This forum has helped me a lot to achieve my ILR. If I can give back something… is my experience of today!
My application for ILR on Tier 1 (G) route was successful today 19th June 2014 @ Liverpool PEO.
First Tier 1 (G) granted: 16/07/2009 (I was in UK, finished my PhD in London and switched from student visa)
2 years extension granted on: 30/09/2012
Visa validity: 30/09/2014
I applied today with my wife and 4 years old daughter (dependants). My daughter was born in Pakistan and my wife is with me since I was on student visa. I used only one SET (O) form.
Note, I applied exactly 27 days prior to my 5 years qualifying period. I had 3 employers in my last 5 years and I was employed all the time. I used http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd ... &aw=&ad=42 to calculate my application date.
I never had any traffic or criminal offence. All clean so far! Also, I needed 75 points for my application, but I was having 115 points.
Our appointment was at 12pm but arrived earlier at 11 am. The Liverpool PEO is just 15mins walk from Lime Street Station. The total time from document submission to decision letter was roughly 3 hours and 30 minutes.
Documents
• Signed original and completed SET (0) Form.
I would highly recommend using PDF Xchange Editor http://www.tracker-software.com/product ... nge-editor to complete your SET (0) form version 06/2014. I used this free version to fill my application neatly.
• Cover letter (to explain my 187 days paid leave and application)
• Appointment sheet (printout of the appointment sheet)
• Payment sheet (printout of the appointment sheet)
• Life in the UK Test Pass certificate (x2)
• My UK PhD degree and my wife’s UK LLM degree
• 6 x photos (2 of each)
• 1 x Current passport and 1 x previous expired passport (main applicant)
• 1 x Current passport and 1 x previous expired passport (for my wife)
• 1 x Current passport (my daughter)
• 3 x Biometric Residence Permits (including my dependants)
• 12 x Current Account Statement covering 12 months period (showing salaries directly paid in)
• 3 x Savings Account Statement covering 3 months period (showing a minimum balance of £12600, just in case)
• 3 x Letters from employer to confirm absence from work on personal visits (this is to certify the dates that I have been out of country on paid annual holidays, 187 days over 5 years period). All letters were requested and kindly provided on company letterheads by my previous employers.
• Letter from current employer to confirm authenticity of payslips (since 2 of my paylslips were online payslips)
• 12 x latest payslips
• 5 x P60s (covering last 5 years)
• 18 x cohabitation documents covering 2 years. I used 12 different sources (i.e. 6 banks, 2 councils for council taxes, NHS, HMRC and 2 Water supplier companies).
Key points:
1. You can bring your mobile phone and use it in the waiting lounge as well. I recommend brining one since there is no TV in the waiting lounge and nothing really much to do other than observing fellow extension seekers and monitoring how your case is being progressed.
2. There is no cafeteria so if you have children, make sure you bring food (snacks, chips, drinks, muffins etc)! It can be very boring waiting for 3.5 hours.
3. My caseworker (female) was very kind. The lady who took our biometric was exceptionally polite and kind as well. She even gave stickers as reward to my daughter after taking her photo.
4. There is a photo booth, water cooler and clean toilet facility.
5. The Liverpool centre received award for good customer satisfaction (displayed on entrance) and I must say that they surely deserve one.
6. I put all my supporting documents in plastic A4 sleeves in a ring binder. It was very easy for my case worker to see my supporting documents.
7. I copied each and every document and presented it with my application as instructed. However, none of the photocopied document was taken by the caseworker and she returned me all the copies in the end. I did ask her if she needs them, she simply said, no thanks, we do not need them anymore. Very strange for me as I wasted nearly 100 A4 sheets on photocopying.
Once again, many thanks to all the people who are spending their valuable time helping others on this forum.
All the best to everyone!
Next stop… naturalisation!! See you all then!
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