ILR PEO deferred Apps - Further checks/Additional docs cases

OK then. I may know more than you do.

My daughter's TOEFL was from 2013.

But that doesn't matter, the thing apparently started in February with a BBC Panorama program. They have been putting people on hold since then, they just haven't told anyone.

I know people who applied with TOEFL before us, and whose applications were on hold and they have managed to submit new English tests and get ILR (too bad I didnt know of any of these people before 29th April). If you search the Internet, people have been put on hold all March. As it now turns out. What you hear about pre-April-17th- TOEFL being accepted for visa applications, relates to TOEFL taken abroad. If it was taken in the UK, it doesn't matter when. They accept it -- they have to, it was on the list -- but they put everyone on hold indefinitely.

However it is true that between the time you applied and the time we applied two weeks later, they may have developed a new procedure to deal with TOEFL.

There is a standard letter they gave us on the day, it's on the Internet, sample can be found here:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... 5247,d.bGE

I am not sure why you didnt get it. It may be that they only came up with this letter between 15th and 29th of April, or maybe they only give it to some applicants and not other based on some weird criteria. But trust me this is definitely TOEFL.

What is the date on the letter you got from Amanda W? Ours is dated 28th May.
It was roughly 28 days after we applied so I reckoned, the best I could, that by then they decided that new English test results weren't forthcoming and passed the case on to Amanda= somewhere else (although the caseworker assured me it wouldn't happen).

Or maybe there was a moment that they had so many deferred TOEFL applications piled up that they have one day decided to do something about them, eg give them all to one person, send them all to some place to sit there in a box, or whatever? Or maybe even established a process to sort real ones from suspicious one? and that is where all the applications went?

We only submitted another certificate on 2nd June. And some of it may explain it, we sent it to our caseworker but our file may be already somewhere in the box with Amanda W. Who knows where they passed them onto, if anywhere. Who knows if the new test certificate will get there or what will now happen. But anyway it has actually only been a week so fingers crossed.

sagareva wrote:OK then. I may know more than you do.

My daughter's TOEFL was from 2013.

But that doesn't matter, the thing apparently started in February with a BBC Panorama program. They have been putting people on hold since then, they just haven't told anyone.

I know people who applied with TOEFL before us, and whose applications were on hold and they have managed to submit new English tests and get ILR (too bad I didnt know of any of these people before 29th April). If you search the Internet, people have been put on hold all March. As it now turns out. What you hear about pre-April-17th- TOEFL being accepted for visa applications, relates to TOEFL taken abroad. If it was taken in the UK, it doesn't matter when. They accept it -- they have to, it was on the list -- but they put everyone on hold indefinitely.

However it is true that between the time you applied and the time we applied two weeks later, they may have developed a new procedure to deal with TOEFL.

There is a standard letter they gave us on the day, it's on the Internet, sample can be found here:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... 5247,d.bGE

I am not sure why you didnt get it. It may be that they only came up with this letter between 15th and 29th of April, or maybe they only give it to some applicants and not other based on some weird criteria. But trust me this is definitely TOEFL.

What is the date on the letter you got from Amanda W? Ours is dated 28th May.
It was roughly 28 days after we applied so I reckoned, the best I could, that by then they decided that new English test results weren't forthcoming and passed the case on to Amanda= somewhere else (although the caseworker assured me it wouldn't happen).

Or maybe there was a moment that they had so many deferred TOEFL applications piled up that they have one day decided to do something about them, eg give them all to one person, send them all to some place to sit there in a box, or whatever? Or maybe even established a process to sort real ones from suspicious one? and that is where all the applications went?

We only submitted another certificate on 2nd June. And some of it may explain it, we sent it to our caseworker but our file may be already somewhere in the box with Amanda W. Who knows where they passed them onto, if anywhere. Who knows if the new test certificate will get there or what will now happen. But anyway it has actually only been a week so fingers crossed.

Sagareva, you are a saviour! Finally there's an explanation that (sort of) makes sense.

Our letter is also dated 28th May. They must have sent it everyone. But the question remains, if TOEFL is the problem, why aren't they saying so!? Are they planning to just sit on our application for years? Did our original caseworker just make a mistake by not telling us about this at the outset?

Another problem is that you can't do any of the other tests without a passport (which UKVI have). How did you do another test without your passport?

I'm wondering what I should do next. I suppose there is a chance that this delay is about something else but from what you say it now looks very likely that it's TOEFL. The people on the phoneline aren't any help, all they tell you to do is wait. I've already tried writing to them (I think they put faxes straight into the bin judging by the experiences of people on this forum).

