Tier1 G -> ILR; Queries - History, Earnings, Fingerprints

[nfoote]

Hi

I arrived in the UK on 24/12/08 with Tier1 General. Extended twice over the course of the last 7+ years, now moving to ILR and have a few queries regarding the form.

For starters I must say that the form is massively overly complicated due to having so many different routes mushed into one form, I've printed out 94 pages and at least 30 of them I haven't even written on as they don't apply! I don't remember the previous extension forms being anywhere near as complicated, confusing, containing whole sections to skip, or clearly containing sections written at different times by different people!

Anyway;

A) Page 69 wants to know the date and place my finger prints were taken for my biometric residence permit. Is this suppose to be the original date nearly 8 years ago (which I of course don't know the exact date) or the most recent date 3 years ago from my last extension (which I also don't know precisely but could guess at). Is this not information the Home Office should already know / be stored on the chip in the card anyway??

B) Section 5 - Your home and finances - I've filled this section out with my wife and I's mortgage payments and my net after tax salary (never mind that is an unclear picture as they haven't asked after my wifes salary so I'm technically only responsible for servicing half the mortgage payments).
Then in Section 12A - All Applicants - Your Finances it asks for proof of these finances without actually specifying what this must be? The guidance notes for this form are briefer than anything I've seen from UKBA/Home Office ever before! I've be supplying several months of bank statements as part of my income points claim, this will show my salary incoming and I can supply a few months of mortgage statements (I think). Will this suffice?

C) Section 12L - Tier 1 (General) -
"If you are applying for indefinite leave to remain on completing five years’ continuous stay in the
UK made up of leave as a Tier 1 (General) migrant and leave as a highly skilled migrant, work
permit holder, innovator, self-employed lawyer or writer, composer or artist, in addition to the
relevant documents in 12A, you must provide the following documents"
Does this apply to me, given I was only a Tier 1 General and NOT highly skilled migrant? The term in that sentence "made up of" leads me to believe its a section only for people or the two different types of visa. Otherwise I'm not sure what the documents "showing you met the relevant requirements" would be.

D) Section 6 - I'm still confused over the Immigration History.
"When did you (the main applicant) first enter the UK? This refers to the date of your first
entry into the UK at the beginning of the period of stay on which this application is based."
Should this be 24/12/08 when I very first came to the UK or just 5 years ago from the date of the application for ILR?
Question 6.2 would imply its the whole time, and thus I need to list every single holiday I've gone on out of the UK since then. But then other information I've read implies only 5 years continue residence is considered (ie the last 5 years), for example the non-applicable question 6.9 (" If you spent any part of the five year continuous period with leave to enter or remain in the
Crown dependencies...")
Question 6.3 then asks for evidence although the information above implies only work related absence and compassionate reasons need evidence. Ie Surely I don't need to supply evidence of every single one of the 20+ leisure holidays I've taken out of the UK over the last 7 years do I?
Question 7.12 seems to repeat some of this information (ie how long I've been here), is that correct?

E) Final quick one, Earnings for points based calculations are in GROSS before tax salary payments correct? It doesn't actually say in the form or guidance but I remember this was the case in previous forms.

Lots of questions, lots of confusion.