I wish to thank everyone on the board who have posted on their experiences as it really helped prepare me for the application yesterday. I was applying under a work permit and 5 years residence within the UK working for the same employer for the entire time.
Summary of my experience.
Arrived and went through security and was given my number.
After a short wait I was called up to go through the initial check of documents. This included a check of the Set(O) form. I was asked to show:
*Passport (I had my current passport but had lost the previous passport which I had initially entered the UK with). To support this I had the form I got from the police when I reported my old passport lost and also had a scanned copy of the front page and the stamped work permit.
*Letter from employer with information on it including SOC code and confirmation that I was still required for my job.
*LIUK test certificate
*Asked to confirm I had last payslip and bank statement which were both less than one month old, but was not required to show this.
*Asked to confirm that I had not been absent from the UK for more than 180 days in any 12 month period during my qualifying residence period.
*Once this was checked I was asked to confirm that I had read and understood the relevant immigration rules and asked if I wished to review them. I was also told that if I didn’t meet the provisions of the relevant immigration rules then my application may be rejected. I was then asked to sign that I understood this and accepted it.
Then given a new number and instructed to wait again for the next step which was payment. This was done and went back to waiting for the next call which was to the case officer.
Case officer was very friendly and asked for:
*Passport and previous passport. I provided the scanned sheets from my previous passport, police form and covering letter explaining why I didn’t have the original passport available. This was accepted. I also gave my work permit which was stamped when I originally entered the UK as additional proof of the date of initial entry into the UK.
*Set(O) form.
*Letter from emplyer with SOC codes and confirmation i was still required.
*After checking the absences section of my application form he asked for the letter from employer supporting my absences and confirming that I was in paid employment and paid leave during those absences. They were all work trips and holidays so it wasn’t an issue. I had also made up a table where each absence listed in the Set(O) form was listed with the page in the passport which had the UK entry stamp for that trip on it. I am not sure whether the case officer used it, but it meant he did not have to hunt through the passport to find the stamp for each trip if he needed to do that check.
*My last payslip and bank statement. He then checked that the last pay went into the bank account and aligned with the info in the payslip. We had electronic payslips so I had the print out, verified with our company payroll stamp and had a covering letter from HR confirming that we used electronic payslips and that the payslips provided were correct.
*LIUK test certificate.
Once he had this information he set up the application on the system and I then went to biometrics to have finger prints and photos taken.
I then came back and after a 20-30 minute wait got told my application had been approved.
Once again thanks for all the advice on this board. It made putting together the information for the application much easier and made sure that I hadn’t missed anything.
Overall it took about 2.5 hours from start to finish.