If only they weren't totally uncontactable, it would be so much easier. I could try and guess the email address of the case worker I suppose, but that could also do more harm than good.

lol thanks but i can't even save myself can I.

and "makes sense" is an expression that has to be heavily qualified when dealing with the Home Office. everything is relative ))

but yeah clearly we are in the same pile. and a person named Amanda controls it. one thing we still dont know, is WHERE is it.

why your caseworker didnt tell you it was toefl I dont know, maybe she was new or just came off a holiday. maybe we just got a talkative caseworker, he said it was a first one for him and he had just found out all this stuff himself, so he spilled the beans, even told me to go to youtube and watch BBC panorama program ))

I am a bit ahead of you, I did try to guess the caseworker's email address, e-mail went somewhere but no reply. Hell, I even email the caseworker who approved my daughte'r previous application, asking her to look on the system to see who has our file (she has previously written to me so I knew her email for sure). Not that it did any good, I can't see how this can do much bad though.

But be careful if your caseworeker has a very common name there may be more than one person with it in the HO, I once had a caseworker who had an email with her middle name and number 1 after last name so I surmise there was more than one of that exact first and last name. This is the same reason I did not try to email Amanda W, i figured could be more than one.

I contemplate going back there to be honest. They have some sort of a desk there you can walk up to and ask stuff, not that it does many people a lot of good but anyway.

As for taking the test without a passport, spot on -- as our letter explained "the Home office reached agreement with other english test providers that these applicants will be allowed to take the test using this letter and the certified copy of the passport", and a photocopy of the passport with caseworker's signature scribbled on it. Of course there are like very few known pplaces in the entire country that actually agree to let people in with those letters. They are all IELTS centres and IELTS take a long time. We ended up having to wait two weeks and go to a very ggeographically random place where was the only test centre we were told about on the forums that accepts this.

But none of this did any good, I guess it wasn't soon enough to avoid Amanda.

To be entirely honest I heard that the alternative English test letter is to be given specifically to applicants whose applications are otherwise approvable immediately but for TOEFL. Not sure, yours being SET(M) maybe there is something else.

But I'd be pretty sure you are in the TOEFL pile, based on the Amanda letter, No one else ever got them if you look back at the deferred cases forum.

It also came to us via recorded delivery which made no sense at all. They usually only use recorded delivery when they are returning documents or requesting something.

sagareva wrote:lol thanks but i can't even save myself can I.

and "makes sense" is an expression that has to be heavily qualified when dealing with the Home Office. everything is relative ))

but yeah clearly we are in the same pile. and a person named Amanda controls it. one thing we still dont know, is WHERE is it.

why your caseworker didnt tell you it was toefl I dont know, maybe she was new or just came off a holiday. maybe we just got a talkative caseworker, he said it was a first one for him and he had just found out all this stuff himself, so he spilled the beans, even told me to go to youtube and watch BBC panorama program ))

I am a bit ahead of you, I did try to guess the caseworker's email address, e-mail went somewhere but no reply. Hell, I even email the caseworker who approved my daughte'r previous application, asking her to look on the system to see who has our file (she has previously written to me so I knew her email for sure). Not that it did any good, I can't see how this can do much bad though.

But be careful if your caseworeker has a very common name there may be more than one person with it in the HO, I once had a caseworker who had an email with her middle name and number 1 after last name so I surmise there was more than one of that exact first and last name. This is the same reason I did not try to email Amanda W, i figured could be more than one.

I contemplate going back there to be honest. They have some sort of a desk there you can walk up to and ask stuff, not that it does many people a lot of good but anyway.

As for taking the test without a passport, spot on -- as our letter explained "the Home office reached agreement with other english test providers that these applicants will be allowed to take the test using this letter and the certified copy of the passport", and a photocopy of the passport with caseworker's signature scribbled on it. Of course there are like very few known pplaces in the entire country that actually agree to let people in with those letters. They are all IELTS centres and IELTS take a long time. We ended up having to wait two weeks and go to a very ggeographically random place where was the only test centre we were told about on the forums that accepts this.

But none of this did any good, I guess it wasn't soon enough to avoid Amanda.

To be entirely honest I heard that the alternative English test letter is to be given specifically to applicants whose applications are otherwise approvable immediately but for TOEFL. Not sure, yours being SET(M) maybe there is something else.

