I just wanted to share my experience, hoping that it may help someone.
My wife and I applied for ILR today at Croydon using the super priority service. We received the approval email about 3 hours after our appointment!
My Tier 2 Visa would have expired only in September 2020 but I qualified for ILR in 2019 since I started on the Tier 2 route in 2014. I worked with one company for 3 years and then switched to another one and got another 3 year Tier 2 visa.
We applied online exactly 28 days (on the 31st of July) before the date when 5 years would elapse since I first got the tier 2 visa. I'm not sure if the application shouldn't be made before 28 days but I waited till it was 28 days prior to the eligibility date to avoid any issues. In any case, our appointment was booked for 14th August and I would have completed 5 years on the 28th of August.
I was a bit worried about the bank statements as my employer credited the wrong amount salary for the month of July (about £13 lesser) but corrected this by crediting the £13 a few days after the pay-day. Seems like this wasn't an issue. Also, my salary was increased from 30k to 36k last August (2018).
We have a 2yr old too who was born in the UK. We didn't apply for ILR for him as we are going to apply directly for Naturalisation, which costs a whole lot lesser!
These are the documents we submitted (uploaded):
- Bank statements for 3 months, showing 3 salary credits
- 3 months' payslips
- Consent forms, signed
- Original passports for myself and my wife (including old/ expired passports)
- Original BRP cards
- Certificate of Sponsorship from employer
- Letter from employer confirming SOC code, period of employment and appropriate salary
- Life in the UK pass certificates for both of us
- Marriage certificate (to show cohabitation)
- MBA certificates from UK university (for English language requirement)
