency takes care of this, actually, European department. It's about residence so I'm not sure wheather it's what they want or not. Studentfinanceengland told me to call Home Office about that status. I ended up in European department with guy who had no idea about any migrant worker status.
theodeus, this form is when you have been working continously 12 months since you came to the UK. The guy told me it takes about 6 months. I think you should get Worker Registration Scheme first. It's written: 'The nationals of the countries marked with a single asterisk
may have to register on the Worker Registration Scheme.(...) If you have to register on the Scheme, you are not eligible
to apply for a registration certificate on the basis of employment
until you have worked legally in the UK for a continuous
period of 12 months during which time you were not out of work
for more than 30 days. You are not required to register on the
Scheme if you are self-employed.' You can have look at Border Agency website for more details. Question is, wheater your university can wait so long for that to apply. Another thing is to prove that you've been living in EEA for 3 years immidately before 1 September of the year you start you studies. It can be bills, bank statements but if you were minor that time you need to get school records that you have studied there for 3 years and translate it into English. This is for applying as a migrant worker to get the student loan and grants.
Reply 5
Hi guys. I'm a 3rd year student right now, and I'm redoing my 3rd year this year, because I was on a placement last year. I'm from the EU and I previously qualified for a student loan under migrant worker status, but whilst I was away on the placement I got dismissed from the work place... Basically, the Student loans company say,that I no longer qualify for maintenance support, cos I'm unemployed. So I was wondering, whether it matter if I am 'employed' or 'self-employed', because I am the latter at the moment, and have been since the 1st of september 2009. Does anyone know anything about this? Cos I can't find any information on their websites. And anyway, they don't really have a clear definition of a 'migrant worker status'...perhaps someone knows exaclty what it means. Cos I'm stuck arguing over very tenuous details with the authorities and it's taking ages..

Thanks in advance

Stina
Reply 6
Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry for the relatively-long post, but I just can't seem to reduce my story into smaller text.. Please seat comfortably and read into it if you have a spare minute. Tnx!

So, there are others in a very similar situation as I am! The SLC has been a total joke this year, I can't believe this is possible!!! They have taken my status that the LEA had given me before and have taken all my grants away for this year.. I had difficulties accepting this after 3 years of successful applications through the LEA (I'm now in the 4th year after 2 years + 1 Erasmus year), but I did accept it and lived with it.. However, they are now asking back ALL the money from the grants for the last 3 years (more than £7,000!!) with immediate due date and they do it in the most neutral robotised manner possible: "This is a letter from overpayment department.. this this and that.. Please send us a cheque or pay by a bank transfer. Thank you." !?!

Isn't this just ridiculous? How is that possible in the first place? There should be some sense, there are people in there too, or are we just Customer Reference numbers for them?

So, to put my long, very long as short as possible, I moved from Bulgaria the UK in August 2005 at the age of 16. I lived with my mum (she has the status of a settled person - indefinite leave to remain) and my step-dad, a UK citizen. In 2006 (Bulgaria was still not in the EU so I needed a Visa) I obtained an Indefinite leave to enter/remain in the UK as a child under 18 (my mum had already had a settled status). In April 2007, I started working part-time at local solicitors office and continued doing this for 3 years.

In September the same year, I got accepted at Uni and applied for the loans. I did that at the Local Educational Authority. I had no clue how it worked so I just submitted what they asked for. One day I ended up seeing a large amount of money on my bank account - they had decided to give me the full maintenance loan and grant. Excellent, I thought, so I qualify, lucky me. This continued for 3 academic years until this fatal 2010/11.

They stated that I was going to be considered by the Migrant Worker Team (centralised up in Darlington, no more decision power given to the LEA). I applied already in January 2010 for the 2010/11 year. After this I kept receiving letters and email with confusing information. Finally, I got them all the documents they needed (seemingly). I received a reply that I was rejected (because I got the student 20h per week work allowed yellow card because that's what they told me I needed actually! and the documents from my employer which I provided.

So, there it is: August 2010 I received a letter: We're sorry, but this is not enough to prove to us that you are working sufficiently as it only limits you to 20h per week. I then dug into my documents and realised that the Visa I was granted in 2006 gives me full working rights. I sent them a copy of it.

They stated the following: no, you have a settlement visa and you are treated as a UK citizen. Therefore, you are not eligible because you need to have lived in the UK for the 3 years prior to the start of your degree. So, I had moved to the UK in Aug 2005, started Uni Sept 2007, 2yrs 1 month. They said that I can no longer rely on being a EU migrant worker.. Then they asked for everything back! How is it possible? I think it is grossly unfair... Through no fault of mind did I obtain the grants from the LEA, I had not intended to deceive or mislead anyone.. Now they turn and they take my status away? Can they overrule the LEA for the past 3 years? Well, they did.. But how is this any just..

It's like telling your kid: hey son, here are £10, go buy sweets. He buys them and then you say: now now, give me back all the £10! ? It's ludicrous.. I appealed on 2 stages now, but they keep saying that I am not a "Migrant Worker".. How can they be so stuck into words? It is also about human lives... And, if anyone knows, is it possible for them to prevent me from exercising my right as a European Citizen to be a "European Migrant Worker" and is it just to say that my settled status overrides it? I only have a Bulgarian citizenship at the end of the day, surely I am still an EU citizen before everything else..


Well, thanks for reading into my story and if anyone can help with anything, it's very welcome..

Cheers!
Reply 7
God, the above story is awful.

I have been working as a Customer Service Advisor for a very large e-commerce company in the last few months. The only thing I can say is that advisors can mix and match rules so that at the end of the day they can excuse themselves in front of a customer and prove that they are right... I guess that is what's happening in SLC as well.

I have been informed that they have several call centres in whole UK, which means:

- You don't get information whether a specific person deals with your case.
- It is very very possible that different agents state different things and provide you with different information
- They are call agents only! They now the general rules, but when it comes to a specific question or request, they can't help you.

Seriously, SLC really has to improve their services if they allow such a high amount of applicants and give all of us hope and reassurance we'll get money to study at first place.

I have applied through the Migrant Worker Team as well. The only thing I can say is - I deeply regret it. Had I known there was going to be such complications, I would have chosen the normal route and applied for student fee loan only.

Now I am in a position where I have provided them with all necessary papers and proofs that I am still working etc etc, and after many discussions and confusions (incl a phone conversation during which they couldn't find the papers i sent them, although an agent I spoke to previously confirmed that they'd received them)- I was told to wait 5 to 10 working days to receive a final decision from SLC.

I felt really embarrassed when I had to enrol at college - I was given temporary enrolment and a deadline till 24.10 to give proof of granted student loan... Such fun hah, now that I am reading about similar problems I can't even concentrate on any projects given prior to start of the course.
Reply 8
Any chance to get to know how to apply to the migration worker status? Ive already got my student loan as european that cover my fees but Ive just heard about this migration worker status that can cover also some of the living cost.
Anyone can help me with that?
Reply 9
Original post by trinate
Any chance to get to know how to apply to the migration worker status? Ive already got my student loan as european that cover my fees but Ive just heard about this migration worker status that can cover also some of the living cost.
Anyone can help me with that?


You must have been working in the UK before your course started, and you must have initially come to the UK for work rather than study. You also need to be working throughout your degree.
Reply 10
I am working and I came to UK to work almost 3 years ago. How do you apply to that?

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