ILR Success Croydon WP holder

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone in the forum who have helped me with advice and suggestions over the last few months leading up to my ILR appointment. I'm nervous at the best of times, so you can imagine what it was like leading up to today.

There were a few issues before I went for my appointment:

a) I had absences more than 180 days, all paid annual leave though (around 190ish days). I wasn't sure of some of the exact dates when I left the UK to reach India, for all those trips I added an extra day as usually my flight leaves one day and reaches the next. I explained this in my absences spreadsheet (that my stamp was one day after departure).

b) I realised yesterday! that the last bank statement I needed still hadn't arrived (it should have come by Thursday) and I didn't have a stamped print out of this. I went to the Barclays in Croydon this morning hoping they would be nice enough to stamp it for me: they were brilliant. They printed all my transactions for the 3 different accounts I have and stamped and signed every page. In future if you need stamps+signature I'd recommend them as they said they get requests all the time.


Now in terms of the appointment itself:

I arrived at 9:15 for my 9:30 appointment (parked my car in a car park adjacent to Lunar House), went through security. Documents were then checked by an officer who asked me to go make my payment.

I'm a work permit holder (for all 5 years)

The documents I took were:
Application, passport, photos
Bank statements (all 5 years)
Payslips (all 5 years)
Letter from employer (specifying all my time out of the uk was paid annual leave)
P60s (all 5 years)
Copies of bankstatements & payslips for last 1 year, all 5 P60s copied
Bank statement for last 1 month stamped and signed at Barclays
My initial work permit and extension letter
Life in the UK test certificate

I paid £1350 and sat down around 9:35. I was called by 9:45.
The caseworker who interviewed me was very friendly. The only supporting documents he asked for were my employer letter (which he read a couple of times), last 3 month bank statements and payslips with copies, life in the UK certificate, P60s. I told him the other stuff I had but he said he was fine with this.

He dealt with the case as I was sitting in front of him, entering stuff into his computer. He then asked for the absences spreadsheet. He asked me to list the absences total for each individual year. (My longest absence from the UK is 22 days) They check mainly to ensure you don't have more than 90 days continuous absence.

Within the next 10 mins he said he was granting me ILR and that I could collect my passport in half an hour.

I think the morning appointments are a good way to go about it as there isn't much of a back log. Overall it was a really good experience at Croydon.

Thanks once again to everyone who helped me! I'd be more than happy to asnwer any questions if people have any.

congratulations Ksab...

Did the case worker kept the original employer letter or gave it back to you..?

Thanks. He kept the original letter.

Congratulations Ksab...

Did your employer provide you with COP code for your job title? and if they did I assume your salary was more than specified in COP.

Congratulations again.

...thanks for your PM - well done again. This site is brilliant - I asked so many asinine questions in the lead up to my PEO appointment and the experts and applicants alike here dealt with them promptly and genially.

Hi there,

Congrats that you got the ILR.

I have a quick question regarding the employer letter because I have drafted an employer letter with a wording like 'my employment still required for the foreseeable future' but it is very hard to get the letter from the employer with the wording.

Is that a mandatory requirement. Please share your experience and advice me your suggestion.

Thanks.