s2uallas

I have been working in the IT industry in the UK for over 11 years. During this time I have had 2 spells as a contractor working through an agency (2.5 years and 1 year) at a single client site each time. When it came to getting references, the clients that I actually did the work for would not supply these as they do not keep track of contractors but the agency would. On forms 47sk and 80, should I enter the name of the agency or the name of the client I was working for? Is it worth adding an additional explanation with these outlining the relationship between myself/agency/client.

cotapaxi

You would need to quote your "employer" which if you were employed by the agency would be them, if you were self employed or through an umbrella company then its a little more difficult. If you are counting on this experience to cover your work experience requirements then beware as I have previously had an application rejected because of this kind of problem (this was several years ago under the old system) where DIMIA said the references were not sufficient to prove my experience.

datamile

Complete nightmare... been contracting for 12 years.

Agency and HR references not really good enough as they don't have enough details.

Ended up tracking down previous project managers, and getting the 1-2 pages of detailed references that the ACS required followed up by stat declarations, and accountants statements etc for places where I couldn't get enough details.

ACS application sent... still waiting on results

PhilShila

I got the IT director to give a personal reference on company headed notepaper (HR couldn't do it as they don't get involved in the hiring of IT contractors).

He was happy to do so and ended it with the line:

"This reference is given without liability to xxxxxx plc" so that the company could not be held liable for anything he said.

Both ACS and DIMIA accepted this.

Phil