But I'd be pretty sure you are in the TOEFL pile, based on the Amanda letter, No one else ever got them if you look back at the deferred cases forum.

It also came to us via recorded delivery which made no sense at all. They usually only use recorded delivery when they are returning documents or requesting something.

Thanks. I suppose it's possible that there's also something else in our case, but I can't think what on earth it could be. We submitted significantly more than the minimum level of documentation.

As for just rocking up to Croydon, the letter does say specifically that they no longer give out information at PEOs. But heck, I'd be up for anything at this point.

Ok Fireball

I have been miraculously able to utilise contacts accumulated through years of my own painfully fought immigration, to establish for certain that our case has been transferred to Sheffield to a special team that has been set up to deal with ETS (the provider of TOEFL) investigation.

28th May was the date, I surmise, that it happened, they must have just packed up all TOEFL cases they had at PEO, sent everyone the same letter and off they went. I was assured that IELTS results we sent we received and linked up.

so I am now 99% sure your case is in Sheffield with the new TOEFL team as well. hope it helps.

Hi Fireball and Sagareva,

I guess you can an add my case to the pile. PEO in Croydon yesterday, got given a letter by the caseworker that specifically mentions TOEFL. Pretty much the same one that sagareva mentionned.. (Passed the TOEFL before April 17th)

My lawyer is still "very confident" that the case will eventually be approved and she already contacted Home Office yesterday to get more information. I really blame her for not mentioning the possibility of TOEFL not being accepted....

To be honest I think I should probably go ahead and pass another test, although the problem is the earliest availability is July 10th! (IELTS) Is there another test that you guys can recommend?

This is extremely frustrating as I need to travel in about two weeks... not looking very good... Will keep you updated the moment I hear more.

P

hi psnlb

well technically i think toefl is still on the list, isnt it. go to gov.uk check appendix o. so yes your lawyer is right.
but it probably isnt happening very soon.

that being said, I have an important question to ask you. that letter you were given at peo, where it says when you obtain the new test certificate you should send it to HO at the following address, and they should have inserted the address. what's the address?
is it the PEO address or an address in sheffield?

as for other tests, i heard PTE is faster if you can find somewhere where you manage to take with with just driving license or convince them to take the HO letter

The address is indeed in Sheffield! your information was spot on sagareva

psnlb

yeah, you see. on ours the address was peo. so this is what changed.

can you please post the sheffield address, or at least PM it to me? much appreciated.

sagareva wrote:psnlb

yeah, you see. on ours the address was peo. so this is what changed.

can you please post the sheffield address, or at least PM it to me? much appreciated.

Looking online the Sheffield PEO address is Vulcan House, Riverside entrance, 6 Millsands, Sheffield S3 8NU. So I would be surprised if it's a different address.

But psnlb, please do confirm if this is the case. And also which team has the applications.

be surprised

the cases are not at peo

sheffield is HO headquarters for a range of applications, it has several buildings and teams there, need po box and best of all team number or exact name

the po box to send stuff to sheffield for most pending non-peo cases is 3468 i think, from memory, but there could be a special number for this, and still so much post goes to that box that it helps to have team name or number

and yes thank you I have been to sheffield HO offices, so I know where they are ))
but i dont suggest you send post to the street address there unless maybe specifically to peo (not the case here)

ssr wrote:Hi,
We had an appointment at Solihull PEO y'day for ILR.Our appointment was at 9:50 and we were there at 9:00.The case was registered and biometrics was taken before 9:30 and we were told to go out and wait for their call.Everything until this point went fine and we went to the town centre and waited for "the call".We were told that it would usually take about 2-2.5 hours and when it was well past 3 -4 hours we started panicking.We went back to the PEO and were told it may take longer depending on the individual case and were told to come back when we get their call.There was nothing unusual about our application so I was getting worried with each passing moment.We didn't get any call until 3.00 pm and we decided to go back and enquire again.We had the same response as our previous one.One lady at the reception was kind enough to go inside and check and she told us the delay could be because of IT issues they had in the morning.So we went back and waited and at that point we were really losing our patience.It was well past 5:00 pm and finally around 6.00 pm we received the call- only to be told they couldn't complete the application due to their IT issues and was asked to go to PEO.When we reached there we were told the same thing about the IT issues and they appologised and gave a letter to the effect that they are sorry for the inconvenience caused and the problem was beyond their control.Also, we were told we will receive a call from them today and the documents will be sent back to us by special delivery.We haven't had any call from them yet.So my question to fellow members here is , has any of you had a similar experience and if you had did they follow through quickly? More importantly, how long did you have to wait?

