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ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:59 pm
by ilrapplicant2013
Exellent board, learnt a lot from others stories. My turn now.
So had my ILR approved in Solihull.

1st - I had an earlier appointment and has lost my debit card, got a bankers draft done and turned up at solihull and they said they dont accept it, I had to come back and rebook.

2nd appointment (if you are looking for the list of docs, scroll down I have listed them seperately anyway in red)

Waiting time (1 hour 10 mins)
Went at the time, was given a token in 10 mins (staff very pohlite and helpful)
wasnt called for more than an hour. It is a very small office with 30-35 seats and nothing is happening, with no mobile phone I was getting bored.

Interview (40 mins)
Was called by a CW, The lady was older but very calm and polite, I think she was a senior CW.
Lost passport - She asked for my Passport, gave her my current passport and mentioned I lost my previous passport. But I had the xerox of front page, back page and visa stamps.

But she said she wouldnt accept this and wasnts something more concrete, I didnt know what to say .

She asked if I have an employment letter and fortunately I had an eomployment letter mentioning my start and end dates.

She gladly accepted that.

I questioned her on why do they need it form me, do they not have the records in thier system and she mentioned, they only have the landing card info.
So, now I understand the fuss between all these employment letters, P60s etc. Do wonder why dont UKBA have an emmigration control (They do that in India)

She perfomed some checks, made some notes. (10 mins)

Company name change - She was confused as the records she had and my employment letter etc didnt match as my company had a name change.
I provided a printout from the internet as a proof, and she took it , did some cheks and later said it was fine. (10 mins)

She then asked me for LIUK , I had scored 100% in less than 10 mins and she was very happy telling that to me. (I expected)

She then asked me how I operate.(self employed, ltd director)
I explained that , with a contract letter I managed to get from my client.

She then asked me for my pay slips and associated bank statements for the period I was employed.

She asked me for my payslips and bank statements for the period I was self employed and I provided the accountant letter. she took that.

She verified my earnings claim and did some checks (10 mins)

She went and did some checks behind the scens (10 mins)

She said she is happy with everything and gave me an approval.

Total time around 40 mins.

Waiting for documents (1 hour 20 mins)
- Said she will process them and should take 1.5 hours. It did take more than 1 hour 15 mins and I was handed the approval letter.
They had taken my employment letter and the payslips with them , i was looking for them as I need them for a mortgage applucation, but she said anything that is adress an to whomsover it may concern , they keep it.
I was happy to leave it there.


I was well prepared, straight forward case but there were some issues, like lost passport, All salary for self employed and dividends taken within 1 month (for over 9 months).

My 2 cents, If you are preparing
- it is important to start a bit early (give yourself at least 2 months
- Dont get bogged down if you are missing some docs, use a little bit of common sense and see what they are looking to check and what alternatives you can provide,
- Go to solihull :) , Never been to any other PEO, but cant imagine the service being better than this one.

I gained a lot of perspective from this forum, I will continue to contribute but would first like to say thanks, It was a major help and helped me save a few hundred on a solicitor.


Docs List
1. Set (O), Passport, BRM (asked)
2. Employment letter (asked)
3. Duplicate of previous passport and visa (offered, not accepted completely)
4. Travel tickets (offered & accepted)
5. LIUK pass certificate (asked)
6. Company contract (asked)
7. Pay slips & corresponding bank statements (asked)
8. Accountant letter (offered and accepted)
9. Company reg certificate (asked)
10. Passport photographs (asked)

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:07 pm
by Kevin24
Congratulations Mate!. You have given valuable tips. Well done.

Re: ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:24 pm
by syed_ILR
congrats mate! what about the absences? did u have any? if yes can u give some details on it.

Re: ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:27 pm
by ilrapplicant2013
syed_ILR wrote:congrats mate! what about the absences? did u have any? if yes can u give some details on it.
Well under 90 days over 5.5 years mate. So had no issues there.

Re: ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:49 pm
by ldbright
ilrapplicant2013 wrote:
syed_ILR wrote:congrats mate! what about the absences? did u have any? if yes can u give some details on it.
Well under 90 days over 5.5 years mate. So had no issues there.
Are you on Tier 1 or Tier2?

Re: ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:44 pm
by alanwong
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR SUCCESS AND THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH US.
Enjoy your freedom.

Re: ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:45 pm
by ilrapplicant2013
ldbright wrote:
ilrapplicant2013 wrote:
syed_ILR wrote:congrats mate! what about the absences? did u have any? if yes can u give some details on it.
Well under 90 days over 5.5 years mate. So had no issues there.
Are you on Tier 1 or Tier2?
Oh forgot to add my categiry

Wp , tier 2 and tier1

Re: ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:53 pm
by ldbright
ilrapplicant2013 wrote:
ldbright wrote:
ilrapplicant2013 wrote:
syed_ILR wrote:congrats mate! what about the absences? did u have any? if yes can u give some details on it.
Well under 90 days over 5.5 years mate. So had no issues there.
Are you on Tier 1 or Tier2?
Oh forgot to add my categiry

Wp , tier 2 and tier1
So the employer letter was required for the Tier2 period not Tier1 right? Thank you.

Re: ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:35 pm
by syed_ILR
syed_ILR wrote:congrats mate! what about the absences? did u have any? if yes can u give some details on it.
Thanks for your reply.

So did the CW ask you about the absence letter?

