ILR Success Story – Croydon 24-Oct-13

[AksJohn]

My husband (main applicant) and I (dependant) applied for ILR on the basis of 5 years with Tier-1 General.

We did not apply for ILR for our daughter who was born in the UK. She has had Tier-1 visa previously. But rather than applying for ILR for her, we will directly apply for naturalisation as British citizen and then apply for British passport.

On the whole, we submitted the following documents:
Application
Payment receipt
Photographs
Passports
Previous passport
BRPs
Payslips – 12 months (We did not submit the latest payslip as the corresponding bank statement showing the pay was not yet available. We made sure that the bank statements and payslips match.)
Bank statements – 12 months (Also included statements of savings account)
Life in the UK pass certificates
Evidence of absence (as explained below in Note)
-Personal letter for absences from the UK
-Employment letter showing period of employment from all employers
-Emails to employers requesting for letter of absence
-Leave tracker print for current employer
-Passport stamps corresponding to absences from UK highlighted on a copy (Some of the stamps were quite hard to find and we wanted to make it easier for the person checking)
Evidence of cohabitation (as explained below in Note)
-Council tax bills
-Bank statements – 2 years – main applicant
-Electricity bills – Old address – dependant
-Bank statements – New address – dependant
-Rent agreement
-Marriage certificate

Note:

(1) Here is what we did for evidence of absence, specifically question 6.3 on the SET(O) form: Though the advice from friends and the forum was that evidence is not required for absences less than 180 days, we wanted to go strictly by the book. The rule says:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... es/part6a/
245CD. Requirements for indefinite leave to remain
(j) The applicant must provide the specified documents in paragraph 245CD-SD to evidence the reason for the absences set out in paragraph 245AAA
245CD-SD Specified documents
(a) For periods where the applicant was in employment in the UK, a letter from the employer detailing the purpose and period of absences in connection with the employment, including periods of annual leave.
(b) For periods where the applicant was self-employed or in business in the UK, or looking for work or setting up in business in the UK, a personal letter from the applicant detailing the purpose and period of absences in relation to those activities.

We wrote a personal letter explaining the reason for absence while unemployed and looking for work. In the same letter we also mentioned about requesting employers for letter showing leaves, but them not providing it. We showed the email correspondence as proof of requesting it. We also provided employment letter instead of letter of absence that showed the period of employment. And for current employer we included printout of the leave tracker.

Also when we called UKBA, they wanted us to provide whatever possible for it.

(2) Here is what we did for evidence of cohabitation: When we called UKBA and asked about this, they said we need to submit a minimum of two sources covering the entire period. If the proof is not a joint account then individually evidence has to be submitted for the whole period for each person. So we showed council tax bills as one source which included both names. For second source we showed bank statements for 2 years for my husband. For second source for me we showed electricity bills on old address and bank statements on new address thereby covering 2 years. We also provided rent agreement and marriage certificate though it was probably not required.