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Messy Proof of Income

santiago.ac

Star Member
Sep 24, 2019
102
30
My partner has been requested to submit a proof of income (aor nov 2020) for one of his jobs (2016-2018). According to the letter, he’s supposed to submit six months of bank statements or pay slips to demonstrate he was paid for his work at x company. Sadly, this specific company he worked at was quite informal and operated as an umbrella company for 4 smaller sub companies, and each sub-company provided him a 1/4 pay slip and deposit. This is how we’re tackling this:

1. He’s providing six months (jan-jun 2017) of pay slips for each sub company. They all show him as a fulltime employee receiving a % of his salary. Same job title. He did not provide different duties at all, he only had one job. It’s just the way the company taxed.

2. He’s also providing a (signed + letterhead) letter from the company’s accountant (same person signing the pay slips) explaining that’s how the company works, and how all this sub companies integrate the group (tbf this company is called xxx group, it’s a realtor agency and apparently that’s how they operate in our home country).

3. To be safe, he’s also requested six months of bank statements. This will be a salary-specific bank account showing 4 monthly deposits each month.

4. If needed, he might add a final letter of explanation re-explaining all of this.


i know this is messy as hell, but will this be enough? We’ve waited so long and it’s been 2 long years. Any advice on making this POI stronger? Has anyone been in a relatively similar situation? Are we overthinking this whole thing thinking it’s gonna bring the whole 2 year old application down?

(Btw - He originally presented a reference letter from his boss / CEO of the company, as well as his work certificate, further proof of employment was not requested).

Thanks.
 

DesiPikachu

Hero Member
Jan 13, 2021
346
161
Check if your home country has withholding taxes on wages/salaries. If so and assuming employer actually hired you and it wans't an under-the-table transaction, they paid withholding taxes on your salary and it's likely you can get information from the tax authorities about the withholding taxes you paid for that job.

For India, for example, it's very easy to query this information from the online income tax portal and it can act as a de-facto proof of income.
 

santiago.ac

Star Member
Sep 24, 2019
102
30
Check if your home country has withholding taxes on wages/salaries. If so and assuming employer actually hired you and it wans't an under-the-table transaction, they paid withholding taxes on your salary and it's likely you can get information from the tax authorities about the withholding taxes you paid for that job.

For India, for example, it's very easy to query this information from the online income tax portal and it can act as a de-facto proof of income.
Thanks! Sadly, getting those records in our home country isn’t as straightforward. And even if we did, it would still show four separate wages, as he was paid four separate times each month.
 

cansha

VIP Member
Aug 1, 2018
6,676
5,855
Thanks! Sadly, getting those records in our home country isn’t as straightforward. And even if we did, it would still show four separate wages, as he was paid four separate times each month.
What exactly he submit as work experience proof for this job. Did the letter he originally submitted gave his salary information?
 

cansha

VIP Member
Aug 1, 2018
6,676
5,855
My partner has been requested to submit a proof of income (aor nov 2020) for one of his jobs (2016-2018). According to the letter, he’s supposed to submit six months of bank statements or pay slips to demonstrate he was paid for his work at x company. Sadly, this specific company he worked at was quite informal and operated as an umbrella company for 4 smaller sub companies, and each sub-company provided him a 1/4 pay slip and deposit. This is how we’re tackling this:

1. He’s providing six months (jan-jun 2017) of pay slips for each sub company. They all show him as a fulltime employee receiving a % of his salary. Same job title. He did not provide different duties at all, he only had one job. It’s just the way the company taxed.

2. He’s also providing a (signed + letterhead) letter from the company’s accountant (same person signing the pay slips) explaining that’s how the company works, and how all this sub companies integrate the group (tbf this company is called xxx group, it’s a realtor agency and apparently that’s how they operate in our home country).

3. To be safe, he’s also requested six months of bank statements. This will be a salary-specific bank account showing 4 monthly deposits each month.

4. If needed, he might add a final letter of explanation re-explaining all of this.


i know this is messy as hell, but will this be enough? We’ve waited so long and it’s been 2 long years. Any advice on making this POI stronger? Has anyone been in a relatively similar situation? Are we overthinking this whole thing thinking it’s gonna bring the whole 2 year old application down?

(Btw - He originally presented a reference letter from his boss / CEO of the company, as well as his work certificate, further proof of employment was not requested).

Thanks.
Also, just a side note. This didn't have to be this messy or may be your country's regulation are this complicated. Plenty of companies share costs among different entities within the same group and share costs etc. But that is all internal management accounting rather than actually doing 4 different transactions. If these guys have say 100 employees they would be generating 400 salary slips a month? That is super inefficient. But may the local regulations make them do this but there could be a much better way of doing this.
 

santiago.ac

Star Member
Sep 24, 2019
102
30
What exactly he submit as work experience proof for this job. Did the letter he originally submitted gave his salary information?
He submitted a reference letter from the company’s CEO and a work certificate. I’m pretty sure it included salary information. The issue is that the company’s name on those documents is different than the four legal names they used to bill him. It’s like the company’s conformed of four different projects or subcompanies. I’ve no idea why they operate this way. He has a letter from the company’s accountant explaining that’s the way they work/bill.
 

santiago.ac

Star Member
Sep 24, 2019
102
30
Also, just a side note. This didn't have to be this messy or may be your country's regulation are this complicated. Plenty of companies share costs among different entities within the same group and share costs etc. But that is all internal management accounting rather than actually doing 4 different transactions. If these guys have say 100 employees they would be generating 400 salary slips a month? That is super inefficient. But may the local regulations make them do this but there could be a much better way of doing this.
No idea why they do it this way, and tbh it’s the only time I’ve personally encountered anything like this (i personally dislike the company and we tried not using it on his application bc of this, but we ended up with no other option). We do live in a very informal-loving country, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened - even this inefficiently - in many companies. I’ve just never had to deal with it personally.
 

cansha

VIP Member
Aug 1, 2018
6,676
5,855
. I’m pretty sure it included salary information.
Pretty sure seems like guessing? Have you seen it or do you have access to it?