Thanks

Posting it again under this topic as sagareva suggested .Still not sure if this is the right place to post this as no further checks or documents were requested and the delay was down to a system failure on their part.Would be useful to hear from anyone who have had similar experience.

Thanks

Just received a call from PEO to inform us that ILR has been granted and the dcouments will be posted.So they did act as they said.

[quote="ssr"]Just received a call from PEO to inform us that ILR has been granted and the dcouments will be posted.So they did act as they said.[/quote]

good. you are lucky. if you read this topic. many people's cases were stuck in limbo even though no additional documents were requested. and they don't always act the way they said they would.

ssr wrote:Just received a call from PEO to inform us that ILR has been granted and the dcouments will be posted.So they did act as they said.

Well done ssr!!

Hope some of your luck rubs off on us too. It seems that people afflicted by IT issues appear to be genuinely dealt with more quickly.

Hey guys,

Quick update. My wife ended up passing another test pretty quickly and we sent it to the Home Office. We then got the application approved after just 1 day! All good now. So all in all it took an extra 10 days from our PEO appointment to get approval.

Good luck everyone!

P

I’ve (finally) had an update. After chasing the Home Office in every way I possibly could to at least get an explanation, I have now had a letter from them confirming that our application is in Sheffield with all of the other ETS (TOEFL) cases. First bit of actual information I’ve had for 2 months. Yaay!

Prize goes to sagareva for correctly guessing that my situation is the same as hers.

It’s bizarre but we were so happy to have even this crumb of information, you’d think they’d actually given us ILR rather than a minimal update they should have told us about the day we applied.

However, despite asking specifically about whether doing a new test would help, they didn’t send me a copy of the passport or ask me to do another test.

This is weird. I wonder why some of us got that letter and some didn’t? And even doing a new test hasn’t really helped some people here so far.

On the negative side they said that they can’t do anything until the leadership pulls their finger out and decide on the policy for dealing with these applications. And I suspect even when the policy is decided it could be ages before they work through the massive backlog (especially with resources diverted to deal with the passport backlog – unlike with the passports, no one gives a darn about foreigners).

Hi, guys. I've applied for ILR by post in February. Yesterday received a letter from Home Office stating they don't want to accept my TOEFL certificate as a proof of knowledge of English. I've passed TOEFL abroad in 2011 and I used it for my initial entry visa and short term leave to remain. They tell me my application's been put on hold and I have to pass another test and send it to them. Address on top of the letter is Managed migration, dept 6, po box 306, Liverpool. Does anyone have any contact details for that office or anyone facing similar issue?

regards

HI Fireball,

I hate to break this to you but I think your is NOT actually in the same position after all -- which explains why you werent asked about an alternative test -- based on the email you forwarded to me, it may well be that it is with a different team, as the name of the team, and the address they use is different

sheffield is a huge place... see more in PM

although on a second thought they ARE writing to you about TOEFL as well, so why a different team then? aaarrgh I dont know anymore

[quote="kaboo"]Hi, guys. I've applied for ILR by post in February. Yesterday received a letter from Home Office stating they don't want to accept my TOEFL certificate as a proof of knowledge of English. I've passed TOEFL abroad in 2011 and I used it for my initial entry visa and short term leave to remain. They tell me my application's been put on hold and I have to pass another test and send it to them. Address on top of the letter is Managed migration, dept 6, po box 306, Liverpool. Does anyone have any contact details for that office or anyone facing similar issue?

regards[/quote]


we are all facing similar situation here, except seems like everyone's applications are in a different departments. we have passed IELTS as an alternative at their request but it hasn't so far helped. it looks like your case is in LLiverpool and most of the others have been forwarded to Sheffield. that being said, looks like HO has got no idea what to do with them so far and they are all just sitting there.

in the beginning people were getting theirs approved after passing alternative tests, but now they are all waiting for a big policy decision.

my personal guess, if years of butting heads with these folks have earned me the right to make one, is that after 1st July, when TOEFL will no longer be accepted, they will look at the pile accumulated, shrug and then we will all just get our ILR's, at least apart from maybe those who have a profile that is at risk based on the BBC Panorama investigation, which mainly aren't ILR cases at all.

Thanks, Sagareva.

As long as there's hope to get the damn papers back.

