Director ILR using SET(O) at Croydon - Success

[tanere]

Applied for ILR using SET(O) at Croydon this weekend.
Previously held 3 + 2 Year Tier 1 General.
Applied ~20 Days before expiry. (4 years 11 months with Tier 1)
Sole Director and shareholder of a Ltd. Company trading for more than 2 years.

Documents submitted:

a. Usual suspects;
Photo, Passport, Biometric (IF you have one), Police Reg (IF you are required to reg.), Life in The UK pass letter. Already passed the English requirement as a Tier 1 General holder.

b. Absences;
Less than 90 days of absence in 5 years, divided equally, i.e. ~17 days every year. Listed every one of them in 6.2, cross checked with the stamps in my passports and put "Holiday" as reason for absences. I left 6.3 BLANK. Did NOT submit any letter, explanation or evidence documents. (*)

c. Tier 1 related documents;
Latest Company Accounts
Showing last two years as normal accounts do, the accounting period was my company’s standard period. meaning they did not exactly fell into the 12 consecutive months in the last 15 months period. Maybe the accounts were not very relevant with my application, not sure, I have provided this to actually show the company was trading, earning money and paying lots of taxes, of course the accounts were signed by me and signed/stamped by AAT accountant. AAT is actually a recognized body, but only mentioned in Page 19 of http://is.gd/BIvvjV.

Accountant Letter
Confirming my status as the only director and shareholder and personal earnings from the company for the qualifying period, signed/stamped by AAT accountant on Accountancy Letterhead paper.

Personal Bank Statements
2 sheets only, showing 2 lump sum dividend payments in two months.

Business Bank Statements
12 sheets covering the Company account dates and also showing 2 dividend payments made to me.

Dividend Vouchers
Signed by me and signed/stamped by AAT Accountant.

Did NOT submit P60, Payslips or any documents not specified above.

d. Finance related documents as requested in Section 11A;
Personal Saving Account Statement showing I have enough savings to support myself. (3 sheets for the last 3 months)


My Appointment was at 10:00
Arrived at 9:30, case registration, biometrics were all completed by 10:00
My application was approved and I have collected the letter by 10:40.
I am now waiting for my Biometric to arrive next (this) week.



(*) As a note, absences were my No 1 stress source, as it is pretty hard to get documents for events that occurred 4-5 years ago. As Tier 1's probably most of you have made changes in your employments a few times, climbing the ladders quickly, as fresh immigrants arriving in a new country we start lower than we deserve and changing jobs is almost the only option to get recognized. Anyway, I really had trouble reaching out to previous employers, especially large corporates tend to only give template letters, which are not in line with UKBA requirements even if they did provide one. So in the end I have decided to not provide these letters unless asked and hence did not submit anything. However I have carried some documentation with me in case of an emergency. I am very happy that I was not asked for these.

I hope this helps you, provided for your information only. this is my experience and does not mean you will get the same results with the same documents etc.

Note: My BRP (Biometric Residence Permit) has arrived today; 25 November 2013. 9 calendar days after the approval.

[Amber]

Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

[mrehanashraf]

Hi,

Did you claim required points for Income by Dividends only? Or you don't need to show income?

Thanks
Rehan

[chowkal]

Congratulations

[tanere]

Hi,

Did you claim required points for Income by Dividends only? Or you don't need to show income?

Thanks
Rehan

Hi,

As Tier 1 General, I needed to show income and claim points.

I've claimed required points by Dividends only.

Regards,

[rahmatullah]

Hi Tanere,

Congratulations.

Regarding "Already passed the English requirement as a Tier 1 General holder."... how did you meet that, was it a degree, if so can you specifiy which degree and what documents did you submit, eg; uknaric etc..?

I have the same situation I have proven it earlier as tier 1 general but not sure if I have to take the exam.

Thank you

[rahmatullah]

Hi Tanere,

Congratulations again!,

Couple of more queries :

1. Regarding your statement "especially large corporates tend to only give template letters, which are not in line with UKBA requirements even if they did provide one", can you please share what are UKBA requirements for an paid leave absence letter, what are the main contents it must have, if you can share a template would be grateful.

2. Did you have to pay the full fee online when you booked online or was it just 100 GBP and the rest during the day of application. The reason I ask is in the application form there is a payment method option, but it does not make any mention about online payment reference etc..

Thank you