ILR success story

[boylove]

Since I used this site to make sure I had covered everything before I went for my ILR, I think I should write my story here to help others.

1. Applied for ILR in December after a 4 year WP, with one transfer 3 years back with couple of monhts gap to get the transfer done. (So, 1 year WP+3 year WP=4 year WP).
2. Included my wife(here for 3 years as WP dependent) and one kid (born here) in application.
3. Got an appointment and went to Croydon office around 15 days before my 4 years were due.
4. After submitting fees, went to window and gave following documents to a lady case worker
A. Letter from employer
B. Past six months Salary slips
C. Past six months bank statements
D. 3 passports (mine, wife and kid)
Even though I had a bunch of other documents with me (everything I could think of), I only gave above ones to the case worker and kept others in file with me.
5. After replying my greetings with "Hi", the only response I got back from
her was "Sorry you will have to wait for a couple of hours to collect your passports". So, no other questions asked. She did have a look at my documents and checked something in computer as well. Total time spent on window was 3-4 minutes.
6. I had to wait for 3-4 hours to get the passports back. Had the stamps in all three passports.

So, looks like I had it easy after reading so many stories here. Though, my case was simple and I work for a global company earning close to six figures and have savings of six fgures+ as well.

Hope this eliminates some of the fear most people have before going for ILR interview. My 2p!

[John]

Congratulations on the ILR.

As your child was born in the UK and at least one parent now has ILR it is possible to apply for your child to be Registered as a British Citizen, and then get the child a British Passport.

Do you intend to proceed to do that now, or wait until your and your wife are entitled to apply for Naturalisation?

[boylove]

Thx John. Somehow I am not very excited about it though. Guess it's just makes it easier to move around jobs I guess.

I have not yet applied for the kid's British registration. I don't see a point of getting a British passport now for my kid as she is going to travel with one of us anyway. What do most people do? Is there a benefit in going for this now? What are the processing timings and can she travel on her original passport while the application is in process?
Looks like I ended up asking more questions.

[John]

At the minimum level .... well why not apply now ? ..... it would at least lock in the current fee level, £200, rather than the level when you and your wife apply for naturalisation. Having got the Certificate of Registration as British for your daughter, there is no obligation to go on immediately to get a British passport for her, but at least you would know that getting such a passport would then be an easy form-filling exercise.

A form MN1 can be downloaded from Application Forms