Re: ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:55 pm
by ilrapplicant2013
Hmm, Not really.
In my case she was more keen on checking that I was employed and more so living in the UK once I moved to Tier-1 as that is when I had lost my passport.


I would suggest if you are getting an employment letter, regardless of your visa category , get it for the period you were working. PERIOD.

This letter could help multiple things

1. to check that you were employmed as per the COS
2. to check your absences.
3. to check your tax activity.
4. If you have moved onto offering contractual services, this will help in checking the skills if you are offering.

So try to get a letter that can touch upon all the requirements, i will happliy share how my letter read. She didnt ask for anything more, No P60s etc.
ldbright wrote:
ilrapplicant2013 wrote:
ldbright wrote:
ilrapplicant2013 wrote:
Well under 90 days over 5.5 years mate. So had no issues there.
Are you on Tier 1 or Tier2?
Oh forgot to add my categiry

Wp , tier 2 and tier1
So the employer letter was required for the Tier2 period not Tier1 right? Thank you.

Re: ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:00 pm
by ilrapplicant2013
syed_ILR wrote:
syed_ILR wrote:congrats mate! what about the absences? did u have any? if yes can u give some details on it.
Thanks for your reply.

So did the CW ask you about the absence letter?
She didnt specifically ask for absences letter, but I had got that as part of my employment letter anyway. She did verify those details with the details I filled in the form. So I think she would have asked for them.

So my letter had these details

- so and so was employed with us,
- role was X,
- joining date and leaving date with company,
- joining and leaving date in the UK,

- as part of his employment he was entitled to 20 days of A/l and here is the list of days when he was off.

List of dates and reason and no. of days.

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:38 pm
by valeed.naim2
Hi there, congrat. i am also going to apply ilr in solihull with family in couple of weeks but still worring about the interview.
Did CW asked any questions.
Did you give your all documents in one go or they asked one by one.
i am little bit confused never been to PEO in past.
can you please give me some tips so i have less intraction with CW. thanks

Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 7:55 pm
by ilrapplicant2013
valeed.naim2 wrote:Hi there, congrat. i am also going to apply ilr in solihull with family in couple of weeks but still worring about the interview.
Did CW asked any questions.
Did you give your all documents in one go or they asked one by one.
i am little bit confused never been to PEO in past.
can you please give me some tips so i have less intraction with CW. thanks

Sorry for the later reply, Dont worry if you have your documents in order they will make you feel comfortable enough at the interview process.

You will have a place to sit and enough room to arrange your docs. In my case she asked them one by one. .
Basically in the sequence of the form. So I would arrange that way.
Passport BRP etc > Absence proof > LIUK > Tier 1 , tier 2 proof ...

CW ask questions only when they have a question really, so if you want less interaction then just provide clear documents mate :)

All the best.

Re: ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:01 am
by syed_ILR
I was out of uk for 170 days in my first year..no job. Do u think it ok??

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:16 pm
by fomsand1
Congratulations ilrapplicant2013, enjoy your new found freedom :D

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:34 pm
by sunita80
ilrapplicant2013- Did you offer all tickets for your trips outside UK as evidence?

I have about 25 plus in 5 years :D But no absence of 180 days in each year.

Re: ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 7:59 pm
by ilrapplicant2013
syed_ILR wrote:I was out of uk for 170 days in my first year..no job. Do u think it ok??
As per the requirement , it is 180 days withing any 12 consecutive month, by the sounds of it you seem OK.

Just be sure when you are calculating the days, the travel dates dont count. How are you counting ?

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 8:00 pm
by ilrapplicant2013
fomsand1 wrote:Congratulations ilrapplicant2013, enjoy your new found freedom :D
Thanks mate.
:)

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 8:03 pm
by ilrapplicant2013
sunita80 wrote:ilrapplicant2013- Did you offer all tickets for your trips outside UK as evidence?

I have about 25 plus in 5 years :D But no absence of 180 days in each year.
Well I offered tickets only because my passport was lost.
If it isnt lost, i doubt she would have bothered looking at it much.

25 travels ! you have a lot of vacation mate :).
If you are well within the absence days, my suggestion would be to list them in the form + additional sheet.
I had also written the no. of days in brackets.

I doubt travel tickets would be required.

You are getting any employment letter etc ?

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 10:56 am
by kinneravalli
Hi ya...
Congrats !! :)

A query regarding the fee payment:

Do u need to pay the fee after your application has been processed or do we have to pay it prior meeting the CW?

As I heard, in Solihull (only) fee would be payed post processing of the case.

So just wanted clarification.

Thanks!!

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 11:17 am
by ilrapplicant2013
It has changed, it is done before the application is processed.

kinneravalli wrote:Hi ya...
Congrats !! :)

A query regarding the fee payment:

Do u need to pay the fee after your application has been processed or do we have to pay it prior meeting the CW?

As I heard, in Solihull (only) fee would be payed post processing of the case.

So just wanted clarification.

Thanks!!

Re: ILR Success - Solihull

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 12:31 pm
by syed_ILR
ilrapplicant2013 wrote:
syed_ILR wrote:I was out of uk for 170 days in my first year..no job. Do u think it ok??
As per the requirement , it is 180 days withing any 12 consecutive month, by the sounds of it you seem OK.

Just be sure when you are calculating the days, the travel dates dont count. How are you counting ?

I am counting the travel days as well..but If I dont count it will be 168 days..:)