ILR success at Solihull PEO Set M 24 September 2010

With grateful thanks for all the help on this forum in the many posts and especially John regarding the public funds checklist, we went to Solihull to apply for my wife’s ILR visa yesterday 24 September. Since the appointment was for 10am and it is expected that you arrive half an hour early we did in fact travel up from Hereford the day before and stay in a hotel nearby overnight. This allowed us to find out exactly where the office and any car parks were the night before which proved useful after several wrong turns and 5 times around one roundabout, so much for sat navs.

We parked in the Dominion car park which is an underground one on Herbert Road at the rear of the Immigration office, price being £2.80 for 2 hours up to £8 for over 6 hours, however if you have a Blue Badge (like me) you can park free of charge all day. There is also the large House of Fraser car park at similar charges opposite on Herbert Road.

We got to the Immigration office on Station Road which is next door to the well signposted Taylor Wimpey builders offices. You go into the open reception area and wait until a security officer opens the door and lets you through to the small reception desk. Here they ask to see your appointment confirmation email letter or text message for the number. They also check you are using the latest and correct application form. They then ask you to go through the airport style metal detector etc and finally give you a number on a piece of paper like at a deli counter. Then we sat in the waiting room at 9.30am. In this room there are toilets etc for those who need them. At 10.30am our number was finally called and we went to the desk (there were 5 desks in total) and were joined by an immigration officer.

The officer asked firstly for the two passports which were looked at and my wifes checked against their database. Then he asked for her Life in the UK pass letter, next bank statements and pay slips for income, then he asked for joint or single documents with our address on and in our case the first address at my nieces where we stayed just 3 weeks initially. I handed in a copy of an NI letter for my wife, a PAYE letter and also a covering letter from my niece. Then I handed him several utility bills, different bank statements and other official letters in both joint and single names. He went through them and check boxes on a sheet to show which months he wanted. He took just 6 from our present address. I had with me dozens of other bills and letters in another file just in case but these were not needed.

Then he said he had just to go to the back and check some other details and returned just 2 minutes later. Then he said everything was ok, go to counter 6 and pay and come back in 2 hours and everything will be ready to pick up, which sounded like an ok. We paid the £1095 by visa card at the cash counter, I had already phoned my bank about this to make sure they would not refuse it.

We left the building at 10.45, having just been 15 minutes and headed just a few hundred yards to Solihull centre and the Touchwood shopping centre to have some early lunch. We went back at 12.40pm and waited in the outer reception to be let through to the inner reception and showed them the number on the “deliâ€

Congratulations. You can relax now!

Would it be possible for you to list the documents you submitted as I would like to check that I am on the right path with my documents.

Many thanks

The immigration officer uses a check sheet and asks for the documents in a certain order. These were:
• Passports both my UK one and of course my wifes Thai one
• Her Life in the UK test letter
• Proof of income and savings
• Documents to prove that we have lived together throughout the whole two years.

Every time we gave him what he wanted he either wrote comments or ticked boxes on his check sheet. He checks both passports first and went onto their database to check my wifes current status. He kept both passports. Then with the life in the UK test he checked it then kept it. He then asked for proof of income and savings and I gave him the last 3 months current account statements and six months of ISA statements where our savings are. Plus my wifes last 5 months pay slips (she has just worked 5 months) plus two of my private pension statements covering 6 months. He checked those and then gave them back to us. Again he wrote something down on his sheet.
Then he said that he needed documents to prove that we had lived together for 2 years and that they should cover the whole two years.
I gave him a letter from my niece as we stayed with her for the first 3 weeks in Oct 2008 plus a PAYE notice in my name and a letter to my wife with her NI number all at my nieces address. Then for our flat I gave him two water bills in my wifes name from Dec 2008 and May 2010, electric bills in her sole name from Jan 2009 and Jan 2010, two more joint bank statements from Feb 2009 and July 2009, two different bank statements in sole names from me Oct 2009 and her April 2010. Our full driving licence counterparts which he looked at and gave us straight back. By then he said he had enough and ticked monthly boxes on his check list.

He kept just 6 of all the documents so far and gave me some back. The ones he kept were my PAYE coding, one electricity bill in my wifes name, one other bank statement in my name, one water bill in joint names , and two main bank current joint account statements, so just 6 proof of address documents

I had more which he did not need and indeed another file with 50 just in case but these were just never needed. He really only wanted enough to tick enough boxes for different months on his check list.
We got all the six documents back two hours later when we called back, plus the life in the UK letter and both passports.
It really was quick, easy and nothing like we had imagined. Just have the documents etc ready and give them to him as he asks for them. He did all this in less than 10 minutes including a quick check out of site on another database.
Good Luck

Hi

Thank you ever so much for your information. It is really appreciated. Sounds like it is not a scary as we think!

Many thanks for your reply. My husband is applying in Jan 2011, fingers crossed all will go to plan!