ILR Success at Croydon PEO 17 April 2014
Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 10:42 am
Hi all -
A summary of my experiences of the ILR process (I did not use a solicitor, but prepared my own application with lots of research)
Background:
First entered the UK as a student in 2003
Two work permits (2004, 2006) with lots of international travel (so not eligible based on time spent outside the country for the first five years)
Applied for Tier 1 (General) in 2009 as an in-country application; first approval 12 May 2009.
Extended in April 2012 (approval granted 4 May 2012.)
Applied for ILR on 17 April 2014 - granted same day.
Documents Submitted:
I collated all my documents into separate transparent sleeves, each with a cover page that had my name, Passport Number, Home Office Reference and Contents. Each sleeve also had photocopies of the documents (I used yellow bull-dog clips to hold photocopies together in each sleeve.)
Folder 1:
- SET (O) Form (the latest version i.e. April 2014 version)
- Two photographs in a sealed envelope (name written across the back, along with current passport number & Home Office reference number)
- Appointment confirmation sheet
- Payment confirmation sheet (I took the printout from the online booking & payment portal, and left the payment sheet in the SET (O) form blank
Folder 2: Proof of Earnings:
- Online payslips, printed out on company letterhead paper and certified as authentic by HR
- Letter from Employer, showing payments made over past 10 months (I started work at my current firm in June last year), in a table, breaking out Gross, Income Tax, NI, other deductions, and Net Salary each month.
Folder 3: Proof of Earnings:
- Bank statements - I have online statements, so I took these to the branch and had each and every page stamped & signed. Citibank UK are stars - the staff in the Canary Wharf branch have been amazing with every request I've had for documentation (in 2009, 2012 & 2014). Having heard horror stories about other banks, I cannot recommend them enough.
As there are lots of pages in the online statements, I used yellow tags to mark out the pages with salary payments, and also marked out the line with yellow highlighter to make it easy to find)
- Maintenance Funds: Not officially needed, but I showed this anyway - they're on the bank statements, so I just marked the relevant line with pink tags and used pink highlighter to differentiate it from salary payments
Folder 4: Qualifications Knowledge of Life & Language:
- Life in the UK Pass Letter
- Master's Degree from a UK university
Folder 5: Continuous Residence
- Excel Sheet listing absences from the UK, including purpose; I split these into five years (my appointment was 17/04/2014, so the the years went from 18/04/2013 - 17/04/2014, etc)
- Letter from previous employer, testifying that any absences out of the country were either for business purposes or in line with annual leave
Folder 6: Passport
- Current passport
- BRP
(Photocopies of BRP & all pages in passport bearing stamps or visas)
Folder 7: Previous Passports
- Two old passports
- Photocopies of pages bearing stamps or visas
Folder 8: Self-Assessment
Printout of online self-assessment of points
Didn't include any personal statement letter, even though I had periods out of the country for personal travel, backpacking etc between jobs. Total days out of the country was 230 days, but not more than 100 in any one continuous 12 month period. Also did not take any P60's or HMRC documentation.
Experience:
My appointment was for 8:30 am. Showed up at 8 am, very friendly guards who checked the appointment letter and let me in. Was directed to the third floor, where I collected a token. (My token was the 20th for the day). Almost immediately called to submit documents - the lady behind the counter was again very friendly and we had a good conversation about holidays over the Easter break! I was provided two plastic folders to put my documents into (the sleeves I was using for my documents meant that it was difficult to put all of them into the same one!)
Went through to have my biometrics taken immediately. That took a bit of time because the signature box is a bit small and I took a couple of tries to get it right!
By 8:45 am I was waiting in the cafeteria, playing on my phone and keeping an eye on the board; my application was "Awaiting Consideration" for about 15 minutes, and then "Under Consideration". By 9:20 am I saw that it was "Ready for Collection". Had to wait five minutes while they sent it to the Collection Desk; my token was then called, another very nice lady returned my documents and told me that a BRP would be sent through shortly.
I was out of the PEO by 9:35 am.
Couriers attempted a delivery on Wednesday, 23rd April, but nobody was home so had to reschedule it for yesterday. Given that 18th & 21st April were Bank Holidays, I'm impressed at the turnaround.
The Croydon PEO is a much nicer place than when I went in 2012; they've refurbished the appointment areas, the Biometrics section is nice and shiny (in 2012 it wasn't even working the day I went!) and the staff are polite, friendly and quite helpful.
My suggestion would be to take the time to make the application and documents easy to navigate - organising them into folders, tagging bank statements and highlighting relevant fields, etc. I can imagine case workers deal with lots of poorly put together applications, or those that don't follow instructions, so taking the time to make their job easier will ease the process & make it less onerous or time consuming.
