Hi Everyone,
I had recently applied for ILR at PEO office in Croydon and I think it would be useful to share my experience with everyone in this forum.
I came to UK on work permit in 2005 and then switched to Tier 1 General in 2009. During these 5 years period, I had a lot of travelling (mainly for my holiday). In my case, I had about 223 days outside UK, of which 181 is personal travelling. When I first discovered the 180 days rule from many websites, I started to panic because this was new to me. Some people said it's 180 days rule and some said 450 days rule. I had a letter from my current employer about my latest business trip but I was not able to request my previous employer to give me one.
My experience at PEO last two weeks went like this...
9:00AM - Arrived at Croydon office (my appointment was at 9:30AM). After passed through security, they directed me to a counter on the ground floor. At this counter, the officer checked all the documents I had. This was more like preliminary checked so they looked through passport, letters from employers, P60, bank statements, birth certificate, etc.
9:15AM - After the first stage was completed, they directed me to go to the first floor to make a payment. This one was quick and after 10 minutes or so, they pointed me to the second floor for a visa quece.
9:30AM - I was called to the counter. The case worker asked me for all the documents. I don't remeber in exact order but I'll try my best here
1. Passports
2. Application Form + photograph
3. P60 (last 5 years)
4. Letter from Employers
5. Bank statements (last 3 months)
6. Birth certificate
She looked at the days absence outside UK and then asked me to calculate the number of days absence and total them altogether (because I only put down the departure date and the date of return - so my advice is that you do this in advance). Per guidance, I only count the date that I was outside the UK, excluding the travelling date (day out & day return).
The case worker then did a lot of copying and then told me the IT system was down so she asked me to wait about 30 minutes.
10:30AM - She called me back and told me that the system was still down so she could not grant me the visa on that day but she said the application was granted (but I couldn't be sure). I was upset because I paid a premium service and expected the same day service. However, nothing could be done so I had no choice. She asked me to fill out the form with my address so that she could send me a passport back. When I asked how long this would take, she simply said "wont' be long" but didn't tell the date....(which was once again a bit upsetting me).
Then I left the PEO....
I then waited and waited. Three day passed, there was no singed of the passport arriving. I called the PEO offices twice and to be honest, it was useless to call. None of them could give out any information and said it would take 14 weeks before they can give out any info (really really upsetting me). At that time I was very angry because I felt I was treated as normal service when i actually paid premium service. Two days after, I started to let go. I told my parents that I might not be able to visit them during new year because I might not have passport back then...
Two days after, it had arrived.
So the PEO took about 5 days to post back my passport (since the day I applied at the PEO).
A week long of waiting was tough. I would highly recommend applying at the PEO rather than post (it is taking too long). If the system happens to be down on that day, please dont' worry too much like I did (I had had a bad headache because of worry and could not sleep well at night because I think too much of the worst case scenario -- i.e. waiting 14 weeks of passport to return only to find out the application was reject).
Again, this forum has been very useful so if you have any questions, please let me know. I'm happy to help answering it as much as I could.
Piggy20007
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