Here is my update for the marriage interview: we went in yesterday morning, along with our photos of past 7 years. The interview went very well and fairly short compare to other people over there at the same time. We have been told to give 4 hours time for interview, however ours were about 1.5 hours in total. The lady interviewed us said straight away that she didnt need to ask anymore questions that our marriage is consistant. However,the down side was, she can't give me a decision on the same day. Because we are both self-employed which made the case a bit complicated. However she said she will recommend us to caseworker and hopefully i will get a decision soon so lets just wait and fingers crossed for all

1unicorn wrote:Here is my update for the marriage interview: we went in yesterday morning, along with our photos of past 7 years. The interview went very well and fairly short compare to other people over there at the same time. We have been told to give 4 hours time for interview, however ours were about 1.5 hours in total. The lady interviewed us said straight away that she didnt need to ask anymore questions that our marriage is consistant. However,the down side was, she can't give me a decision on the same day. Because we are both self-employed which made the case a bit complicated. However she said she will recommend us to caseworker and hopefully i will get a decision soon so lets just wait and fingers crossed for all

Interesting 1unicorn. Thanks for reporting back.

Could you share for those who might be in the same situation in future what kind of questions you were asked? They were around your relationship right? In which case I don't see how the self-employed thing comes into it.

I've heard that in these cases they separate you and check that you answer in the same way? Is that what happened to you?

Did she give you any indication as to why you were selected?

FireballXL5 wrote:

1unicorn wrote:Here is my update for the marriage interview: we went in yesterday morning, along with our photos of past 7 years. The interview went very well and fairly short compare to other people over there at the same time. We have been told to give 4 hours time for interview, however ours were about 1.5 hours in total. The lady interviewed us said straight away that she didnt need to ask anymore questions that our marriage is consistant. However,the down side was, she can't give me a decision on the same day. Because we are both self-employed which made the case a bit complicated. However she said she will recommend us to caseworker and hopefully i will get a decision soon so lets just wait and fingers crossed for all

Interesting 1unicorn. Thanks for reporting back.

Could you share for those who might be in the same situation in future what kind of questions you were asked? They were around your relationship right? In which case I don't see how the self-employed thing comes into it.

I've heard that in these cases they separate you and check that you answer in the same way? Is that what happened to you?

Did she give you any indication as to why you were selected?

Hi FireballXL5, we didnt ask why. However before the interview, the lady asked us if we understood the purpose of the interview,as we have been given a paper to read, which was to test whether the marriage was genuine. So i guess they were suspicious about the marriage.

we have been interviewed seperately. My husband went in first. he got out just about 40mins, i went in after, with the same women. The whole process has been recorded, but she was nice and calm,so did us, which made it very smooth.

The question was around our relationship: when did we meet,where do we live, what did we do at Christmas, when was the last time i visit his family,his job, my job, wedding, who proposed, etc. Just fairly simple questions, purely based on relationship.

I was expectinng the decision straight after the interview, as i saw some posts mentioned they had been given a paper showing the matching result and stuff. But that was not our case, there was no paper given, she simply said she believe our marriage is real and she will recommend to caseworker. I did said to her that i thought the whole purpose of the spouse visa is about the relationship(obs we have our income, never claimed any benefit), if the relationship is real why can't i have a decision. She said because my husband is self-employed, they need further checks for regulation purpose. Her job was to test relationship.

My advice to anyone who happens to go to interview: if your marriage/relationship is genuine, there is no need to worry. questions are fairly simple, if your relationship is real there is no chance you fail. Not all our answers are exactly matched, but the interviewer is human too, they can tell by reaction. So if anything happens, just relax and smile, take interview as a memory refresh.We prepared a bit before interview, just in case they ask any dumb questions that you dont really notice. But not much anyway. We also laughed a lot after the interview when we compare our answers, it made our day. Not a bad experience.

My only hope is to get a deicison ASAP after this, so does everyone else here. So we will just need to have some faith

[Here is my update for the marriage interview: we went in yesterday morning, along with our photos of past 7 years. The interview went very well and fairly short compare to other people over there at the same time. We have been told to give 4 hours time for interview, however ours were about 1.5 hours in total. The lady interviewed us said straight away that she didnt need to ask anymore questions that our marriage is consistant. However,the down side was, she can't give me a decision on the same day. Because we are both self-employed which made the case a bit complicated. However she said she will recommend us to caseworker and hopefully i will get a decision soon so lets just wait and fingers crossed for all][/quote]


What PEO did you use for your initial application? ...was it Croydon?