ILR success - WP + HSMP

[mm76]

I got my ILR on 8th april in Sheffield PEO. I want to say thank to all the members of this forum for sharing their views and experiences and it has really helped me to prepare my application.

3.5 years work permit + 1.5 years HSMP
Date of arrival : May 2004
Number of absences : 110 days
Total number of employers : 3 (All jobs full time)

I rang home office exactly 6 weeks before (on 25th Feb) for appointment. I called at 8:59 AM and managed to get through to the call center operator in the first attempt. Even then I could not get appointment in either Croydon or Birmingham PEO. I booked the appointment at Sheffield PEO at 11:15 AM for myself and two dependents.

As I had to travel from London, I reached Sheffield PEO at around 9:15 AM (2 hours early) with my wife and my son. There was no queue outside the PEO. After security went to the reception. The lady at the reception checked my appointment number against the list and issued me a ticket number. She told me that my number will be called for initial screening of the documents. As I reached the PEO quite early, I had to wait for 1 hour and 30 minutes for my number to be called. My number was called at around 10:45 AM. The lady at the counter was very polite and asked for Set(0) form, 1 photograph each for myself and dependants, Passports and the life in UK pass certificates. Along with these documents I also gave her a detailed covering letter and an excel sheet explaining all my absences. She then checked in her system and told us that she is happy with the application and asked to pay the fees at the payment counter. She kept with her the passports, photos, covering letter and the absences sheet. After paying the fees, was told that my ticket number will be called by the case worker for the detailed checking of the documents.

My number was called by the case worker at around 11:15 AM. After scanning the photos she asked for the following additional documents
SET(0) Form
3 Months Salary Slips
3 Months Bank Statements
HSMP approval letter
Current Employers reference letter
Child's Birth certificate

Even though I had taken all the documents with me, she did not ask for the P60 documents, previous work permits or previous employer reference letters. She took the photocopy of the child's birth certificate and then she returned all the documents. She then said that she is happy to give us ILR on the same day. She said the stamping of passports will take around 1 hour and we can either wait or can go out and come back to collect the passports.

We decided to wait and had to wait for less than an hour for the collection of passports. We got the passports at around 12:10 PM. We checked the passports for any spelling mistake, date of birth.

From my experience I can say that it is worth applying in person and I will definately recommend Sheffield PEO as all the staff there is very polite and it is definately less busy than other PEOs.

[iyanu]

Congrats MM76!

I am wondering why they asked for the HSMP approval letter. Is that a major evidence to be presented, what of it is lost?

Although, I not qualify until October as I came in through HSMP since Nov 2005, even though my EC was stamped in October 2005.

I am one of those happy guys right now because of the favourable JR judgement decision this last Monday(6 April 2009).

Congrats once again!

[mm76]

Thanks iyanu

You can always show them the stamp on your passport against the HSMP approval. They also have all the records on their system. So I don't think that the absence of HSMP approval letter will cause any problem.