I have an appeal for an A8 national who has failed RTR. The client began working in July 2005 but her first registration certificate was not issued until January 2007 (client says she applied straight away). She had two subsequent jobs, each for less than one year, but greater than 12 months combined, and both registered. In each case, the worker registration certificate was issued more than one month after the start date of employment and in each case the client says she applied for registration immediately. In the sub, the DM says:

if they do not apply for registration within one month of commencing each employment the period of registered work will only be counted from the date the certificate is issued. They are using this to argue that as the date between starting jobs and receiving the WR certificate is greater than one month, the periods of work cannot be linked for the purposes of calculating 12 months registered work. There is no evidence that the DWP have enquired as the date of application of the WR certificates.

The DWP’s sub suggests that a person who applies for registration within a month of starting work, is in registered work from the date employment commences; and in other cases, from the date of issue of the WR certificate. I can't find anything to confirm this last point in the IS reg 21AA, the Accession (I&WR) regs or the 2006 EEA regs;

My view at the moment is that reg 7(2)(b) does indeed treat someone as being in authorised work where they apply for WR certificate within a month of starting but hasn’t received it. 7(2)(c) confirms that worker who has received a valid registration certificate works for an ‘authorised’ employer, but I’m uncertain that this means the certificate is only valid from the date of issue (as the DWP say), because in listing the start date of employment on the certificate, the certificate itself suggests that all of the work is authorised.

What really gets me though, is that if the date of application for the certificate is so important, why on earth didn’t the DWP make some enquires about this? As far as I can see in the bundle, they never even asked the question of the client. This makes me very suspicious that the law is not being applied properly.

I feel sure that I’m missing something…. Can anyone offer any pointers towards a solution? As usual, any and all contributions most appreciated. Thanks,

I'd be very interested in the answer to this question as I have come across a similar case recently. In that case the date of issue was more than a month after starting work, but less than 2 months. No evidence of when it was applied for and claimant can't remember. Is there anyone who knows roughly how long the process takes? I regard it as odd that the certificate is dated at issue, not at the receipt of the application. It means that circumstances right outside the applicant's control - ie delays in the processing - could severely disadvantage them.

That's my fear too, Ariadne. I've written to the WR Team at the Home Office to find out it they can tell me the date of applicatoin, but I've also asked for information about how long the average wait time was around the time of each application for my client. Hopefully we can either confirm or imply that the application was made within the month.

But I don't really understand how we stand with the regs and what I arguments I should be using at the tribunal if we can't get the information reqeusted.

We take the date of application but only if there is proof of this. However, the critical issue is the time between the end of one registered job and the date of application for the next job. A8's are allowed only 30 days cumulatively of unregistered employment (or non-employment) to count within the 12 months period.

I looked on the website for the WRS and as far as I can recall they say they aim to register within one to two weeks of receiving the application (on average), but there is a sugggestion that they are not on target for that average. Worth having look at it.