I had my ILR Appointment at Sheffield today. A bit of background first; my visa was expiring about 18 days before I would've reached my qualifying period and so I applied for an FLR(FP) application first and then varied it.
1.Category: SET(LR)
2. Number of dependents: 0
3. Total cost: £3700(ILR,FLR, IHS fee)
4. PEO branch: Sheffield
5. Documents provided:
2 x Previous (expired) passports – Original
2 x Course completion certificate – Original
1 x Tier4 Course Completion letter – Original
2 x Photographs – Original
(Below originals were already with UKVI so submitted colour copies)
1 x Current Valid passport – Colour Copy
1 x BRP Card – Colour Copy
1 x Life in the UK Certicate – Colour Copy
1 x Bachelor’s degree Certificate – Colour Copy
1 x Bachelor’s degree transcript – Colour Copy
Timeline:
Visa expiry: 22nd Nov (Tier4)
Postal FLR(FP) submitted: 18th Nov
Biometric received: 25th Nov
Reached ILR Qualifying period: 9th Dec
Booked premium appointment: 12th Dec
FLR(FP) Biometric completed: 13th Dec
Sent a letter to biometric address to request transfer of documents to premium centre: 15th Dec
Appointment date: 24th Dec
I purposely didn't get an earlier appointment at other premium centres and went for Sheffield only because I had received my biometric letter from a Sheffield address and had read about a few cases on this forum where the decision was given same day because home office was able to pull out the passport and documents submitted with FLR(FP) application.
On the day:
Appointment time: 8:10am
Reached the centre: 7:35am(was allowed to go in early and security clearance took a minute or two)
Handed over documents: 7:40am
Called for biometric: 8:05
APPROVAL Decision made: 8:40
No questions asked whatsoever. My application was quite straightforward as I never had any refusals but the only issue was the gap of 18 days which I covered through FLR(FP) application. Alhumdullilah, I didn't have to wait for weeks or months as the caseworker pulled out my passport and all other documents either because it was in the same building or they received my transfer of documents letter and transferred it beforehand.
THANK YOU everyone who helped me on this forum and special thanks to the moderators and creators of this forum. I would highly recommend to do this application yourself unless you have some serious complications. I unfortunately didn't listen to this advice and paid around £1000 to a solicitor but it would've better if I had just burned that money. They are very well known Solicitors but I got more information on this forum than the solicitors. Thanks again everyone
Happy to answer any questions.
Regards
Fahadii