ILR application questions

[foreign_immigrant]

hi guys,

I am thinkinf about applying for ILR and I am having few questions. I hope the experience of some of the people here will help me find answers. please bear with me for the long explanation.

I came on business visa in March 2003. Got converted to work permit in Aug 2003. Everything was fine until Jan 2006 when I went back to India to work at offshore of the same company. I then came back to UK in July 2006. I migrated to tier 1 in May 2008. Barring the gap of 6 months in 2006, I have stayed here in qualifying categories since aug 2003. Even though I know its not good to have 6 months, I am planning to get a letter from my employer and take the risk.

here are my questions:

1. In section 6.1 of the application, I am not sure what date to enter.

"When did you (the main applicant) first enter the UK? This refers to the date of your first entry into the UK at the beginning of the period of stay on which this application is based."

I obviously cant give it as march 2003 as I my first entry was on business visa and got converted to WP within country.

2. Is there a minimum balance that you need to maintain for main applicant and dependents as in Tier 1?

3. Since I have spent more than 7 years in UK will the number of absences still be limited to that of 5 year period?

I would appreciate any answers/suggestions.

Thanks

[wphsmpteir1]

I intend to apply for ILR with one dependent and I too have a few queries:-

1) Do I need to fill in two seperate SET(0) forms per applicant, like I did for Tier-1 extension or one form as Main applicant is sufficient. I can't see anywhere where they say I need to fill in one form per person, but I thought I better clarify.

2) Section 6.3: When did you last enter UK?
I entered UK as student in 2002, and following completion of my studies I was granted WP in Dec 2005 (while on student visa) and got LTR (based on WP) in Jan 2006, while being in-country. I think in this section they want to know the date I got LTR (based on WP) for in-country applicant. But please clarify this...

3) Home Office reference number:
Is this the number on the Visa in passport... I remmember during Tier-1 extension they said it doesn't matter as they have all the previous immigration history records in their system.

I will be really grateful for any guidance

Thanks for your help