I have been reading all the posts on this forum and would like to thank you all for sharing valueable information.
Having benifitted from all the posts, i though its my turn to return the favour and share my experience.
I had my appointment for ILR on Thursday,19th April, 2 PM at Liverpool PEO. Mine was a straighforward case with 3 years WP and 2 years Tier 1. I applied for SET(O) with my wife as dependant.
We arrived at PEO at 1PM and after an airport style security check, we were given a token number. The number was called within 10 minutes and at the counter we were asked to show our application form and passports to quickly verify that its a valid application. We were issued a new token number here. We were also informed that there is a problem with Biometric Security checks so we might not get a decision today.
The issue is not with the actual biometric system but with the IT system which is used to check your biometric records against Police records to generate a report.
After another 15 minutes the token number was called and i paid the ILR fee using my Debit Card.
I called up my bank a day in advance so that my transaction is not blocked, but they said there is no such facility with any banck and if its Home Office payment, no bank would decline your payment.
So everything went on well and we had to wait for 1 hour to be called by one of the case worker.
I submitted the following documents for along with completed Set(0) form:
1) Passports
2) 2 Photgraphs
3) 12 Month Salary Slips
4) 12 Months Bank Statements
5) Original Bachelors Degree
6) Life in Uk Pass Certificates
7) Employee Reference Letter
4 P60s and 1 P459) Proof of Cohabitation - Marriage Certificate,Bank Statment, Reference Letter From Landlord, Letter from NHS, Some etickets. Basically
4-5 different documents are needed with Name and Address on it.
I also provided the Case Worker with a Xerox of all the above documents along with Xerox of all my Passport pages.
They take the Xerox if you dont provide, but its always good to carry it with you.
So, after accepting all the documents Case Worker asked us to wait. After 30 minutes she gave us our passports so that we can go for Biometrics counter for our finger scans.
We were asked a couple of questions at the Biometrics Counter:
1) When was the last time you had biometrics done while entering UK ( mine was 2007)
2) Have you ever used a different name ( Never)
She then took our fingers scan, asked us to sign a printout and handed the passports back to us.
We gave the passports back to the Case Worker and were asked to wait again.
After waiting for another 1 hour, she called us at the counter and told me that My wife`s security checks are clear
but due to a techinal issue they havent received my Security Checks for Biometrics.
She kept our passports and gave us a letter stating that our application is held for further checks and she said that i would getting a phone call from her on Monday, 23rd April regarding the decision and on successful return of the security report.
I asked her about the decision and she only said that all your documentation is fine and unless you are not a Diamond Thief, you would get the ILR approval.
So my waiting game started and I got a call from my Case worker on Tuesday, 24th April that my ILR is approved and she is posting back the passport to me and i should get it within 3 days. The BRP would follow after that in next 7 days.
Yesterday, 26th April, I received my passport back and got an ILR approval letter with BRP to follow next week.( So still a small wait left).
So this IT issue is there across all the PEOs, not only Croydon but it was handled in a professional and amicable manner. They also told everyone as to what the exact issue was.
If you guys need any more information, i would be happy to reply back.
Aman
