Hello everyone,‎
I had an absence of over 90 days in a single trip to my home country and my ‎ILR application was approved on the same day at Solihull. I was on WP and then Tier 1.‎
I got all information for my application from this forum so it’s only fair to share my experience and ‎help fellow members.‎
I had already decided to make an in-person application and I was prepared to lose the extra fees. I ‎had prepared my application like a postal application including covering letters and even attached a ‎self addressed envelope in case my application was turned into a postal application.‎
As many posts have discussed the usual straight forward application process, I am only going to ‎concentrate on the below 2 issues with my application:‎
‎1) I had 283 days absence in total and 144 days of medical absence.
2) Absence of 5 months in a single trip due to medical reasons
‎3) Traffic offence‎
Here goes - ‎
After I handed over my application to the case worker, the first thing he did was look at the ‎absence page. He commented that I had too many absences. To which I said that this was because ‎of medical reasons.‎
He then asked me for 12 months payslip, 12 months bank statement and Life in the UK test ‎certificate (he didn’t tell me my score and I forgot to ask).‎
He did his calculations and made notes. ‎
He then excused himself and went to discuss something with his senior.‎
He came back after 10 mins and asked me for medical documents. I had with me many medical ‎documents but I only gave him 2 letters:‎
Letter 1 was from my GP which confirmed that I had "no choice" but to leave the UK for medical ‎treatment. Please note the key word "no choice"‎
Letter 2 was from the specialist at the NHS which confirmed that my stay at home during my ‎medical absence was "necessary". Again please note the key word "necessary"‎
He took these 2 letters and again discussed with his senior. He came back after 15 mins and asked ‎me if I had medical documents from my home country. I then gave him 2 medical certificates from ‎my doctors back home, my hospital discharge summary sheet and my MRI scan report. The reason ‎I gave them my MRI scan report was because I wanted them to read and understand the severity ‎of my medical problem.‎
After 10 mins the senior case worker came to speak with me. He said that he looked at my medical ‎documents and that he was using his discretion to ignore my medical absence as the evidence I ‎provided was very strong. I thanked him.
The senior case worker also mentioned that my employer had not specifically mentioned that they ‎need me in the future. The letter only said that the company understands that I am applying for ‎ILR. I replied saying that if they didn’t need me in the future, they would have asked me to go ‎home right now and not even given me this letter. I’d like to believe I convinced him even though ‎there was no reaction from him to my answer. I thought Tier 1 applications did not need this kind ‎of confirmation about their job continuity. Maybe I was wrong.‎
The case worker came after the senior left and said that everything else is fine and asked me to ‎pay. He said that I will get my ILR today subject to criminal checks. To that I said that I had a traffic ‎offence in 2005 but it is spent. I have a Basic Disclosure certificate if he needed that. He said that ‎they would do their own checks.‎
Please note that I had ticked "yes" in the criminal conviction section and the case worker agreed ‎that it is always a good idea to do this even though my conviction was spent.‎
I paid and went and sat in the waiting area. I did not leave the building as I was not feeling too well. ‎Waited for a long time (4 hours I think) before I got my passport back.
Please let me know if you guys have any questions and I will be happy to answer them.‎
I saw a couple of posts from Solihull from the 27th July – I am the guy with a huge black bag. I had ‎taken 5 years of my life in that bag all the way from London to Solihull.‎
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