Dear All,
First thing first:
Thanks to everyone who helped me in any form or shape in last 6 years (since I started planning for HSMP). This is a great forum and I have loads of respect for all of you guys.
I still remember the days when I used to spend at least 3 hours daily on responding to the forum questions, personal emails and chats. Many people suggested that I should start charging, which I refused and ended up having more than 50 friends most of whom I have not even seen or met yet (except being on FB and having video chat). But then the time took a toll and I lost touch with the new rules, forums and also the people.
But whenever I wanted a help, there was always someone there to respond to my queries. A special thanks to Sohel (I am sure almost everyone on this forum would like to Thank him) for always being there and helping everyone with selflessness. Trust me, I know what it takes and how difficult it is to do what he is doing. It seems very easy to post a question and get an answer, but very few know what goes in the background.
Only Sohel and I know about our personal discussions and amount of support he has extended to me and so I am obliged to contribute this back to the society/forum and specially to you Sohel. Without a shadow of a doubt, I owe you big time. Please allow me to treat you with at least a coffee mate. I will ensure that I do that, whenever we meet.
Now, I would like to start with an apology for my delayed communication. I fell sick immediately after coming back from my ILR appointment (what a timing... ), I am still struggling to write this mail, but could not resist because I owe this to you guys.
As most of you know that I had my ILR on Wednesday, 30th Jan at 11:30 in Cardiff. We started at 9:00 and reached there at 10:30. Parked the car just next to the building (less than 10 meters away, which was quite cheap - 5 hours for £3. Got in the building at 10:50 (The letter said, not to come before 11:00), they scanned and manually checked our jacket, ladies purse, folders etc, took away my cigarette, lighter, deodorant, asked us to switch off the mobiles in front of them and asked us to take a seat.
I don’t know how important this is for you guys, but we were quite concerned about taking our 3 yr old child with us, as she was not on the application form. Our child goes to nursery, so leaving her there was not an issue – but we were worried about the fact that we might get late due to multiple reasons. So I called Home Office a day ago and after around 15 mins of hold time I spoke to a lady, who confirmed, yes we can take her along and when we reached there, that was not an issue.
Coming back to my case, even though my appointment was at 11:30, a lady came to me 11:15, asked my name, checked it against the list and told me to come to counter 5 (there were 8 counters, out of which 7 & 8 were closed).
I went there with 1 expandable form and 2 box file. When she looked at it, smiled and said, WOW, you have got loads of paper, to which I responded by saying I have brought almost everything, so just in case if you need anything else, I should hopefully have it to present it to you and she said: yeah, that makes sense.
She started filling a form and asked me to get out our passport I gave it to her within few seconds and asked her if she would like to have a photocopy of all pages of our passports, which she responded by asking do you have one? And I said Yes. I could see a big smile on her face and she said “THANKYOU, you saved my time because otherwise I had to do that”.
Then she asked me to present my Application form, done in 2 sec. She smiled again. She then gave me a form, asked me to read it and sign it. This was all around the fact that you might not be able to get the decision on same day, complex cases will be sent out and they will get back to you, BRP card etc. I already knew all this (Thanks to forum), but I pretended that I am taking it seriously (which I did, I did read each and every sentence) and signed the form with a smile on my face.
Then she asked for all relevant documents that I would like to present, Done in 5 seconds as it was all in an envelope, again she could not resist smiling.
Again I asked do you want photocopies. Again she asked do you have one? To which I responded there is a reason why I have so much of documents on the table. She gave a big Smile and said THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
Then she asked me to give me supporting documents for my wife, done in 2 seconds (another envelope), this time she started laughing. Again I asked do you need a photocopy and said, YES PLEASE. Done in 2 second (another envelope) and she dropped her pen and started laughing, she looked at her colleagues and everybody was laughing, including me (I was smiling though). And then she said, I have never seen someone so prepared and so flawless. I smiled and said Thank you.
Everything was done in less than 10 mins and she asked us to go back to the waiting area and someone will call us for Biometric after which we can leave. By this time, it was 11:30 and all my papers were taken by the caseworker (I am not sure if she was the caseworker or just admin lady).
