ILR success at Croydon, WP + Tier 2 ICT, 3 dependants

[danielte]

Got my ILR today. Here is my experience.

Appointment was at 12 PM. Arrived at Lunar House at 11:20 AM, but they wouldn't let me in until 11:30 PM. Did not take any of my dependents with me. After airport style checks including removal of my belt, I was let in and first went to a counter where some preliminary checks were done including my application form, bank statements, pay slips. Gave a token number and asked to go to the first floor for payment. I made the payment of £3375 through my VISA card and then I was asked to wait in the waiting hall.

I was called at 12:05 PM and my caseworker meant business only and absolutely nothing else. He asked the following documents only
1. Employment letter (with SOC code and my current salary and clauses that said that I am paid at the rates mentioned in SOC and that I am continually required for employment)
2. Payslips - 3 months
3. Bank statements - 3 months
4. P60s - He asked for 5 but I had only 4, but he never made a fuss about it
5. 2 years council tax - for cohabitation proof
6. Life in the UK pass certificates - 2
7. All passports and biometric residence permits

After 10 minutes, he gave back all my originals except the employment letter and asked me to wait. Then he called me at 1 PM and told me that my application was successful and I can collect it 45 minutes later. At around 2 PM, my token number was called and all the passports handed over to me. Checked for the ILR stamp and then exited Lunar house.

My case was straight forward - same employer for 5 years throughout and only 84 days outside the country all on personal leave. I had photocopies of all docs which he took gleefully from me, otherwise this would have led to delays. He took the excel sheet containing my absences out of the country, again he was happy to have it.

They did not give me back my biometric residence permits, when asked about it, they told that they will retain it and cancel it.

[sensm]

Hi Danielte,

Many congratulation!!
I am going for my ILR case in dec and is similar to your one.
I fulfill all the requirements mentioned in your post.

I never had biometric residence permits.
do one need to have this biometric residence permits?

please reply
regards
Sensm

[danielte]

Hi sensm,

Biometric residence permits are not necessary for doing your ILR. Your UK visa can be in the form of passport stamps or in the form of residence permits. In my case, I never had a residence permit until June 2010. My work permit expired in this period and when I went for renewal, they asked me to do my biometrics and gave a residence permit card instead of a passport stamp.

Cheers and all the best for your application.

[sensm]

Hi Danielte,

Thanks for clarification.

One more thing-
you paid fee using card.
which card - cred or debit?
which one is cheap and best method to pay fee
credt/debit/postal order/bank draft

Thanks again

regards
sensm

[danielte]

I paid using my debit card and in my opinion that is the fastest and safest. I had called my bank the day prior to the appointment and told them that I will be making a large payment the day after. If you don't do this, there are chances that though there is sufficient balance in your account, they may decline the transaction due to anti-fraud alerts in the system.

Postal orders are also safe but they cost more to purchase them.

Credit cards are safer too, but surely no one would want to default on the card payment and attract a huge interest, so debit card payment is the best in my opinion.

[sensm]

Hi Danielte,

Thanks again for your reply.

Is any minimum bank balance reuired?(I have some bank loans and mortgage, paying all instalments well on time , no issues as such).
Failed credit check while applying for mobile contract and for argos card.
I dont know why?
I never failed any payment deadline and all bill payments are on direct debit?
I think, the owner of previous house was having some payment issues or dues,but nothing to do with me or anythin I am aware of or ignored intentionally?
I purchased my house 3 years back through estate agent.

regards
sensm

[danielte]

Neither the website nor the application form talks about any minimum bank balance. So, the caseworkers have to take a subjective decision. As such the important entry they look for in your bank statement is the salary credit. If you carry your main bank statement from where important payments are made and where your salary is credited, you are good and that should be enough. In case you have active holdings with multiple banks, carry them too.

[wp2tier1]

Got my ILR today. Here is my experience.

Appointment was at 12 PM. Arrived at Lunar House at 11:20 AM, but they wouldn't let me in until 11:30 PM. Did not take any of my dependents with me. After airport style checks including removal of my belt, I was let in and first went to a counter where some preliminary checks were done including my application form, bank statements, pay slips. Gave a token number and asked to go to the first floor for payment. I made the payment of £3375 through my VISA card and then I was asked to wait in the waiting hall.

I was called at 12:05 PM and my caseworker meant business only and absolutely nothing else. He asked the following documents only
1. Employment letter (with SOC code and my current salary and clauses that said that I am paid at the rates mentioned in SOC and that I am continually required for employment)
2. Payslips - 3 months
3. Bank statements - 3 months
4. P60s - He asked for 5 but I had only 4, but he never made a fuss about it
5. 2 years council tax - for cohabitation proof
6. Life in the UK pass certificates - 2
7. All passports and biometric residence permits

After 10 minutes, he gave back all my originals except the employment letter and asked me to wait. Then he called me at 1 PM and told me that my application was successful and I can collect it 45 minutes later. At around 2 PM, my token number was called and all the passports handed over to me. Checked for the ILR stamp and then exited Lunar house.

