Success at Croydon PEO on 1st July

[abhayk]

I have been following this forum for the last couple of months as I was due for my ILR, which I got today including for my wife, daughter and son. My case was that of WP + Tier 1.

1. Appointment was at 2:15 pm and luckily reached at 1:45 (problem with some of the lines). Did not take my daughter who did not want to miss school, so took my wife and son. Asked to go through security and then went to get my appointment verified. The lady asked whether I had supporting documents and whether I had proof that I was employed for the last 5 years - to which I said yes. Was asked to go up to 1st floor and pay the application amount.

2. Paid the application amount at 2:15 pm. Very surprised at how noisy it was in there! My token number was called at 3:45 pm.

3. Lady officer at the counter asked for the token, then the application and the receipt for payment. Asked for the Life in UK test for both me and my wife.

4. Went through the absences when I mentioned that I had a list in my covering letter. She took the 1st page of the covering letter which had the details and gave back the 2 pages of the the letter. Some of my trips were to Ireland on work. She asked me about one of the stamps but before I could answer, she said that it was not a problem (didn't really hear what she had asked). This verification took the most time and at the end of this verification, she asked whether I had a letter for the business trips - which I did have.

5. Asked for 12 months payslips and bank statements (to claim my points for earnings). She added up the gross salary and made a note of it. She also verified the net amounts on the slip with the amounts in the bank statement. She also asked me whether I was still employed to which I said yes.

6. She also made a note of the closing balances for the last 3 months. She asked whether I wanted to consider the last 3 months statements as proof of my finances. I said no, as I had taken my ISA bank account statement and another account statement.

7. She asked me what proof I had that I was employed for the last 5 years - to which I replied that I had my P60s - which she said was fine (I had taken my payslips just incase).

8. I think the last question is one that I have not come across in this forum for ILR and that was - do you have proof of where you are living? I said I had council tax bills to which she replied that it was not a valid proof. She then asked me whether I was renting and I said yes. She said that can you provide proof of the rent that you are paying to which I pointed her to may bank statement which has the debits on a monthly basis. She was satisfied with this.

9. She then checked and tapped into her system for quite some time. and then at around 4:30 said that she would need to take my documents to photocopy.

10. After she came back with the photocopies, she kept tapping into her computer and then took out some plastic folders in which she began to keep the passports separately. After which she said that my application had been successful and that I would get my passports in half an hour from another counter. This was about 5 pm. Got my passport at 5:30 pm!

Though I had taken a lot of documents to be on the safe side, I provided only those documents that were asked by the lady officer. I saw a case where a lady applicant with a baby had got so many documents that the case officer was confused and asked the applicant to arrange only the necessary documents which probably took her a good half an hour or more to sort and rearrange.

I would like to once again thank this forum for providing a platform for people to share their experiences and making it easier for other applicants.