20 mins later at 11:50 a lady came in and asked us to come with her for biometrics. While walking us to the room, she started talking to my daughter and they became friend in less than a minute. Before reaching the counter, my daughter was holding that lady’s hand.
My fingers were scanned and picture taken in 2 mins, same for my wife, so we were out in approx. 5 mins. The lady escorted us back to the waiting area and suggested us to go out, enjoy the city (luckily it was sunny, but windy) and they will call us back on my mobile. I asked her if for some reason you are not able to contact me, by when should I come back and she said, office closes by 4, so please come back before that.
By now, it was 12:00 which means everything was done in less than 30 mins of our appointment time (which was 11:30). We left the building, took the car, went to city centre, had some lunch, came back by 1:30, parked the car at same place (had same spot available and ticket still valid). My wife started playing with my daughter and watching youtube video on her phone and I started clearing my official emails. I was done by approx 2:00 PM and started listening to music on my phone. In less than 5 mins (approx. 2 PM), got a call from someone and the guy said, I am calling from UKBA, can you please come to office please. I said sure and asked if I should come alone or with my wife, to which he responded, “to be honest, it’s up to you mate”. He asked when can I come and I said 2 mins. He smiled and said Okay and I went back alone.
Back in building, same scan, same process and was asked to sit. After 10 mins, a lady called my name and asked me to come to counter 2. Reached there, the counter window was closed by a blinder. I was not sure if I heard the number correctly and then the blinder opened. She said, Mr. Tiwari we have approved your ILR application and smiled. I responded by saying, Thank you very much.
She gave me a 2 page letter and asked me to read it and ask if I have any questions. She also gave all my papers and a feedback form.
I read the document, which was around what is ILR, what do you get with it etc. and it also said that the BRP card will be sent to you by courier. I asked the lady, my wife and I both work, so there would be no one to collect it at home address, to which she responded by saying that they will leave a letter at my address to coordinate with them.
She asked me to check my documents before I leave. I started doing it quickly and she smiled at me and said, don’t rush, take your time and check your documents properly. I said Thank you and started checking it the way I do things (“The Easy and Detailed Way”), which always helps and I realised that they did not return our driving licences (which I gave them as part of cohab proof). She went away to check, came back in 2 mins, apologised and said her colleague is bringing it for me. And in next 2 mins. I got it back. In the interim, I filled the feedback form and returned it back the guy who returned our driving licenses.
By then it was 2:30 and all was done and dusted for us. Basically 2 hours, and end-to-end 3 hours.
I left the building, came to the car and told the outcome to my wife. My wife was really happy and suggested that I take some rest now, as I had many sleepless nights over this.
However, I had an indoor cricket match lined up for me at 8 PM and a drink session with my office colleagues at 9:30. So I started immediately and reached home by 6:30 PM (we stopped at a service, had some evening snacks, made some calls to friend, family, my manager, HR and so on). Kept the document, called a taxi, packed my cricket kit bag, took my credit card and left for the match and drink session.
Returned back by 12:30 AM and since then I am off sick. Not sure if it was sleepless nights, or driving and cricket put together within quick span of time or too much of drinks itself.
I know this is a long email, but the reason I am telling all this is because: I like the details and so I want to let everyone know to go prepared, keep your papers tidy and quickly accessible because as they say, the first impression is the last impression (which I don’t agree with, but that’s a different debate, we can have later). People there are very polite, friendly and helpful. So make sure you stand at par with them.
To close the loop, on Saturday when I came back from office, I got 2 letters (one for myself and another for my wife) from DX Courier saying that they missed me and would like me to call them with the tracking number to re-arrange the delivery for a document. I called them on 0844 number (painful) and dealt with automated system (even more painful) and came to know that they cannot deliver it to me on Saturday (even more painful). So I have rescheduled the delivery for Tuesday (as I have some important meetings lined up for Monday and can work from home on Tuesday).
Last but not the least, my wife wanted me to go in my daily office dress (Suit and a Tie), but I decided to go in Jeans, T-Shirt with leather jacket and a county tweed flat cap.
I hope this is helpful for others. In case you have any questions, please do fire it my way and I will try to respond to you as soon as I can.
Thanks again to everyone who helped me and I wish best of luck to everybody.
Thanks and Regards,
- Ravi
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