Immigrationboards.com

Alright, I had my NCS appointment today with Hounslow NCS, flown from Belfast to get there.

It went well, my application was pretty straight-forward, no convictions or history, not spent more than 450 days outside UK in past 5 years. The only thing was I had been out of UK for 94 days in the last 12 months, the lady did raise her eyebrow over it but said it should be fine as I had been only been away from UK for a total of 207 days in the past 6 years.

She did made me tick 'Special circumstances' check-box at the end of the application on declaration and asked me to explain it in the box below.

As per caseworkers guidelines they do disregard absences up to 100 days in the last 12 months, I explained it to her but she said she's only going by the guidelines published. But, she did speak to her senior about it and she thinks it should not be a problem with HO.

What do you guys think?

Hopefully it should be all OK and will receive my approval soon....lets see..

destiniation_london wrote:Alright, I had my NCS appointment today with Hounslow NCS, flown from Belfast to get there.

It went well, my application was pretty straight-forward, no convictions or history, not spent more than 450 days outside UK in past 5 years. The only thing was I had been out of UK for 94 days in the last 12 months, the lady did raise her eyebrow over it but said it should be fine as I had been only been away from UK for a total of 207 days in the past 6 years.

She did made me tick 'Special circumstances' check-box at the end of the application on declaration and asked me to explain it in the box below.

As per caseworkers guidelines they do disregard absences up to 100 days in the last 12 months, I explained it to her but she said she's only going by the guidelines published. But, she did speak to her senior about it and she thinks it should not be a problem with HO.

What do you guys think?

Hopefully it should be all OK and will receive my approval soon....lets see..

Well I had to travel frequently on business and I ended up with a tally of slightly above the 90 day mark at the time of application. My application was approved and I'm fairly confident that the 94 days outside the UK will not affect your application in any way. The NCS staff tend to be pedantic about the process to ensure procedural integrity.

Thanks for your reply, I also think it should be ok infact the lady herself sounded very confident but just wanted to be on the safe side which I totally understand from their perspective. They don't want any sort of claim coming their way for not fore-warning any applicants.


One thing though, hounslow council does not seem to reveal tracking number for the applications which other councils provide as per in some of the messages in this forum. I asked her if I can get the tracking number by calling on Monday to which she said we are not allowed to reveal it. She said they normally dispatch applications through special delivery 'Next day before 1pm' service so should be with Home office by Tuesday.

As this is my last leg in the long immigration journey, I'm hoping to get it iver quicker, hoping for getting the approval soon...lets see

Has anybody applied through Hounslow NCS got tracking number from them to see if the application has reached Home Office.

Just a note to let you guys know, I received my approval on Friday (12/04) dated 04/04.


So, this is the end of the immigration journey and my interaction with UKBA


Now, next leg -

Citizenship ceremony - scheduled for 23/04
British Passport

Good luck to all those who are waiting, this forum is the mother of all immigration knowledge base....way better than spending money on any lawyer or solicitors .. infact am pretty sure they have less knowledge than this forum. I've been following and been on this forum since the start of my journey and this has helped me in all my phases so far.

Thank you all and I'd be around to help if anyone needs me

Good luck all

congratulations! I can only imagine the relief .... and thanks for offering continued support - always welcome for us people still on the journey