-Marie-

hi all can i pick your brains?

hubby is a brickie qualified with City & guilds NVQ level 1,2 & 3 in 1998,

we cant get references from very first employer who was 1998 til 2002 as business no longer exists we live 200 miles away from there now and unable to track boss down either.

we cant get reference from company he worked for as an apprentice this was JOHN MOWLEMS, they were bought out by Carillion and now have been bought out again, hence they dont hold employment records for when dave was an apprentice.


we have given copies of training courses he has been on through out career, payslips for everyone bar mowlems, really indepth references for last 3 employers (leaving present employer as last resort), training transcripts, old CIS card.

but the agent is leading us to believe that vetassess will not accept this but i photocopied 40 bits of paper, how can this not be enough?

is the agent right cause if so we may as well give up on our dream

many thanks if you have any input it will be gratefully received.

a very depressed,

Marie & dave

thanks
marie and dave

goldchoccycoin

Do you have proof of him completing his apprenticeship? If he has 'formal training' and enough experience I believe that this should be enough.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge will be along shortly.

What extra info does your agent think is required?

Eammon

Hi Marie and Dave

We have recently passed our paper assessment with Vetassess and are waiting for a date to come through for the carpentry practical.

Our agent asked us to provide a statutory declaration which detailed how Eammon learnt his trade as a carpenter and how he meets the competences. We had this certified by a solicitor and we sent this along with the rest of our paperwork. It might be worth asking your agent about a stat dec? Good luck.

Denise

Jopad

Hi Marie,

I was in the same situation as Dave. If he has passed his C & G, you will be able to obtain copies of certificates (after 1985) for £30 each. I also had to get a copy from CITB which proves that you have completed a recognised apprenticeship. (again £30 a copy)

They are now known as CSCS I think.

I included the above along with the latest CSCS trade card, a couple of wage slips and some references.

This was sufficient to get me on the July practicals.

Good luck

johnknight001

hi
you can always contact vettasses or another agent im sure there is a few on here who could assist you, i found vettasses to be ok on the phone , remember the only stupid question is the one you dont ask. this must be a common situation especially with thoe older guys who have companys not in excistance anymore.
john

-Marie-

Hi there i have all these certificates but the agent says this is not enough????? anyone else had this problem?

how do you challenge your agent about what they doing/notdoing?

marie

lainey70

I really feel for you Marie
My OH is a bricklayer and got through on the TRA, even that was hard enough, he had already used 2 agents and kept getting crap about get this copied get this signed go here and ask for this. In the end he went to see another agent told what he had already got, they told him he didn't have to get half the things he needed.
In the end he asked for his file back, of course didn't get a refund as they even charged him for e-mails he sent them!
Went with the new agent and got everything together, even from companies that had closed down. Didn't have some copies of certs and they sorted that out too. They worded referances for employers for us, all they had too do was sign them.
In the end it was our accountant that held us up, but we ended up getting 5 years of accounts back which we used to prove when and where my OH had worked.
I would ask your agent what you are actually paying them to do and see what they say.
I know this doesn't help much but just wanted to say it does get really stressful but dig your heels in you are paying them and they aint doing you a favour by moaning about what you need to get.
We really noticed the difference in what some agents do and what some WONT do.
All the best and good luck. x

Reedy

We also did statutory declarations for my OH as 2 businesses he had worked for had ceased operation.

Regards,

Lau

johnknight001

dont take this the wrong way but is your agent doing his job properly, im not an agent and im not an expert but if you have evidance of apprentiship and also of certificates ie city guilds and also recent experiance and can gain references from other employers and self write up ect and photos and testimonials then you are meeting the requirments of vettasses i have just read it for bricklayer and it says that you need to provide certs, experiance and quals, have you looked at the self assessment tool on there. if you meet it then thats that.
why not do it yourself then use an agent for the visa side of things, there are plenty on here who went alone.

-Marie-

thanks all for your advice, im going to go and ring bl**dy agent now while im psyched up and have few words, then ring vetassess later tonight, wish me luck

will update you on what happens

thanks again,

marie xx:curse:

Jopad

Marie,

If you download the self help tool from vetassess, it gives you boxes to tick for any documents required. I think this is all stuff that only you guys can do.

I have applied at this stage without an agent and so far its been ok, although a lot of waiting.

I was waiting for a reference from a recent employer, it never came so I sent off what i had (I was trying for the April Tests) and it passed the 1st stage. Don't get too worried as it sounds like Dave will pass the asssessment, and vetassess will contact you if they require more info.

damo666

Hi Marie,

I was in the same situation as you, I am a bricklayer and needed a reference from the bloke I worked for for over two years. The problem was I left him because, although a long time mate, he kept bouncing my pay cheques. I later found out he went bust. I have only been a bricky for three years so really needed his reference. My agent told me not to worry, write a 'Statement of Service', get it stat declared by a solicitor and it would be ok. I sent this to Vetassess last month and 3 weeks later got the ok from them to go for my practical!! Working as a tradesman I'm sure this sort of thing happens all the time so don't worry, write a statutory declaration and all will be fine.

Good luck

Damo

lainey70

Thats it Girl
It sounds like you have done every thing you can, Some times you just need others to say you are doing fine , Stay positive and good luck.
Keep us up to date .x

Sonn

Hi marie...

Did you get chance to ring Vetassess??? I hope it all works out for you...Fingers crossed.

-Marie-

had all good intentions of ringing vetassess but fell asleep on sofa waiting for them to open at 11.30pm and woke up at 3am not remembering what i was meant to be doing! yes was not amused when woke up this morning at reasonable time.

have spoken to agent and he says that we don have enough stuff for vetassess but he's trying to get everything we need for the visa in order to make sure we can get through it. which does make sense i suppose.

so it seems we ARE LOOKING AT THE LONG TERM GOAL rather than the short term

so all i can say is watch this space, haven't really got a choice since next practicals not til october now anyway!!!

but thanks everyone whos helped

just decided i must drink LOTS MORE wine and then i wont ever get stressed

cheers

marie xx