The issue is that the company’s name on those documents is different than the four legal names they used to bill him.
It would not be an issue unless you somehow let the visa officer know this was an issue. The application doesn't really require salary slips if the income is mentioned on the letter and they don't even ask for it. I know this because I just submitted the letter and I know many others who just submitted the letter explicitly mentioning the salary.

The request for pay slips basically tells me that visa officer is not convinced your bf was paid to do the work by the company. Why he is doubtful may be dependent on how you entered the information while filling out the application.

Even with your complicated scenario let's say your main company is called A.. Your partner actually worked for B (or did he work for all 4) but he got paid by B, C, D and E 1/4th of his income. Now you say letter was issued by letter head of A.

So if you filled out in your application something like this

Jan 2016 - Jan 2018 -> Company Name A -> NOC XXXX -> Position XYZ and submitted a letter with all the responsibilities and salary mentioned on the letter .. In 99.99% cases there is no reason for them to ask for more documentation. Why? Because there is no way on earth a visa officer would know that this company has 4 different companies etc. etc. by doing this.

Do you know if this is what your partner did?

You are telling us how you are solving your problem and want to know if it is adequate without telling us what actually caused the confusion in the mind of the visa officer in the first place. What was actually mentioned on the application and the letter. If salary information was mentioned what was the amount mentioned and how was that amount mentioned on the letter?

Clarity and brevity helps. If after writing your situation you feel it is a "mess" just think how do you expect a total stranger reading your application to figure out what is going on?
 

santiago.ac

Star Member
Sep 24, 2019
102
30
Pretty sure seems like guessing? Have you seen it or do you have access to it?


It would not be an issue unless you somehow let the visa officer know this was an issue. The application doesn't really require salary slips if the income is mentioned on the letter and they don't even ask for it. I know this because I just submitted the letter and I know many others who just submitted the letter explicitly mentioning the salary.

The request for pay slips basically tells me that visa officer is not convinced your bf was paid to do the work by the company. Why he is doubtful may be dependent on how you entered the information while filling out the application.

Even with your complicated scenario let's say your main company is called A.. Your partner actually worked for B (or did he work for all 4) but he got paid by B, C, D and E 1/4th of his income. Now you say letter was issued by letter head of A.

So if you filled out in your application something like this

Jan 2016 - Jan 2018 -> Company Name A -> NOC XXXX -> Position XYZ and submitted a letter with all the responsibilities and salary mentioned on the letter .. In 99.99% cases there is no reason for them to ask for more documentation. Why? Because there is no way on earth a visa officer would know that this company has 4 different companies etc. etc. by doing this.

Do you know if this is what your partner did?

You are telling us how you are solving your problem and want to know if it is adequate without telling us what actually caused the confusion in the mind of the visa officer in the first place. What was actually mentioned on the application and the letter. If salary information was mentioned what was the amount mentioned and how was that amount mentioned on the letter?

Clarity and brevity helps. If after writing your situation you feel it is a "mess" just think how do you expect a total stranger reading your application to figure out what is going on?
The letter included salary information, I just double checked. I doubted because I haven't seen the letter in a while. I have no idea why they're asking him for more information. Keep in mind this is a 2 year old application and a lot of applicants from 2020/2021 are being asked for extra information. We did provide more information for his other job - but we provided enough information for both nonetheless, aka a signed letter by supervisors (and in this specific company - the CEO), with annual AND monthly salary for the duration of his time there. And the work certificate but that's just saying he worked there so whatever.

So yes, he did provide a letter as you're saying. It included duties, salary, hours, benefits he had, etc. A letterhead, signed letter.
I'm just trying to understand if what we're providing for a messy situation from a company that neither of us have an ounce of control over how they operate will be enough. I don't know why the officer isn't convinced he was paid for the work he did other than maybe because he had more documents from the other job (which made sense cause it was his current job..).
But we did provide what was requested for this specific job. I just want to know if there's anything else I can do to make the slips situation clearer.
 
Last edited:

cansha

VIP Member
Aug 1, 2018
6,676
5,855
The letter included salary information, I just double checked. I doubted because I haven't seen the letter in a while. I have no idea why they're asking him for more information. Keep in mind this is a 2 year old application and a lot of applicants from 2020/2021 are being asked for extra information. We did provide more information for his other job - but we provided enough information for both nonetheless, aka a signed letter by supervisors (and in this specific company - the CEO), with annual AND monthly salary for the duration of his time there. And the work certificate but that's just saying he worked there so whatever.

So yes, he did provide a letter as you're saying. It included duties, salary, hours, benefits he had, etc. A letterhead, signed letter.
I'm just trying to understand if what we're providing for a messy situation from a company that neither of us have an ounce of control over how they operate will be enough. I don't know why the officer isn't convinced he was paid for the work he did other than maybe because he had more documents from the other job (which made sense cause it was his current job..).
But we did provide what was requested for this specific job. I just want to know if there's anything else I can do to make the slips situation clearer.
In that case you have done everything right. Just submit the documents you have listed and they should be enough. It is unfortunate that the documents are so complicated when they could be much simpler but it is not in your control. Submit and hope for the best.