Thanks to all the contributors on this forum. It has been a great help to myself and many others in a similar situation.
HSMP(pre nov) + Tier 1 + Tier 1(second extension). My appointment (+1 dependent) was at 815am at the Croydon PEO.
Got there at exactly 745am. Took about 10min to get through security and the waiting room. Spent another 10min at the first check counter where they basically asked for your appointment number and then looked to see that I had the most recent application form and then took my passport to do some checks on the system. They then stamped the payment page and give me a ticket to take to the cashier. Spend about another 10min in the queue waiting to pay. No problems when i finally got the cashier. Got at receipt at exactly 815am.
I was then directed to the first floor seating area and told to wait on my number to be called. At 845am, my number was called, along with 10 others, and told to go to the second floor instead!!!.
Heard my ticket number at 900am and went to the counter. Greated the case worker who then asked for application form and passports. She looked at my last leave to remain (Tier 1 - with Bio metric card), and then said I had ticket the wrong box in Section 3. (I had ticked HSMP under JR). She said i should tick Tier 1 in Section 3A. I already knew this was going to be a problem as this would require me to fill out the entire section 9 and LIUK test etc. Needless to say I quickly pointed out to her that the HSMP JR applied to my case. She did not seem to have any idea of what I was speaking about, and told me to tick the Tier 1 box. I handed her my HSMP approval letter and the HSMP JR policy document. She took it away and came back a couple of minutes later.
She then asked for salary statements, bank statements, and P60s. Knowing that she was not familiar with the 3 months vs 12 months of required documents, i decided to hand her all 12 months of documents and save myself the grief of any further request. (The microphone across the glass barrier wasnt working, so we were already battling the guessing game of what exactly she was asking for). We were then told to wait in sitting area and listen for our number again.
At 945am, we heard the number again and went to the counter. She then asked for proof of cohabitation. i pointed out that the bank statements we had previous given her was a joint account with both my wife and my name on it. She didnt look at the name on the account before!!! She said need more documentation (I guess to save her embarrassment). This is when i pulled out the back up folder. (2 years worth of documents). Gave her out letters from HRMC coding notice, Council tax bill, 3 bank statements for 2011, 2011 and 2009 from a different bank, and some other misc letters from insurance etc that I had. At that point I was prepared to give her the entire folder, so that she would have to ask for any additional documents again. She asked us to wait another 30 min while she does some further checks.
At 1015am, we heard our number again, and went to the counter. She said out ILR was being granted and to come back in 1 hour to collect the passports.
Went for a walk and came back in at 11am and it was ready. So all in all, a good result. Now on to the Nationality Checking Service appoint for my daughter on Monday!!!.
Lessons learnt
1. Get there on time - the website said the building was open at 8am. So i thought 745 was a good bet. There were already many people in the building ahead of me!!. However, they will only let you in 30 min before your appointment.
2. Dont be afriad to stand up for yourself if they try to get you to change something in your application. I was confident I could meet the PBS criteria if I had to apply under the tier 1, but as a matter of principle, I was not willing to back down with in the caseworker insisting that I should be considered under tier 1 and had to fill in section 9.
3. Finally, but most important lesson of all. - "Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst". Walk with as much documents as you have. I had a 3 folder system. 1st was the main app and main docs. 2nd was the back up cohabitation + marriage cert etc. 3rd was any other doc I could think of that someone could possible ever ask for. Thankfully, I only had to go as far as folder 2.
Anyhow, best of luck for all in either applying for citizenship or for those who still have to go through the process.
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