Hi Guys
It is that time when I have to share my PEO experience on this forum. My appointment was at Sheffield PEO for 09:00 am on Monday, 17 June 2013. In my case it was Tier 1 (General) (3 +2 years) to ILR route. I included my wife in the application but skipped our 4 month old UK born child to register him as British citizen under section 1(3).
I initially thought I will book an appointment with Solihull PEO as it seems to be preferred PEO as many have suggested in this forum. I searched for Solihull PEO appointment slot for few days but couldn’t find any slot so I decided to look at other PEO’s and finally booked an appointment with Sheffield PEO. Having booked the appointment with Sheffield PEO and paid £200 (paid for me and dependant) – I still had uncertainty in mind if I stick to the same appointment or shall I check if Solihull PEO has any slot available to change my appointment. I believe the reason for this was that Solihull PEO is very much favoured and people from far wanted to attend it when they have easy access to other PEO’s nearer to them. Seeing that people from London comes to Solihull PEO for their ILR – pulled me towards Solihull to an extent but I ended up not cancelling my Sheffield appointment as I had fear of losing £200. I can tell you that I made the right decision as my experience with Sheffield PEO was very nice.
We entered the Sheffield PEO premises at 08:40am – there were already a few people ahead of us. Cleared security check, reported to counter number 7 for our appointment and were issued a ticket number. At about 09:05 was called at counter number 2 to check the documents – middle aged lady behind the counter made some checks on her sheet – checked my application form (SET(O)) and commented that she was impressed with my application form (I used Acrobat writer to fill in the form). She then took all the supporting documents. At the same time, I informed her that I have photocopies if these are needed. She made a comment on her check sheet stating that applicant has photocopies. I was then asked to go and make the payment at the payment counter – this was done by 09:20. Now we waited for finger prints to be taken – at about 09:55 our token number was called to go to counter number 11. The personnel at the biometric desk had a folder with my original documents. He read the note from the checksheet that I have photocopies and asked to be given to him. I handed over the copies to him and he took our finger prints. Finished from biometrics by 10:05. Just within an hour our token number was called from counter number 5. Case worker congratulated us on getting our ILR, returned all our original documents, given a letter of approval and said biometric cards will arrive in 7-10 days. We were out of the building by 11:05. Generally, a very positive experience.
I submitted the following documents:
- Covering Letter
- Set(O) form
- Original last 12 months payslips
- Original last 12 months bank statements
- Life in the UK test certificate (mine and wife’s)
- Cohab documents (Last 2 years council tax bills, water bills, gas and electric bills, three joint bank statements covering last 12 months period)
In view of holidays, I had about 144 days out of the UK in the last 5 years. Out of these, 56 days were unpaid (these were taken when I was made redundant) and rest were paid holidays. I have asked my previous and current employer to give a letter for the holidays that I have taken outside the UK but they refused to give a letter as they said there is no way they can check if these holidays were taken in the UK or outside. Instead, both employers sent me a letter stating that I was entitled to 25 days paid holidays per year. I have not included any of the two letters with our application. I have also left 6.3 blank. There was no interaction with case worker at all apart from towards the end when our documents and approval letter was handed over.
I am now waiting for biometric card so that I can send my little one MN1 application for British citizenship. I am happy to answer any questions that you may have.
Apologies if you find my post long winded.
Thanks
Maddie.
- FAQ
- Login
- Register
- Call Workpermit.com for a paid service +44 (0)344-991-9222
