ILR Success at Croydon PEO 31st Oct HSMP + Tier 1

[lizrich002]

I got my ILR approved today together with my husband. My visa was due to expire on the 21st of November. I entered the UK on the 19th of December 2007. I am the main applicant with my husband as dependant. We also have a little boy born in the UK who was not added to the application.

Appointment was for 8:15 and we arrived there about 7:35 but was allowed in. Payment was made about 8:00, BRP done about 8:30 and caseworker called us about 8:50. We were all done by 10:20 and was given just one standard approval letter.

The caseworker pulled down the curtain almost immediately and left. I wanted to ask why we got just one letter and waited a while for her, then decided to go to the customer service desk where it was confirmed that we only need one letter. The letter was in my name but it did state that the BRP for myself and my dependant will be received in 5 to 7 working days.

I wanted them to send the BRP to my office but the system would not accept my office address for my husband so we had to use home address for his and my office address for mine. We'll see how that goes.

Absence over 5 years was 12 days.

Documents submitted (originals and copies)
Completed SET O form
12 months payslip from one job
2 months payslip from 2nd job (though claimed for 3 months as I misplaced one payslip so I submitted my contract letter in addition to the entry on my bank statement to prove this). I stated this in the covering letter and the caseworker accepted it. I would still have earned enough points without this one payment anyway.
12 months bank statement
Life in UK pass notification.
Cohabitation documents - 2 documents in joint names for 2010, 2 in joint names for 2011 and 3 for 2012. In addition, I submitted 1 document each for 2010, 2011 and 2012 in individual names. Total cohab document - 13.
I just took all of them because I wasn't sure what they would want. The caseworker just took all the documents anyway.

I took other documents such as p60, initial approval letter, letter of employment from my main job, marriage certificate etc but just kept them in a separate folder (without photocopies). I wasn't willing to supply any document that was not required and would not waste my money photocopying them. I just took them in case they asked and it would then be up to the caseworker to photocopy them.

A few points that I think might help others:
When I was booking my appointment after trying for 3 nights, I chose 8:15 and by the time I finished putting in all the details, I got a message that the appointment was no longer available. I went back and successfully booked for 8:30. I then checked my email and found that both had been booked but only the 8:30 was showing on my UKBA account.
I just left it and did nothing planning to just go for the 8:15 appt. I would have cancelled the 8:30 one but it was the only one showing on my acct.
I then got a notice of cancellation on Friday the 26th for the 8:30 one. I panicked so called UKBA and after about 20 mins on the phone, a rude customer service rep told me it was cancelled because I booked 2 appts but she could not confirm if the other appt was still intact. I explained the situation but it didn't help. I just concluded that as long as I don't receive a cancellation notice for the 8:15 one, I will just go. I then received a text reminder on Monday the 29th to confirm the 8:15 appt.
The appt however never showed up in my UKBA acct.

An issue also came up when the caseworker called and said my total payments is not up to what I was claiming. She was looking at the total payment on the payslip instead of the basic pay and because I receive childcare vouchers, the total was significantly less. I corrected her and she said she was going to seek advice from her seniors. I would not have had enough points if she used this figure so I panicked a little bit.
She came back and didn't tell me anything but I could see her re-inputting the values in the system.
She then called me to confirm where I want my biometrics to be posted to and it was at this point she then said that the total was even more than what I had claimed but that since it was still within the same point bracket, it didn't matter. No apologies for worrying me unnecessarily.

I was also not sure of using the 90 day concession because the difference between my visa stamp date and date of arrival in UK was exactly 28 days but sought advice from this forum which was a great help.

Thank you to everyone that have posted their experiences and answered my questions.
I will be happy to answer any questions.

[linkers]

Congratulations on getting your ILR lizrich002 and thanks for sharing your success story on the forum.

[arifahmmed]

Congratulations lizrich002 for your ILR and specially telling us your experience.