First of all good news, I got ILR on 22/02/2011 under work permit. I would like to thank all members of the forum for your help and support. I am really grateful to all of you.
Previous Story:
I got my entry clearance on 01/03/06 and landed here on 19/03/06 under work permit. I stayed with the same employer even though they joined a bigger company and changed their name. They then applied for technical change of details to the home office.
I was applying for myself only with no dependants.
PEO Experience.
Got on-line appoint 6 weeks ago at Sheffield because it is closer to where I live. Appointment time was for 10:45am. Got a reminder text message from home office 2 days prior to appointment day. I had planned to be there for 10:00, but as I do not know Sheffield well and my sat nav is not up to date with the new road (there appear to be new rounder abouts and bus lane which my sat nav did not even register) I spent 15 minutes going round and round the place. Not a good start for me I know.
I finally arrived there at about 10:15 and tried to push the door only to realise we had to wait outside till security let you in. Then went through airport security system. I had gone with a perfume bottle which they kept and gave me a receipt for. (please keep the receipt as you will need it later to collect items. I miss placed mine, but the guys were lovely and gave me my items back without one)
I then went to reception, where there check the form if it is correctly filled in,give you a ticket number then direct you to payment. I had to wait by the payment window 5 minutes before someone attended to me. (there seemed to be busy or short staffed). made payment by credit card at 11:00 and the lady collected all my documents and told me to wait for my number to be called once my file gets picked by a case worker.
Sheffield offices are quite small and it was crowded when I got there. The other thing I found annoying was that because it is so small everyone hears what you are talking about with the case worker. Talk about privacy, it's like communal area. I remember waiting there and one guy was declined because he had failed to declare one police conviction which was not yet spent and one lady had unexplained gaps within her visas. The staff were extremely nice though despite all this as there was one lady there, with only one bank statement and they advised her to go to a brunch in town and ask for three months bank statement signed by the bank manager and come back later (I thought that was nice of them). Even the guy with the police convictions was starting to shout and they spent time explaining to him that by law there could not ignore this and how to go from there in terms of appealing.
Any where I sat waiting for my number to be called and the more people that got declined the more panicky I became. To make it worse I had not brought any magazine or anything to occupy my self. I was not sure if it is allowed, but guys if you need to, please take something to help occupy you because it can be a long wait (with the place being so tiny you will hear the numbers being called even when reading a book or magazine). From this forum and hearing people being called before me I was waiting for a case worker to tell me they had picked my file and to hand them my photocopies. So when one hour passed, I was getting worried, two hours!!!!!!!!! still nothing, I was getting frustrated and by the third hour I had convinced myself my file had fallen behind their desk or something. LOL. I even went to ask reception, who advised me to be patient and wait. I was still trying to be polite and nice as advised on this forum before and not complain because it was 2 pm by then and I was thinking this is even before file allocation and doing the checks.
Behold the case worker called my number at 2:15 and to my surprise she handed me my documents, told me I had been granted my ILR and will get my passport in about 15 minutes. She even apologised for the delay and did not even need the copies by then. 15 minutes later my number was called again and got my stamped passport that they ask you to check if the details are all correct.
I was so happy as I was dreading explaining anything with everyone watching me with pitying eyes. Lol.
Here is the list of documents I submitted with my application.
1. SET (O) Form
2. 2 Passports (1 old one and the current one)
3. 2 pictures
4. Payslips = 3 months (Latest 3)
5. Bank statements = 3 months (Latest 3)
6. Letter from employer (current)
7. 3 P60s ( could not find the last one)
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask me and again thank you all for your help and support.
