Success at PEO Croydon - SET(O) WP + Tier 1

Hi Everyone,

I am happy to inform that I just had a successful ILR application at Croydon today, and I thought I'll share my experiences in case its helpful to someone. This forum has been quite helpful for my Tier 1 and also ILR, and so would like to share my experiences.

My ILR application was made up of a WP+ Change of Employment (on WP) + Tier 1 (General) + Tier 1 Extension (General). I entered UK on 26th, November, 2006.

Complications in my case:

Please read the following thread for more information. I will update that thread as soon as I get updates from Home Office.

I arrived at the building at 10:45am, and my appointment was for 11:15am. I was let in and through an airport style security check. Once through, there's was small queue where they did basic initial checks on my application, just to make sure I was using the correct form and had the supporting paperwork. Once done, he stamped my application, and I was sent upstairs to pay. After the payment, I had to wait for 5 minutes and the case worker called me at 11.20 AM.

The caseworker just asked me for the application, photo, and all the documents I had. I had a covering letter and had divided my application into broadly the following categories (each in a separate plastic sleeve), and had a cover page for each of these sections along with my documents and copies of the same:

Attributes:

1) Age Assessment
2) Qualifications Assessment
3) Previous Earnings & UK Experience

Non-Attributes:

4) Continuous Residency Requirement & Absences
5) Knowledge of Language and Life in the UK Requirement
6) Maintenance (Funds) & Economic Activity (5 years) Requirement
7) Cohabitation Requirement for my wife

He seemed quite pleased with my documentation and arrangement of the documents and said that I had a through documentation and I had done wonderful work with my covering letter and arrangement of documents. He even went to the extent of saying that if he gets all applications like this, his work would be very much cut out.

It took 20 minutes in all to complete my application. During the course of this, he asked about my salary during my previous extension and current salary and also about my complaint (Refer to post link above). He requested me to provide the original letter. But, as I did not have any letter received, I told him that I did not have this. He was not very happy initially. But, when he checked his system, he found that the letter was just despatched at 10.15 (one hour before my appointment). He told me that I was extremely lucky and if this letter had not been updated in his system, then he could not have done the same day service. I thank god for the same. He then said that myself and my wife had scored full score in LIUK, and congratulated us. Then he said that he was quite happy to grant ILR for myself and my wife. I was told to collect my passport in 30minutes with the ILR stamp on it.

So, all in all a pretty smooth experience

congratulations! What about the absences?
Is any of your absences exceed 90 days in one stretch??