successful ILR application on UK ancestry route

[nomad545]

Yesterday I received the wonderful news that I had been granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK!

Since this board has been very helpful to me over the years, I thought I would post an overview of my application so that it might inform others in future.

I applied for SET(O) at a premium service centre on the UK ancestry visa route.

1. Booking an appointment: This is (currently) pretty complicated and I almost screwed it up. Basically you need to start thinking of making an appointment around 3 months before your visa is due to expire. More detailed and precise help can be had elsewhere on the board.

2. Demonstrating continuous residence: Working from my passport, I made a list of all my absences from the UK over the 5-year period. I was well under the limit having been away from less than 180 days over the entire 5-year period. HR at my current employer agreed to endorse all my absences from the UK in the time I have been working for them, including trips that were not logged as annual leave. To prove absences before this time, I referred to specific pages in my passport where the external country stamp could be found. There was no such stamp for one trip; here I printed out a flight itinerary showing the date of exit. I included a table in my cover letter summarising all this info: date of trip (exit and re-entry) destination, purpose, evidence provided.

3. Employment: letter from HR at current employer plus letter requested and granted from HR at previous employer. Current HR letter stated that my employment is ongoing.

4. Financials: I included 6 months of payslips and my most recent p60. These were printed out by me, and certified and signed by the finance dept. of my current employer.

5. English language: I took the test rather than have my degree certified by NARIC. Note that the checklist produced by my online application suggested that I should have BOTH done, which is inconsistent with home office advice (and, as it turns out, wasn't necessary)

6. Life in UK test: obviously included.

7. Experience of appointment. It was over in around 90 minutes. No questions were asked -- I was simply told that ILR had been granted and I would received the BRP in the post.

My overriding impression is that if your application is straightforward, then the decision is more-or-less a formality.

[Djsuccess]

Yesterday I received the wonderful news that I had been granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK!

Since this board has been very helpful to me over the years, I thought I would post an overview of my application so that it might inform others in future.

I applied for SET(O) at a premium service centre on the UK ancestry visa route.

1. Booking an appointment: This is (currently) pretty complicated and I almost screwed it up. Basically you need to start thinking of making an appointment around 3 months before your visa is due to expire. More detailed and precise help can be had elsewhere on the board.

2. Demonstrating continuous residence: Working from my passport, I made a list of all my absences from the UK over the 5-year period. I was well under the limit having been away from less than 180 days over the entire 5-year period. HR at my current employer agreed to endorse all my absences from the UK in the time I have been working for them, including trips that were not logged as annual leave. To prove absences before this time, I referred to specific pages in my passport where the external country stamp could be found. There was no such stamp for one trip; here I printed out a flight itinerary showing the date of exit. I included a table in my cover letter summarising all this info: date of trip (exit and re-entry) destination, purpose, evidence provided.

3. Employment: letter from HR at current employer plus letter requested and granted from HR at previous employer. Current HR letter stated that my employment is ongoing.

4. Financials: I included 6 months of payslips and my most recent p60. These were printed out by me, and certified and signed by the finance dept. of my current employer.

5. English language: I took the test rather than have my degree certified by NARIC. Note that the checklist produced by my online application suggested that I should have BOTH done, which is inconsistent with home office advice (and, as it turns out, wasn't necessary)

6. Life in UK test: obviously included.

7. Experience of appointment. It was over in around 90 minutes. No questions were asked -- I was simply told that ILR had been granted and I would received the BRP in the post.

My overriding impression is that if your application is straightforward, then the decision is more-or-less a formality.

Congratulations