Afternoon everyone,
As I promised, I am keeping you updated with how things went.
To summaries:
Wife entered the UK as student on 22/02/2004
We got married in September 2008
Got the FLR on 27/11/2008
Booked appointment at Liverpool PEO 19/09/2010 for 01/11/2010
Filled in the online application form and made the payment online on 27/10/2010*
• note that was before my 28 days period starts as it started on 31/10/2010
anyway our appointment was at 11:00 am, we got there round 9:45 am, we first went through airport style security check , after that we showed our appointment letter at a small reception desk, in fact I didn’t even need to do that as I was getting her the letter she just asked for the name then said it’s fine and directed us to a room and gave us a ticket number.
In that room, a very rude and incompetent woman (I will explain why later on) checked our documents, she seemed to struggle when she seen we have done the application form online and she had to ask her colleague (especially about the payment) she then asked for both our passports and life in the uk sheet (my wife got only one wrong), she then took the ticket number we have had from the reception and gave us another sheet with a number on it. (she didn’t check the form, just looked at it didn’t even go through it ). Anyway that took about 5 mins, she then asked us to go to the first floor at the payment desk then wait for our number to be called ( the number was on the sheet she gave us).
At the point my wife started stressing about the payment, saying why do we need to go to the desk and we done it online etc… before I try to calm her down or reassure her we was at the front of that desk. The nice woman took only the first page of the application form (where it had the payment details) she was pleased that we have done it online and even thanked us for saving her time, she asked us to wait few minutes just to get something printed out, then she gave us a receipt and asked us to take a seat and wait for our number to be called out
I have to say this was the hardest bit! waiting!!!, as we arrived early and everything seemed to go smoothly, we assumed that we would get to see the case worker before our appointment ( 11:00am) we were sat at the waiting room since 10:00 am, so we had about an hour to do nothing but stress
, anyway around 11:01am the case worker called our number. She seemed nice and very young
anyway she asked us for the application form and the documents: we gave her the application form, the payment receipt, both passports, 2 photographs of my wife and one of me and the life in the uk test.
She looked at them, then asked us documents that prove we been living together. I said to her we have them sorted, a pile contains documents with both our names on, another one with our names separate and a backup one with more documents, she told us to give her with both our names on and if she needed more she would tell us.
So we gave have these documents: (all in joint names)
• Bank statement Nov 2008
• Tax credit letter July 2009
• Npwoer letter December 2009
• United utilities letter February 2010
• HM revenue and custom letter may 2010
• A receipt that we got with an order we made through Amazonco.uk June 2010
• Npower letter September 2010
She was writing and ticking ( a sheet she had) as she was going through those documents. She then asked us if we had anything between January 2009 and May 2009, we said yes but not in joint names, she said yes that’s absolutely fine, and she only wanted two ( one of each name), so we gave her
• A HSBC letter April 2009 on my name
• Hasting direct insurance March 2009 on my wife’s name
At the point she told us she has everything she needed and she only need to do the boring bit and putting everything in her computer, I also told her that I have all the photocopies, she said that would help and took a photocopy of each documents we gave her (both passports, life in the uk and the documents mentioned above, we were surprised that we didn’t even need to show any bank statement or wage slips). While she was on her computed typing, me and wife were just chatting and joking about ( I don’t know if that was due to stress or we actually forgot where we were ), we were arguing where we should go and eat, at the point the case worker, started laughing and told her she wish she had a day off as she was starving and suggested a place ( her favourite restaurant) we went there and it was GREAT!, that’s just to show it was very relaxed and informal.
After few minutes she told her, she’s done, she has to wait for more checks to be done downstairs (whatever that means) but everything seems to be fine however she cannot give us the approval until those checks are done and she gave us all the documents back apart from my wife's passport, the photographs and the photocopies obviously.
We took a seat in waiting room, at that point my wife started stressing again after about 15 minutes the case worker called us and told us that everything was fine and she is going to grant the IRL ( to be honest I didn’t pay attention to what she was saying after that…) I just asked her if we could go out and comeback to pick up the passport, she said that’s fine it should take around 45 minutes but we didn’t have to come back here ( first floor) we just need to go downstairs where we had our documents first checked ( the rude incompetent lady remember? ).
Anyway we thanked her and we left the building, I did double check with the receptionist and she told us, that when we comeback we just go to that room straightaway no need to sign in at the reception.
Anyway after about an hour, walking in Liverpool One and finalising the AN form (as we were sending the application form for British citizenship the same day) we went to an Apple shop to check the UKBA website ( for any changes regarding the AN form or the fees, everything was the same).
We then went back to the building, went through security again and walked in in that room, we took a sit, the woman looked at us, then another person walked in, she called his number, and bloody hell she was soooo bloody rude to him, type of person I hate my job and hate emigrants, just attitude (it was something wrong with that’s person’s passport but the way she was talking to him
She then called our number, gave us the passport (not even a smile or anything like that) I then asked her does this IRL has a UKBA number or reference number, she just didn’t bother reply had to ask her again and she didn’t seem to know what I was on about. But it gets worse!!! At that point we sat in that room, sorting the documents for the AN form (putting everything together, documents needed etc…) she then told us (shouting actually) that we cannot apply for naturalisation today, I said to her I am sure we can as I am British citizen and my wife has been in the UK for over 3 years, we don’t need to wait for 12 months, she replied back to me saying : you are wrong you have to wait 12 months regardless. At that point my wife started stressing I told her not to worry I am sure she is wrong, let’s just leave and phone the Citizenship department, after waiting over 20mins on the phone we managed to speak to them who confirmed to us that it was fine to send the application form today in our case. I was fuming!!!! We posted the letter, but I didn’t want to let it go, we went to cyber café ( my wife just wanted us to leave it, but I couldn’t) I printed the page where it states that we didn’t have to wait for a year. Went back to the building and to that room (where she was), she seemed surprised to see us ( as we had the passport etc…) before she opened her mouth, I gave her that paper I printed and told her : “You were wrong and next time get your facts right before you give false informationâ€
