Thank you for sharing the events in detail. I understand you initially were on workpermit and then switched to HSMP to complete your 5 years. You went in the 28 days earlier than the 5 years
Could you share the list of documents you took with you please?
Did you need to request for any fresh letters from the employer ?
[quote="anandsun"]Hi Everyone,
I went for a premium service appointment for ILR yesterday. I called up 6 weeks in advance and booked for the 2nd April. I wanted to book for an earlier date as I didnt want to pay the new fees and did not know when the changes were being effected. However the earliest I got was for the 2nd Apr and only Birmingham had slots. So though I am from London, I decided to take up the Birmingham appointment rather than wait for a Croydon one.
I arrived on 2nd Oct 2003 into the UK on a WP and switched to HSMP in Aug 2007.
I booked the train tickets on nationalrail.co.uk well in advance and got a real cheap deal for the travel and return journeys to Solihull. My appointment was at 2 PM and I reached Solihull at around 1245, had lunch and then made my way to the PEO. The PEO is a 5 minute walk from the train station. I did not have my reference no handy, but that doesnt matter. They will match your name if you have an appointment. As soon as I entered, airport style security checks were performed. The security officer checked by SET (O) form, and passport and asked me to take a seat saying they will issue me a token in a couple of minutes. He asked me to switch my mobile off. I had a laptop with me which they kept with security and handed me a token to collect while going out.
After waiting for about 5-6 minutes, they gave me my token number. I noted that they were issuing the tokens only 2 or 3 at a time - maybe depending on how many counters were free at that point in time. In my case, 2 of us were issued tokens and the other individual got called to the counter almost immediately after the token was issued. I had to wait for about 15 minutes before being called to the counter. The lady at the counter was very polite and asked me for my SET(O) form, passport and photographs first. She clipped the photographs to the application form. I had attached a separate sheet for list of absences which I duly pointed out to her, upon which she asked me how many days I had spent outside the UK. I had only spent 110 days (nights out only) which was well within the allowed limit. So she seemed not worried about it. I had attached a detailed excel sheet with exact dates, passport numbers (as I had 3 different passports - one lost passport - in that period) and the page numbers of the stamps.
I had a lost passport case so she said that she will have to check if they have the information on the lost passport in their systems - which they had. Although she pointed out that had they not had the information on the lost passport, they would consider 5 years from the time they had records - which would have been April 2004 anyway (when I entered the UK on my new passport) - so I was covered in all aspects. When I told her that, she seemed impressed and said "smart"
Then she said she will do some checks and asked me to be patient for a few minutes. I was a bit nervous with these checks as there was one instance where I was not sure whether my previous employer had sent in my FLR for WP extn on time. But apparently her checks came out fine and she made a lot of notes from the system.
After about 5 - 7 minutes of silence, she asked me for the Life in UK test pass notification and the last 3 months' payslips. I had put everything in order with sticky notes at the top of each document indicating the month and year. She was pretty impressed and said I was very organized
.
Then she said that as I had switched to HSMP in 2007, she will need the P 60 for April 2008 - which I had with me and duly handed over to her.
After another 2 minutes of silence where she was checking the documents, she said that she had to check something at the backend and will be back shortly. Once she came back in about 3-4 minutes, she said I will be granted ILR Today. She put the SET(O) form, Passport, photographs, payslips and P60 in a folder, handed it over to me and asked me to pay the amount at the cashier. All this lasted not more than 25 mins.
I did so. One point to be noted during the payment is that if you are paying by credit / debit card, they only accept it if your name is on the card. I tried to use my company's card, but as that did not have my name on it, I had to use my personal credit card. Payment was done and they asked me to be either seated or return in 45 mins.
I chose to venture out and return in about 45 mins. After searching for a bit, I found the central Library in Solihull, where they provide guest logins to use the itnernet free of charge. I used the internet for 30 mins by which time, it was almost an hour up and time to return to the PEO.
I made my way to the PEO expecting to wait for another hour or so. From previous posts on this forum I expected to wait for 2 to 2.5 hours in total. This time for entering in, there were no security checks. And as soon as I entered in, immediately my ticket number was called - to my surprise. They handed me my passport stamped with "Indefinite Leave to Remain"
along with a letter and some informative notes and asked me to check if everything on the stamp was correct. I checked it, put the documents back in my bag and walked back to the train station to get my train back home.
I entered the PEO at 130 pm and was out at 345 pm - and had got an ILR in 2 hours 15 mins.
I was really surprised at how many few documents were required in the end. I was over prepared, over organized and had tons of documents with me and was expecting problems over my lost passport and delayed application for FLR. Fortunately none of that happenned and I sailed through smoothly.
Its definitely worth the £950 as it saves you 8 - 10 weeks of tension (application by post). Also, comparing with the other posts on this forum, I found that in Birmingham, they charge the fees only after the decision is made, which is quite useful in case your application isnt successful - atleast you dont lose the money. And Solihull isnt that far by train from London. So my advice is if possible, take an appointment at Solihull as it is less busier, people are really polite - unless you meet the Asian guy at counter 5 and you wont lose money!!!
Lastly, I want to thank everyone on this forum as you have contributed in one way or the other in my successful application.
Here's wishing all aspiring ILR applicants all the best and I do hope you find this post useful.
Regards,
Anand[/quote]