Almost two months of rigorous form’s scrutinization, documents assembly and immigration rules lessons; it all boils down to £1377 hit on american express but more importantly it leaves a faint smile on your face…at least that’s what it was for me
Here’s my story…My Background:
• 2 years on HSMP
• 3 years on Tier 1 General
• Fully employed throughout 5 years
• 177 days outside UK
• 100 points on self assesment
• Appointment: 10:40
• Place: Croydon- PEO: Lunar House
Personal Note:
It is not an easy process and especially if you are not from a law background and have been a so called “straight-forward case”. I come from an IT project management background and simply apply Murphy’s Law on everything and so did I applied it on this “ILR Project” and concluded I have two issues:
1. I was very uncertain (and still am!) on the ways to count number of days outside UK. I believe there are three ways of counting this, those who have read my older posts might know this. For the benefit of those who haven’t a quick recap: For example you are going to India for a personal holiday your booking is departing from London on 1st May 2011 @ 2100 and returning from Delhi IGI on 10th May 2011@ 1100. There are three ways of counting number of days outside UK:
a. This method is wrong: Count both 1st and 10th and you get 10 days outside UK.
b. This method is “more” correct: Exclude date of travel (s) you get 2nd to 9th, i.e. 8 days.
c. More debatable: Since in this example on 2nd May 2011 you will reach India @ 0900 in the morning and Indian Immigration is the only place your passport is stamped, one can argue that 2nd is a travel day and thus excluded; thus giving a total of 7 days.
Anyways, which one is correct of (b) and (c) I won’t say further and leave this discussion right here…
2. In 2009 I went on a holiday in Germany and just for fun got my passport stamped with Germany’s souvenir stamps from Checkpoint Charlie – when I googled this (just a day before the appointment), I could see these are illegal and thus makes your travel document invalid. This fact scared the s*** out of me as I knew they will go through every single page of my passport and there is no chance they will miss it. Much to my relieve they missed it (or one can say, it was not a big issue for them)
My Preparation:
If you watch The Big Bang Theory, I was a bit like Sheldon Copper. Dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. I made 6 folders ….(this will make most of you laugh, but trust me if you are on the same wavelength I am, you know that you are on your own when you walk into that building and its only one chance, else you will end up posting the application and get stuck in UK for 6 months minimum!)
Box 1: Labelled “Application Form & Originals”
• Cover Letter
• Application Form
• Answer to A9 of SET (O) printed on a page
• List of documents… Quite frankly, I found page number 49 of the form very pathetic, the table on this page only has “Document” and “Number”; does not make sense to me at all! “Number” of what? Items or pages? Grrr… So I did my own “List of Documents” with three columns layout: “Document”, “number of items”, “number of pages”, so for 12 month bank statements, it was 12 number of items and 39 number of pages.
• Self-Assessment from UKBA point scoring of Tier 1 General.
• Life in the UK Pass Certificate
• Absences Spreadsheet
• Last 12 months pay slip
• Last 6 years P60.
• Last 12 months bank statement
• Letter from employer (current and previous) about pay history
• Letter from employer (current and previous) about holidays
• Letter from doctor in India.
• MBA Degree.
• MBA Transcript.
• MBA academic reference.
Box 2: Labelled “Photocopies”
• Photocopies of all documents of “Folder 1”… I mean everything, even the application form!
Box 3: Labelled “Other Supporting Documents”: This will shock you the most!
• Bank Statement of last 5 years – every single month showing getting paid.
• Pay Slip of last 5 years…
Box 4: Immigration Rules and Laws print outs
• Printout of Guidance Notes of SET(O).
• Calculating 180days guidance from UKBA – just so I can rub in their faces if need be.
• Immigration Rule #6 – just so I can rub in their faces if need be.
Box 5: Labelled “Spares “(For ‘just in case’ emergencies)
• 4 empty SET(O) form.
• 10 extra photographs
Box 6: Labelled “More Supporting Documents”
God knows why but I prepared this folder just in case they thought I would ask to prove my ties in this country (I know! Absolutely unnecessary for a single application, but I did it anyways)
• BT Phone Bills
• Tenancy Agreements
• NHS Letters
• Other documents that probably had nothing to do with ILR…
Night before:
Black shoes polished, white shirt and blue jeans ironed, used a lint roller clean my black jacket
The documents combined in 6 folders were “heavy”; trust me really heavy; so put everything in my gym duffel bag, because my work satchel just won’t suffice!The “Big Day”:
Before it all even starts:
Time: 0500 – Alarm rings! I woke up way ahead of time. I like to be “super” early for such things, because Monday morning you can never trust the trains. My estimate was I will reach Lunar house in 1.5 hrs from my place and if the trains mess up it should take no more than 3 hours – worst case scenario. Time: 0700 – Train from Woolwich to London Bridge, then took second train to Gatwick and got off on the first stop… if you know what I mean. Time: 0800 – Exiting East Croydon station with a duffle in one hand and umbrella in another thinking “Gosh! I’m way too early”. So I headed towards Lunar house walking gingerly cross the tram tracks. 10 minutes down I spotted the Lunar House on my right which was one of the objective ‘arrive early and know where I have to go’. Walked past the building then took the under pass near the crossing and came over to the flip side of the road and walked in to the Wight gift shopping centre. Time 0815 – It was early, the place was close to dead, only Starbucks was open. But, who on earth drink’s coffee at Starbucks? So I zigzagged my way through the shopping centre and found the next best thing – Costa. Took a latte, muffin and decided to burn the next 1 to 1.5 hours here. Time 0930 – Tired of sitting reading “City AM” and surfing web on my Raspberry, I decided to move about and spent the next half an hour basically faffing about inside the shopping centre. Time 1000 – Bundled my bag and umbrella. Walked out of the shopping centre, took the underpass and waited near the bus stop of Lunar House (time 10:07). Kept waiting for3-4 mins just so my Raspberry shows 1010; did not wanted to be refused entry by the guard.
