SET (O) ILR success at PEO Croydon on 25 May

Hi all,
Reading everyone's reports about in-person appointments greatly helped me prepare for mine, so I'm doing the same in case this will help anyone.

My case was simple - same job for 5 years, no dependents.
Work Permit in May 2006, Tier 2 Intra-company transfer sponsorship in September 2009.

I made an 8:30am appointment at PEO Croydon and I would advise this for anyone who can arrive there in time. More on that later.

I brought:
2 passport-sized photos
a check in case their card machines happened to be down
current passport
old passport
Work Permit from 2006
Life in the UK Pass Notification Letter
Employer letter meeting description in 10P on page 37 of SET(O) application
Employer letter confirming which travel was business-related
4 months' bank statements
1 year pay slips
photocopies of everything (for the passports, I just photocopied the photo page and the visa pages - not all the stamps)

For the letters, I used the templates offered on this forum - thanks for those.
For the travel list, I reproduced the format from page 9 of the SET(O) application and added a column for total days (not counting outbound and return days). I wrote 'see attached' in the space on page 9 of the application since my list was long. I subtracted the business travel total from the main total and indicated that as the non-business total to be considered.

As everyone has mentioned, security is first. Right after security, the next person asked me for the 8-digit code I had received via text message 2 days before. I found the text and she wrote that on my application (top of cover page).

At the first check, the guy asked for my Life in the UK Pass letter, my current passport, my old passport, and 3 months of payslips. He asked me if I had been in the same job the whole time and mentioned if my salary is not enough, I will likely be refused. I told him I had checked that it was above the level for my job code.

The payment step was next and nothing to note about that - I paid by card.

All of us were through the first check and the payment by around 8:30am. Seems like the caseworkers get to their desks by 9:00am and the waiting area was not crowded yet. They all opened their window shades at 9:00 and we were all called to a window right away. This is why I was glad I had booked an early appointment.

My caseworker asked that I give her everything and she looked through all of it a bit while I was there. She asked about (and I confirmed) the separate total on the travel list for the days not counting the business trips. She didn't have any other questions and said she was going to look into everything further and make photocopies. I offered her the photocopies I had made, and she accepted them. She asked me to wait in the main area and she would call me back to her window when there was a decision.

She called me back to the window in about 30 minutes and told me I was approved. She instructed me to come back in about 45 minutes and that window 22 would announce my ticket number to pick up my passport when it was ready. At that point, the caseworker at counter 22 asked me to check that my name and DOB on the ILR page were correct (they were) and she included some written info just explaining the basics of ILR.

I left the PEO almost exactly 3 hours after I had arrived. Everyone I encountered was professional, clear, polite and friendly.

Good luck to everyone working on immigration applications and have a great bank holiday weekend and summer!

great post mate..
very practical and upto the point

Congratulations..and thanks a lot for sharing in quite a detail

1) is your job title in COP list?

2) you've not been asked for any P60's?

Thanks for the congrats, and you're welcome for the detail.

I had forgotten to mention in the list that of course I brought the signed SET(O) form.

1) Not my exact title. When the 2009 application was approved, we used code 1135 (Personnel, training and industrial relations managers). So code 1135 with that info was quoted in my letter.

2) No, I was not asked for any P60s.

thank you..i have sent you a PM..