Age Assessment confusion for successful HSMP appeal

[scholarshk]

Hi,

Hope you all are fine.
I have to apply for ILR later this year. Initially, I got my HSMP approval letter in 2007 and I was 27 year old at that time. I applied for Entry clearance immediately but the application was refused due to some reasons. I appealed and the appeal process took 2 years and was finally successful thereby granting me Entry Clearance visa in 2009 (I was 29).

I was confused about the age points at the time of my last visa extension (from HSMP to Tier1) and claimed only 10 points for 29 years because I thought I will have to claim points for date of grant of first leave instead of date of APPLICATION for grant for first leave. I should had claimed 20 points.

The reason I was confused because the guidance notes said that evidence for Age assessment should be
i) Biometric Residence Permit, which contains the DATE OF APPROVAL of the last grant of leave and the age of the applicant, OR
ii) Current valid original passport/travel document containing the last visa granted to the applicant.

I even wrote an email to UKBA at that time and received the following reply:
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Dear Mr *****,

Thank you for your enquiry.

Please be advised that if your Entry Clearance application was refused and you were given the right of appeal, provided you appealed within the permitted appeal period, it will be considered to be an ongoing application, so you should claim points for your age for your application for your first grant of leave.

I hope that this is of some assistance to you.

Yours sincerely,
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Now when I looked at the ILR form and the email I received from the UKBA officer, it is clear that I could had claimed 20 points for being 'under 28' at the time of Application for first grant of leave.

Please correct me if I am wrong and please advise if whether or not for my ILR application I can now claim 20 points for my Age because I was 'under 28' at the time of Application for first grant of leave?

I mistakenly claimed less points (10) for age during last extension, so will this affect my ILR application if I claim 20 points now?

If I do claim 20 points, what evidence should I attach for my Age Assessment.

Thanks & Regards

[smartkhan]

Hi,

You can claim 20 points. But keep in mind that caseworker may grant you 10 points only according to their calculation. So it's better safe than sorry. Be prepared, work hard and increase your earnings to get more points in case you lose 10 points for the age.