Inside:
Time 1010 – Entered building. The guard pointed me to go straight in to an area like a doctor’s surgery, loads of chairs where people were basically waiting for going through the security. Went through the security, all OK. Then there was a little bit of confusion (but I guess that was just me). No one was there to tell us where to go, so I just followed the path. The hallway lead only in one direction; towards my left was a fire-exit – obviously not where I needed to go. Took right and kept walking and came across another usher, who asked me to turn right and then join the queue. Time 1030– Kept waiting in this queue then another usher or staff member called me and asked me to go to counter number 9. The staff on that counter just had an argument with someone else before me so I decided to keep barriers only answers the questions she asked. She looked at my docs, and I gave her appointment email letter and she then asked me to go to 1st floor.
1st Floor (Document Checking):
Time 1040– I went to 1st floor and another guard/staff member directed me to the payment counter. So I turned right from staircase and entered a big hallway, on my left were 3-4 counters whose main responsibility looked to me was only payments, on my right was a looooong area where counters were one after another and people were just sitting facing these counters. I went to the payment counter and paid £1377 on my card and she gave me a receipt and token #108. She directed me to go to this looooong area and wait for my number to be called. I took a seat in this area and started waiting. Time 1045 – My number was called and I went to the counter. The lady on the desk was Indian and had another lady shadowing her work … or I guessed. She took my form and starting punching the keyboard which sounded a bit like 1960’s typewriter. Clearly this was all admin work for them and they were least bothered about my application or the hint of nervousness on my face. Time 1100 – The Indian lady told me to go to 2nd floor and wait for the number to be called. I was getting fed up with lack of information.
2nd Floor (Main Area and Biometrics):
When I went on 2nd floor, I asked the staff who told me that I need to get the biometrics done. This floor looked same as 1st floor with only difference that the far end of the floor was designated for biometrics. I went there and started waiting again. Time 1130 – “Token number 108 to counter number 32” came from the speakers in the ceiling. I picked up my duffel bag and umbrella and went in the biometrics section. The guy there read a script which was clearly something he had learnt by heart or had made a mark on him by everyday usage. I agreed to whatever he said and gave the prints of fingers and toes (just kidding). He took a picture from the camera installed on the wall on my right. “Please go outside and wait for your number to be called” he said. I asked “How much time will it take to submit the application”. He said “The biometrics result should come back in 2 hours, may be 2.5 hours”. At that point I knew I’m up for a long wait. So I came back into the main hall of 2nd floor waiting area and started waiting…….. This was a loooooong wait. Had an apple juice and a sandwich from the on floor café. Mind you, the café lady was a bit weird; she kept opening and closing the shutter at random, no fixed timings for her huh? Anyways, also note she won’t accept card, only cash.
Case worker:
Time 1400 – “Token number 108 to counter number 48” the speaker blasted
Again I gathered all my stuff and went the case worker on counter number 48. Indian lady asked for my application and I gave her box number 1 and 2. Also mentioned I’ve got s**t loads of other supporting documents if she needs anything. “Hmm OK…” she said while opening the box #1. She started going through the contents of box and was spent about 5 mins going through different things. I kept sitting on the edge of my seat. “OK, I think I have everything. I will need to take one and a half hour to go through your application. You can wait in the waiting area or got out and come back if you like” she said to me with a tone of not really expecting an answer in return. I said, “That’s OK, I’ll be right there in the back…” pointing to an area which was in clear line of sight of her “… and if you need something from me, just wave and I’ll come over”. I picked up my duffel bag which still had the other 4 boxes in there intact and took a seat in the waiting area making sure I can see her and vice versa. Moment of truth:
Time 1500 – She called me over and said “I’ve approved your application and your biometrics will be posted and should reach you in 7 working days”. The letter she gave me had ink smudges on it. I asked her to redo the letter just in case other UKBA officers have an issue with this. She was kind enough to do this for me. She had returned the originals to me and I grabbed all the documents along with the approval letter and went back to where my bag was. I spotted that one of my academic reference document was missing. I went back and asked “Where the bloody hell is my academic reference you idiot, how can you keep it, I gave you the photocopy, aren’t you happy with it”… of course in a more decent language
; She returned my letter. At this point, I threw back everything in my bag and got out of the building… Time 1515 – On my way back to station I spotted Pret, wonder how I missed this in the morning and walked right past it? Time to have some “quality” coffee and make some phone calls. 
More honestly I’m a bit tired of typing this story, hope you’ve learnt the most important thing “The Murphy’s Law”. Critics will say, I over-prepared, but I don’t think that’s the case at all. Even if your application is straight forward, you need to check it, check it and check it again. Try to find reasons “What can go wrong?”
Many thanks to all the support I've had from this website, forum and its members, it would have been very hard without all of you. Happy to answer any questions…
singhmohit
. Most importantly, the Murphys law worked in your case and you have demostrated excellent management skills 
. Woolwich, I live just around there.