My husband was successful on the 29th November 2012 in getting his ILR at the PEO in Liverpool. I wanted to share our experience in case it will help anyone else.
Background: I am British and my husband is from South Korea, we received his spouse visa and came to the UK on the 22nd December 2010.
We collected information during this time and transferred all utility bills and council tax to joint names and opened joint bank accounts. During the two years my husband was here in the UK we did not collect any public funds and were renting our flat. We also had our first baby six months ago here in the UK.
On the day: We booked our appointment for 11am and arrived around 10.30am. We were greeted by security men and went through a metal detector. They were all very friendly and not intimidating at all.
After that we were given a ticket number and told to wait in the waiting area to see the staff who would check our documents.
Our number was called within 2 minutes and the lady who checked the documents was also very nice. She asked if we had lived together for the whole two years, to which we answered yes. She asked if the documents we had to prove cohabitation spanned the whole two years, again we answered yes.
She checked our passports and my husband's Life in the UK test pass certificate and gave us his score (22 out of 24 - which he beamed at) and then gave us another number and told us to wait to be called over to another window to make our payment.
Our number was again called within 2 minutes to make payment. This was fast and there were no problems using the card we had given which was a debit card (I had gone to my bank two days prior to inform them the amount of the transaction that would be taken out for my husband's visa).
The man then asked us to sit down and wait again for our number to be called to give our documents to be checked by the officer for ILR.
We waited about 2 hours to be seen by the ILR officer (sorry don't know their actual title). We gave her our documents, listed below, and the copies of all documents and informed her that if she needed anything further we had literally brought every piece of paper that we owned. She smiled at this and told us she liked organised people.
We again sat down in the waiting area as she did a quick check of the documents provided. She then called us over and told my husband to wait for his number to be called to have his biometrics taken. This was done in 5 minutes, my husband went in alone but we were told I could go in with him if we wished.
We waited a total of 15 minutes for her to check all the documents before she called us both over a final time and told us that our application had been successful. She was very friendly and asked us if we had any further questions. We asked how long it would take to get the BRP - she said about ten days in total. We also asked how long my husband would have to be in the UK if he was thinking about citizenship - she informed us one more year from now (three in total). I did get a bit emotional when she told us we had been successful as I had been so stressed about the whole visa application and she was very nice, smiled and said she understood what a big deal it must be for us. We wished each other a very merry christmas and then left. She gave us all of our documents back and only took the copy of my husband's passport that we had provided.
We received my husband's BRP card eleven days after our appointment and are thinking about framing it (joke
).Documents provided:
Photos - two of husband, one of me - all with full names on back
Husband's passport
My passport
Marriage certificate
My birth certificate
Our daughter's birth certificate - to prove she was born in the UK and is registered as a British citizen
6 months of all bank statements - my bank account, husband's bank account, our joint savings account, our normal joint account
6 months of all payslips - husband's and mine
Life in the UK test certificate
Proof of cohabitation - joint water bill, joint gas and electric bill, joint council tax bill, joint telephone bill, separate letters for both of us from our bank, dentist and both of our NHS cards - these were spaced out to cover the two years
Letter from me explaining our situation and the documents provided (kind of cover letter)
P60s for both me and my husband from the last year
Letter from my company outlining my maternity leave which I am currently on, the start and end dates and the amounts which I am to be paid, also stating my position is open for me to go back to when I wish
Letter from husband's company stating he is not eligible for paternity pay as he had not worked there long enough (to explain why he had to take two weeks unpaid leave and therefore had a month with a much lower payslip amount
We put the documents in the order above and gave an envelope with copies of all.
We also took lots of other documents in case they were needed but they were never asked for, these were:
All bank statements to cover the whole two years
All payslips to cover the whole two years - from husband's previous company
All letters received from utility companies and council tax bills covering the whole two years
I was glad I was so organised and had taken extras as even though they weren't needed it settled my nerves knowing that if they needed them, I had them.
I just wanted to say thank you for everyone on these boards for their help and information, we couldn't have done it without you.
Good luck to anyone else going through it all!