Edited in retrospect on 12th Sept 2011, 3:55 pm
Hello,
I have good news to report back. In summary, I just received confirmation from UKBA that my Bankers draft was cleared for payment on the same date as my acknowledgement letter was raised on 12th Aug. The application has then been sent to Liverpool to one of the settlement teams for consideration and that is the status as of now.
Lesson of the story is to please check thoroughly every single minute detail relating to your application. And if you're going to use Bankers Draft or Postal order remember to make it payable to exactly what it says in the form and not mix it up like I ended up somehow.
I'll write a more detailed response below of how I went about confirming this for others on the forum.
Here's hoping that the email confirmation I recieved is the end of this matter and that I don't get any more unexpected nasty shocks like this one and just get my ILR soon. Thanks to everyone concerned for their assistance so far. Its much appreciated!
Hunter
In detail -
This morning started with being told 2 different answers on the standard 0870 Croydon number by 2 different advisers. After explaining, one said to just sit tight until UKBA contacted me as no possible action from my part could be taken. The second one said to write everything I explained to her on the phone and post it to the Croydon Lunar House Address and wait for a response.
Not getting a satisfactory answer, I then looked up the number for the North East, Yorkshire & Humber Region Customer Services & Complaints Unit on the UKBA website, since i'm based in Yorkshire. Link ->
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/about ... complaints
I called them, explained my situation very clearly and complained that I was not being given the correct answer and my intention was not to track progress of the application but just to confirm that the Payment Charging Unit cleared the payment through. The guy was very friendly (maybe I was fortunate) and heard me out and then said that there was no way for me to contact the Payments Charging Unit but he told me to email everything I explained to him clearly to the email address provided in the link above and mark it to the attention of Customer Services Unit. On receipt they will then forward it to the relevant department and I should then expect a reply soon (there are no defined response times and they can can take as long as they like).
I wrote a very clear and to the point explaination of the slight wording mix up I made and I made it clear that I did not want my application withdrawn or sent back. All I wanted them to do was to confirm that despite the slight mix up, the charging unit was able to encash the draft or will be able to encash it. I also indicated that i had been to my bank already and the manager their said that drafts were as good as cash and word mix up was still good enough for it to be claimed by UKBA if they try to do so. And since my bank can't tell me whether its been encashed the only option left to me after waiting for over 5 weeks and getting more and more anxious was to contact them and get some sort of confirmation that it was indeed ok.
I also attached scanned copies of my Acknowledgement letter, the Bank draft I posted and my last Biometric Visa Id card to show an intime application before my visa which expired soon after applying.
After sending the email, i got an automated response confirming receipt of my email. Not stopping here, I then went to my local Citizens Advice Bureau and spoke to an immigration adviser because I was wondering if I made one of them call UKBA whether they'd be able to confirm payment cleared on the phone itself. The adviser got fobbed off from the main Croydon number with requesting me to write a letter into Croydon. She then called the Sheffield complaints number that I had called earlier...luckily the adviser ended up speaking to the same guy as I spoke with earlier. He said that he had done some checks (coz he had my application ref no., name & date of birth) with the Payment Charging unit and somehow had the information that my Draft was cleared on the 12th of Aug (application sent 9th Aug). And also that the application was then sent to Liverpool Settlement teams for consideration, he told me on his own accord and I didn't ask for it. I then requested him to write me an email confirming this and he did. So now I have an email from UKBA saying that payment was taken on 12th Aug. to avoid any future nastiness regarding this. And before anyone asks there is no name in the email and neither any personal email address. Its the same email address I emailed to.
Thats it I guess. I hope this is helpful for everyone on here.
Kind regards,
Hunter
