ILR Success at Croydon 10th Feb -SET M spouse settlement

[T123]

Just wanted to share my experience for anyone who would like some guidance.

Booked an appointment at croydon for the 10th Feb for my ILR Set M settlement visa.

My husband and I got to Croydon 30 mins before the appointment time which was very handy as it took 10 mins alone to get through the airport style security, you have to wait your turn and also take off all jewelery, wrist watches , jackets and so on - not a lot of ppl on the queue just about 5 - 10 ppl before my husband and I.

Next was through a little hallway were a lady asked to see our application and then told everyone in the queue to write out their appointment booking numbers in bold on the front page of the application form - only about 10 ppl in the queue again.

Next was through to another counter - bank style counter where a representative checked my application to make sure all pages were present and filled in and stamped the application and also entered some details into their system, they also asked for my life in the Uk test at this stage to make sure I had taken the test and then gave me an application reference number and a ticket number.

Next was through to 1st floor where I had to pay a sum of £1250 and show my application reference number. It took about 5-10 mins at the payment counter.

The above process took about 25 mins, so getting to the appointment early is beneficial.


Next we were told to take a sit on the 1st floor, about 100 ppl were present waiting for their ticket numbers to be called, but they go by appointment times as well. Our number was called within 20 mins so we only had to wait 20 mins past our appointment time.

We went to another counter were we sat down and a man asked for our details in this order..
1.Application form with passport pics, he checked the form thoroughly and entered the details on his computer
2.Life in Uk test
3.payslips and bank statements for myself - 3 months only
4.payslips and bank statements for my husband - 3 months only
5.etters showing cohabitation for the last 2 yeas

I had about 10 letters for 2009 and 10 letters for 2010 both jointly addressed and individual letters

The representative looked through all the letters and picked only 3 from 2009 and 3 from 2010 and gave the rest back to us. he kept entering details into his computer throughout the interview

the letter's he took were:
council tax letter
Gas bill
Child benefit letter
water bill
tenancy agreement (we had lived in 3 addresses in 2 years, he only asked for the latest tenancy agreement)
electricity bill

some of the above were jointly addressed to both my husband and I some addressed to my husband/ me only.


The man then asked if we had any photocopies of the documents we supplied, we had copied all the docs we brought and had about 70 photocopies with us, he asked for the passport copies only and said he would go and photocopy the rest himself as it would be easier than looking through the 70 docs we had copied.

He came back within 2 mins after copying the docs and sat down again, he then asked us 2 questions which were 1) were did we meet , my husband replied, In college. 2) have we got a child and if he was male or female and how old (I started to get a bit nervous as I wasn't expecting any interview questions..)

After the 2 questions he said he was satisfied with the docs we produced and my ILR had been approved.

We were a bit surprised as all in all we only spent 25 mins at the counter with the man and we were expecting him to take all the docs behind the counter and tell us to wait for a decision. But he made then decision himself there and then.

He then told us to wait for 30 mins to collect my passport with the ilr stamp included... we sat down again and waited and within 25 mins our number was called to collect my passports with the ilr.

All in all we got there like 11:35,went through the security and payment process and then our number called out about 12:25, we left the Home Office about 2pm with our passports...

Hope this helps anyone going to the Croydon HO for ilr set m application in the near future.

Also to point out my husband receives child benefit and we both receive child tax credit for our son ... I ticked this on the form saying we receive public funds but only ticked that my husband receives the money as he is a British citizen,
( in the section for who receives the funds you or your partner I ticked my partner only) this did not come up during the interview and did not affect our application.

Hope this helps.

[ferrarilondon]

Congratulations, i bet you must be over the moon,
My situation is similar than yours and my appointment is in Solihull in first week of March. i too have gathered over 200 documents from the past 2 years. and cant be asked to do photocopies of all. I think i will take our passport copies and LIUK copy.
All the best