Am so relieved and after my application was approved, I called up my family in India and I wanted to update this forum about it but yesterday was so busy so could not.
Here is the list of documents
1. Cover Letter
2. Application form - SET (0). Completed and Signed.
3. BRP Card - 3 (1 main applicant + 2 dependants)
4. Passports - 6 (2 each for all the applicants. 1 expired and 1 current)
5. Photos - 6 (2 each for all the applicants. Full Name written on the back)
6. Personal Bank Statement from March-2014 to May-2015.
7. Salary Slips from March-2014 to Feb-2015 (This is continuous 12 months from the last 15 months). The salary slips are on official letter head and signed and stamped.
8. LIUK Certificate - 2 (One for myself and one for my wife).
9. IELTS Certificate - 1(I used the same IELTS to prove my English in initial Tier 1 G application in 2009).
10. Master's degree for my wife. I am submitting my wife's master's degree for her KOLL requirement
11. PBS Calculator to show my wife's degree in the NARIC database
12. NARIC letter - 1 (We have a NARIC letter also which confirms my wife's degree is meeting the English requirement).
13. Council Letter for last 3 years which has my name and my wife's name
14. Electricity/Gas bill for last 2 years (online printed from a coloured printer). The bills have both our names
15. Water bill for last 2 years (Online printed from a coloured printer). The bills have both our names
16. Voter's card for May'2015 general elections
17. Driving license counterpart for self and my wife which shows our address
18. Employment history from HMRC. I have got last 4 years of employment history. I asked for this in April and as HMRC did not have my history of the current year, they have only given me last 4 years.
19. I have got form P45 for the current year
20. Master's degree and points based calculator for self. As the original degree is not mandatory to claim points for qualification, I will not submit it but keep it as a backup
Appointment was at 8:00 AM. I had done a drive on Sunday just to check the things
. This helped me as I knew exactly where the parking was and how the road looked like. We left home at 06:15 and reached Croydon at 07:20. Parked the car and paid £5.50 for the whole day. All good so far. We then walked across the road which took us 10 minutes because we had 2 little children.. 7:40 , we were there in front of Lunar house. I even took a picture to show . The gates were closed till then. However in 5 minutes, the gates opened and we were allowed in. Went through the security and then lift was not working. We decided some physical work so took the stair.We were asked to wait in the cafeteria because the office had not opened till then. It was 7:50 then.
In 5-7 minutes, one guy came and said that the reception/payment checking counter (where you get the token) had opened. We all rushed. Queued up and my turn came. The guy asked me for my appointment letter and payment letter and all the passports and application form. He typed in a few things .. then says .. "Disappointment .. this appointment has been cancelled." I asked who could have done that. He replied "You cancelled it". I said I did cancel but rebooked immediately and I had a reference number for both. (http://www.immigrationboards.com/indefi ... O#p1197173). This guy was frankly a bit rude. He then asked me to take a seat and said that he will go and check with his manager if something can be done. He came back in 5 minutes with a token number
. The moment we had the token number 104 in hand, we got called for registering our details. I went to another counter (don't remember the counter number). Another rude lady. She says .." This token is only for 1 appointment".. I requested her to check with the reception guy and said that I have a payment sheet and all the correspondence with HO regarding this. She perhaps was just typing something and not even listening to me.. She asked me for my application form, all the passports and BRPs and photographs. I gave her everything. She asked me to put all the documents in a folder. I did but forgot to put in all the photocopies as 2 people had already stressed me enough. My wife's degree was a big one (People from India might be remembering those A3 size degrees
). I had to wrap it around the folder with a rubber band given by the same rude/expressionless lady). Finally, 08:25, case registration was also done and we were immediately called for Biometric. Biometric guy was the first nice guy we met yesterday. He talked to us nicely. Took our biometric and said that this will take around 90 minutes so, if we wanted to go out, we could or else we could stay in the cafeteria. We decided the warmth of cafeteria.. lol It was 08:40 then
After months, I would have seen a TV screen with so much intensity. I was seeing the status of the application and I was enjoying it. My application moved to "Under Consideration" within 20 minutes (I am not sure whether that was quick or not but I was happy with the turn around time).
Frankly, I was expecting a decision by 10:00 and as the clock crossed 09:45, my heartbeat became fast.. To keep my nerves, I decided to take cup of Tea.. The tea finished in 10 minutes. The case was still "Under Consideration". My wife looked at me. Case number 100,102 and 108 had already been decided. I told her that "see, 101,103,107 are still under consideration".. hahahaha
After 10, next 30 minutes were quite tensed .. I don't know why they were taking so long. At 10:30, the application status changed finally to "Ready for Collection". .. I touched a window which was wooden .. Remembered my gods and goddesses .. and then a counter was announced where we had to go and collect our documents. It was counter number 43 (My favourite number yesterday). We reached the counter. Another expressionless lady was there to "help" us . hahaha.. She said, It is all done, please check the details and sign. We looked at the page and it was a Biometric page.. So we knew that ILR was approved. I looked at my wife and smiled .. We quickly checked the details, signed, took our papers and headed out of the building.
We reached the parking by 10:55.
11:00, my navigator was ready ... to lead us back home .. This journey (back home) was so relaxing.
As a treat, we went shopping to Bicester village in the evening and came back quite late.. In the morning, I had to rush back to work in Edinburgh..
All the best guys.. I am sure all will be well and feel free to ask me anything
For all the 5 years (upto Feb this year), I have been a permanent employee. I started doing contracting since March this year. To keep my application simple, I am only considering my earnings from permanent job. However, in my cover letter, I will inform the HO about this and will submit the accountant letter and will say that if you need any documents to see, I will be happy to show. I will keep all the company (self employment) letters/papers as a backup.
