ILR Success - Croydon PEO - Self Employed, Tier 1 (general)

[KayNa]

This is a summary of my outcome. If you want more info on a section please see next post.

HSMP > Tier 1 (general) > ILR (self-employed)

Rough timings are below, don't assume your timing will be the same, overheard some people behind me saying how it was much quieter than usual when we were going through security, so it might take longer for you.

10:40am - arrived at PEO

10:45am - went through security (take everything out of your pockets, remove belts etc. to save time)

10:50am - went up to a counter where they stamp your application, give it back to you and give you a receipt to take up to the 3rd floor

10.55am - arrived upstairs, told to wait in large cafe area. Sat down for 30 seconds and my number was called to go back to where I went initially to go up to a counter and pay. The staff laughed about how my number was called as soon as I sat down and I said "oh well, it's good exercise" and they laughed again - good not to take the process too seriously and be friendly with the staff.

11am - paid for my application, not problems there (paid with direct debit Visa card)

11.30am - told to go to another counter to hand in my application, photos and all the evidence that I was submitting. The stack of application and evidence was handed back to me and I was told to go to the next area to wait for biometric test

11.35am - as soon as I walked into next area my number was called out so I went through some more doors and sat in a small cubicle to have my photo and fingerprints taken. Handed in my application and documents and told to wait in cafe area until my name was called out.

11.40am - quickly went outside to shopping centre to get some cash, then ended up buying some food from there as I heard someone else saying the cafe food wasn't that great. Later I had a look at the cafe food and didn't eat any but it looked fine to me. Not 5 star michelin chef quality, but for a place like that it seemed fine. Cakes, drinks, sandwiches etc.

12.10pm - got back into the building by showing my receipt number and told to not wait in queue and just go through to security check. Very friendly security.

1.10pm - my number was called. I went back to where I initially had my application etc. put into a stack and was given back my application with letter of approval.

1.15pm - checked my passport and all documents were inside plastic sleeve, thanked staff and left building.

All up, it took about 3 hours and would have been faster if they weren't having technical issues.
I overheard someone else saying that the process usually takes between 1-3 hours and that most of the delay is due to IT issues so I decided not to worry if my application took many hours and to believe it was due to IT problems if that happened (was anxious about my application as it was a bit complicated).

[KayNa]

10:40am - arrived at PEO

10:45am - went through security (take everything out of your pockets, remove belts etc. to save time)

10:50am - went up to a counter where they stamp your application, give it back to you and give you a receipt to take up to the 3rd floor (an applicant came back down telling a staff member that their application hadn't been stamped so they gave it to the person who was serving me and asked them to restamp it. The applicant asked me to move aside, leaned over and watched to make sure the application was stamped, so might be an idea to check they don't forget and make you have to come back down later)

11.05am - sat in the same room waiting for my number to be called again. Most others were only waiting around 5 minutes, after about 30 minutes one of the staff members came over and asked what my number was. I told her and also told her how my number didn't show in the display above the counter when I was paying and was showing a different number. For some reason my number wasn't on the automated system for the whole day even though I was on the system so a staff member had to come out and call my number each time it was my turn. They apologised for this and said they'd only moved upstairs a few days ago and were having teething problems. I was very polite about it and said I didn't mind, and they were quite helpful for the rest of the day whenever the issue came up again.

11.35am - as soon as I walked into next area my number was called out so I went through some more doors and sat in a small cubicle to have my photo and fingerprints taken. I found the further the process went the more the level of stress of the staff members increased. Not sure if that's the nature of their jobs or because of all the problems they were having with their systems. Kept overhearing conversations with guys in construction outfits about how cables had been blown out, how this or that wasn't working and no one knew why etc.

2.10pm - my number was called. I went back to where I initially had my application etc. put into a stack and very non-ceremoniously handed back my stack. I kept waiting for them to tell me what my outcome was and instead they just said "your ??? will arrive in the post in a few days" and I didn't hear what "???" was and asked "what does that mean? what's the outcome of my application?" and they said "oh, it's all done, you've got the visa" and I let out a big sigh of relief and was grinning like an idiot for the rest of the day.
For some reason I thought they'd release streamers and fireworks upon handing back a successful application but forgot that for them it's just another meaningless part of their job - don't expect them to share your joy!


DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED
• Passport
• 2 photos
• Class 2 NICs bills from past year
• HMRC Self-Assessment welcome letter with UTR
• Accountant letter which included:
- Cover Letter describing how my business works (many clients depositing payment into my account, being invoiced by emails or handwritten receipts), how I use my bank accounts (savings for income, other account for expenses), stating that I keep all of my business profits, that I've been paying NIC bills, that I'm self employed, and that my previous leave is evidenced by letter from my previous employer and a letter from myself for absence from UK since I've been self employed, and also a note saying invoices in the form of emails are legally acceptable and meet statutory requirements
- Business Accounts (basically a profit and loss summary, witch breakdown of income and expenses over the past 12 months)
- Invoice / income summary. I had over 300 invoices so they were broken down by my accountant based on bank statements, and presented in a table showing profit and loss per bank statement
• Letter from my previous employed saying my absence from UK was within terms of my employment contract
• Letter from myself giving reasons for my recent absence whilst self employed (death in the family, vacation), and that I was still earning an income whilst away
• Bank statements for previous 12 months (I got very lucky because I went to my bank and asked for printouts for both of my accounts over the past 12 months, and for them to stamp and sign them, just as backup even though I had the statements that were posted to me. A few days before the PEO I managed to lose all of my statements for one of my accounts and still have no idea what happened to them, but luckily I had those printed statements as backup so I recommend getting copies from your bank just in case)
• Printouts of all of the above mentioned email invoices, attached to photocopies of the bank statements which they appear on and in the same order as the bank statement so the caseworker could easily check them
• Letter from the venue which I rent to run my business saying that I've been renting from them for the past few years, how much I've paid for the venue hire and that no one else is involved in the running of my business

DOCUMENTS I HAD WITH ME BUT DIDN'T SUBMIT
• Enrolment forms from all of my clients, stating their name, address, date of birth and contact details. I was concerned about data protection acts so held on to them just in case they asked for them
• Photocopies of everything except email invoices. They never asked for these in the end so I still have them. There was too much to photocopy for the invoices, and the guidelines state that applications "should" submit photocopies, not "must" so I knew it wouldn't be an issue.
• Previous contracts of employment

[Kevin24]

Congratulations. Enjoyed reading your Experience. Thank You.