My case was straight forward - same employer for 5 years throughout and only 84 days outside the country all on personal leave. I had photocopies of all docs which he took gleefully from me, otherwise this would have led to delays. He took the excel sheet containing my absences out of the country, again he was happy to have it.

They did not give me back my biometric residence permits, when asked about it, they told that they will retain it and cancel it.

HI danielte,

Congratulations on your success and thanks for sharing the details. I too have appointment in Croydon . When I booked the appointment one of the conditions said : "Bring all the dependants registered in your application with you to this appointment."

Also the ILR FAQs on this site mention that dependants are not required to be taken along. How did you decide that you did not need to take along the dependants? Is it safer to take them along? Or is there any official informartion that you don't need to take dependants along?

Also I am on Tier 1 and have P60's for all five years. Do I still need the employer letter?

Thanks in advance.

[danielte]

Dependents are required only if you are going for a biometric appointment which requires taking photos and finger prints and ILR is a non biometric appointment, so you don't have to take any dependents with you. I too had the same confusion and I read and re-read several posts in this forum which clearly said that dependents are not required - only on the back of these posts I decided not to take them with me. It is quite a tricky decision because the appointment letter would say to bring the dependents whereas you have to decide the other way. This again has been explained in one of the posts -the letters they send are generic letters and do not cater to the specific requirements of each appointment type, so they request you to bring the dependents which would have covered all the cases.

w.r.t. employment letter, this is a mandatory document for Tier 2 but only a preferred letter for Tier 1. So, the choice is really yours. If you don't have to scale the Himalayas to get the letter from your employer, you should go for it. ILR appointment costs a lot of money and you would want to be safe than being sorry. In case you are not able to get your employment letter, you should try and get the HMRC letter, but beware - this takes about 3 to 4 weeks, so you should start well in advance.

wish you luck..

[sensm]

Hi Danielte,

Thanks for all the information.

I booked my appointment over phone amd mentioned all my family members name,got confirmation via sms and ref number.
Do they send confirmation via post as well?
Do i need to take attested copies of my documents or just photocopies?
if attested ,then who i need to contact for this service?

regards

sensm

[danielte]

I booked my appointment over the internet and I did not get a letter by post, I only got an SMS. I took a printout of the internet webpage with the reference number and it was OK. If you take a printout of your emails, it should be OK for you. It is unlikely that they will send you a letter by post.

Attested copies are not required since you will be carrying all the originals with you. Attestation will be required only if you are not able to produce any originals. For example, I did not have my p60s in original and so I had to get it attested by the CFO of our company.

Take all photocopies with you to avoid delays.

[Nov2011]

Hi,

Congrats....

I had few queries :

What documents can support cohabitation?
P60 needs to be original or printout of scanned copies(original)works? I understand you got them attested, were they duplicate copies or prints?

Thanks for your help!

[danielte]

What documents can support cohabitation?
- Council tax, utility bills - electricity, telephone, broadband, NHS letters, any Home office letters, credit card statements, bank statements, insurance payments..

P60 needs to be original or printout of scanned copies(original)works? I understand you got them attested, were they duplicate copies or prints?
- If it's not original, it is better to get them attested. Mine were not originals, my company folks printed it in the standard format and also attested it.

[sensm]

Hi Danielte,

Thanks a lot for all the info.

I have P60 for 4 years and P45 for one year.
Let me explai to you.
My work permit starts from 9th jan 2007 to 9jan 2012.
I changed job and started with new employer from 14 april 2008 till now.
My previous employer issued me two p45 forms, one from april 07 to 31march 2008 and second from 1st april to saturday,11th april 2008. My new employer had data from 1st to 11th april 08 in the P60 form issued for apr08 to mar 09.
For apr 07 to mar 08 i have p45 issued by my previous employer and all salary slips. Tax deduction matched with the form.
I was not aware of all these things.
My appointmet is booked and i am visiting HO on 15th dec 2011.

Is this cause any problem?

There is no service break. I applied for fresh leave to remain within 6months and got letter and passport stamed with new fresh leave to remain till sep 2013. My new employer NHS applied my new leave to remain for 60 months in sep 2008.

Waiting quick reply.
Many thanks and regards

Sensm

[Nov2011]

Thanks for the reply, now my p60 is sorted.

I am still not sure about cohabitation.

The documents like council tax bills and letters from NHS are what I have, but are they needed for each individual month of two years? Since the council tax bills come once for the whole year, is this ok?

Thanks

[Travis]

@Nov2011

I Recently got my ILR and took lots of docs as cohab proof.

But from what I gathered ... from reading and talking to others is that they generally look for Utility bills or bank statements that is addressed to you and your spouse in the last 2 years.

Both names doesn't need to be on the same doc, you can provide for an example (seperate) bank statements sent to you and your wife .

Pick a few covering the last 2 years if you can do so. so for an example, a doc dated 2009 Dec, another from maybe July 2010, another Dec 2010 , one from june 2010 ,then another from nov 2011.... hope you get what i'm tryign to say. You simply need to show that you two have been receiving letters at the same address for the last two years.

Best would be for you to take everything you have in your back up document set.