A summary of my experiences of the ILR process (I did not use a solicitor, but prepared my own application with lots of research)
Background:
First entered the UK as a student in 2003
Two work permits (2004, 2006) with lots of international travel (so not eligible based on time spent outside the country for the first five years)
Applied for Tier 1 (General) in 2009 as an in-country application; first approval 12 May 2009.
Extended in April 2012 (approval granted 4 May 2012.)
Applied for ILR on 17 April 2014 - granted same day.
Documents Submitted:
I collated all my documents into separate transparent sleeves, each with a cover page that had my name, Passport Number, Home Office Reference and Contents. Each sleeve also had photocopies of the documents (I used yellow bull-dog clips to hold photocopies together in each sleeve.)
Folder 1:
- SET (O) Form (the latest version i.e. April 2014 version)
- Two photographs in a sealed envelope (name written across the back, along with current passport number & Home Office reference number)
- Appointment confirmation sheet
- Payment confirmation sheet (I took the printout from the online booking & payment portal, and left the payment sheet in the SET (O) form blank
Folder 2: Proof of Earnings:
- Online payslips, printed out on company letterhead paper and certified as authentic by HR
- Letter from Employer, showing payments made over past 10 months (I started work at my current firm in June last year), in a table, breaking out Gross, Income Tax, NI, other deductions, and Net Salary each month.
Folder 3: Proof of Earnings:
- Bank statements - I have online statements, so I took these to the branch and had each and every page stamped & signed. Citibank UK are stars - the staff in the Canary Wharf branch have been amazing with every request I've had for documentation (in 2009, 2012 & 2014). Having heard horror stories about other banks, I cannot recommend them enough.
As there are lots of pages in the online statements, I used yellow tags to mark out the pages with salary payments, and also marked out the line with yellow highlighter to make it easy to find)
- Maintenance Funds: Not officially needed, but I showed this anyway - they're on the bank statements, so I just marked the relevant line with pink tags and used pink highlighter to differentiate it from salary payments
Folder 4: Qualifications Knowledge of Life & Language:
- Life in the UK Pass Letter
- Master's Degree from a UK university
Folder 5: Continuous Residence
- Excel Sheet listing absences from the UK, including purpose; I split these into five years (my appointment was 17/04/2014, so the the years went from 18/04/2013 - 17/04/2014, etc)
- Letter from previous employer, testifying that any absences out of the country were either for business purposes or in line with annual leave
Folder 6: Passport
- Current passport
- BRP
(Photocopies of BRP & all pages in passport bearing stamps or visas)
Folder 7: Previous Passports
- Two old passports
- Photocopies of pages bearing stamps or visas
Folder 8: Self-Assessment
Printout of online self-assessment of points
Didn't include any personal statement letter, even though I had periods out of the country for personal travel, backpacking etc between jobs. Total days out of the country was 230 days, but not more than 100 in any one continuous 12 month period. Also did not take any P60's or HMRC documentation.
Experience:
My appointment was for 8:30 am. Showed up at 8 am, very friendly guards who checked the appointment letter and let me in. Was directed to the third floor, where I collected a token. (My token was the 20th for the day). Almost immediately called to submit documents - the lady behind the counter was again very friendly and we had a good conversation about holidays over the Easter break! I was provided two plastic folders to put my documents into (the sleeves I was using for my documents meant that it was difficult to put all of them into the same one!)
Went through to have my biometrics taken immediately. That took a bit of time because the signature box is a bit small and I took a couple of tries to get it right!
By 8:45 am I was waiting in the cafeteria, playing on my phone and keeping an eye on the board; my application was "Awaiting Consideration" for about 15 minutes, and then "Under Consideration". By 9:20 am I saw that it was "Ready for Collection". Had to wait five minutes while they sent it to the Collection Desk; my token was then called, another very nice lady returned my documents and told me that a BRP would be sent through shortly.
I was out of the PEO by 9:35 am.
Couriers attempted a delivery on Wednesday, 23rd April, but nobody was home so had to reschedule it for yesterday. Given that 18th & 21st April were Bank Holidays, I'm impressed at the turnaround.
The Croydon PEO is a much nicer place than when I went in 2012; they've refurbished the appointment areas, the Biometrics section is nice and shiny (in 2012 it wasn't even working the day I went!) and the staff are polite, friendly and quite helpful.
My suggestion would be to take the time to make the application and documents easy to navigate - organising them into folders, tagging bank statements and highlighting relevant fields, etc. I can imagine case workers deal with lots of poorly put together applications, or those that don't follow instructions, so taking the time to make their job easier will ease the process & make it less onerous or time consuming.