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I have been following this forum silently for almost six months now. I am grateful to all those who shared their experience and the moderators, of course. It is my turn now.

I applied for ILR under Tier 1 (G) yesterday (06 June 2012) at Cardiff PEO. I entered UK on Work Permit in June 2007 and changed to Tier 1 in Feb 2010. I applied within 28 days window period of the five year time period. Just for info, I changed my employer in November 2010.

I met all the conditions for ILR. The only sticking point in my application was my asbences from UK. I had 293 days absences in total, excluding the entry and exit days. Of these, 125 days were paid annual leave, 18 days were work related and the rest 150 days were a combination of weekends + public holidays. None of my absence was unpaid leave and I made this clear in my ‘absences from UK’ sheet that I prepared using the template in this forum.

My annual leave entitlement is a bit generous (30days per year). I have obtained letters from both my employers (current and past) stating my annual leave entitlement. Please note that the letter did not give the details of my absences, but just stated my annual leave entitlement clearly.

I have made sure that every stamp in my passport is accounted for and corroborated with the absence mentioned in the 'absences from UK' sheet. Some of the stamps were a bit fudged because they were one on top of other. But I made sure I am honest in disclosing all the absences.

I submitted all the documents to the frontline staff who asked me to comeback after the phone call. I assumed I will meet the caseworker later. I received the phone call within 2 hrs and when I went back, I was given the approval letter straightaway. I was not asked for any additional documents. I had my personal bank statement for every single month for the last 5 years to prove my continuous residence in the UK. My rent and utility bills were paid directly via direct debit as reflected on the bank statements. But I was not asked for any of this.

This forum has been of immense help and I think the onus is on the individuals to prove. Hence it is better to be prepared to justify how you meet all the criteria. The amount of information available in this forum should be of great help and reading the policy guidance and making sense of it is critical.

I submitted the following documents:

12 months pay slips
12 months personal bank statement
P60’s (5)
HMRC letter
Life in the UK test certificate
Work permit
Tier 1 approval letter
Employer letters (current and previous) confirming my annual leave entitlement.

I thank once again for all those who contributed and the moderators for maintaining and keeping this forum live.

Best wishes

You said "I had my personal bank statement for every single month for the last 5 years to prove my continuous residence in the UK."
>> But you did not need to submit these, right?
Did they ask you to submit photocopies?

Hi

Lots and lots of heartiest congratulations on getting your ILR and thanks a lot for sharing your PEO experience on the forum.

Good luck for the future.

congrats !!!

congrats freebuffalo
did you put a cover letter or a letter that explained the absecens or just the same simple spreadsheet only?
mohit

timesofindia - I did not have to show the additional documents that I carried with me either; I was not asked for any photocopies

Singhmohit - I did not have a cover letter because I left it for last minute. I think it is better to have one though.

hello freebuffallo,
congrats on your ilr.As per the cohab docs, can you please tell me how many you had to provide per each year or did you simply give her a random number without being asked.
regards

congrats...

so did staff ask you all documents or you hand them all your documents and surprise they said wait for the call. no PEO do call and tell you to come back...

this thing is really strange.....

thanks for sharing...

BRP received, within 48hrs of approval!

...the rest 150 days were a combination of weekends + public holidays...

Congrats freebuffalo!
Could you elaborate on the above please? I thought days out of the UK included weekends and bank holidays?
Could you provide an example of the letter you used to explain your absences?

Parasiteslost - I used the template on this forum. But I modified it a little bit.

I split the reason for absences into three columns: one for annual leave, one for weekends/publics holidays and one for unpaid leave. The total for annual leave was 143 (125 personal leave + 18 business). The total for weekends/bank holidays came to 150. The number of unpaid was 0.

No, I did not use a cover letter. The absences sheet that I prepared was almost self explanatory.

Almost all my absences were short holidays to EU mainly and not to my home country. Also, in the absence sheet for each entry, I mentioned the destination, date of exit and date of return to the UK - as per the template

Hope the above helps.

freebuffalo wrote:Parasiteslost - I used the template on this forum. But I modified it a little bit.

I split the reason for absences into three columns: one for annual leave, one for weekends/publics holidays and one for unpaid leave. The total for annual leave was 143 (125 personal leave + 18 business). The total for weekends/bank holidays came to 150. The number of unpaid was 0.

No, I did not use a cover letter. The absences sheet that I prepared was almost self explanatory.

Almost all my absences were short holidays to EU mainly and not to my home country. Also, in the absence sheet for each entry, I mentioned the destination, date of exit and date of return to the UK - as per the template

Hope the above helps.

Great! thanks for the clarification.
So if I understood correctly, if I leave the UK on a Monday and return the next Monday, I would have spent 4 days out of the UK on annual leave and 2 days as weekends which won't necessarily be counted towards 180 days?

I mentioned my absences (annual/weekend) separately to highlight the fact that my absences are consistent with my annual leave entitlement.

I think, 180 days is not set in stone. It is an indicator for the caseworker, to check if you have breached 'continuous residency requirement'. The case worker can then apply the discretion as stated in the policy guidance.

freebuffalo wrote: I met all the conditions for ILR. The only sticking point in my application was my asbences from UK. I had 293 days absences in total, excluding the entry and exit days.

Hi freebuffalo,
Thanks for sharing and this post. I started being a bit concerned about my application as i have 282 days absence in total (excl entry/exit days over a period of 10.5 years approx). However the maximum amt spent in one single time is 53 days. Of all these absences only a handful were for work reasons. Rest were to visit family overseas. I have declared all absences and matched the immigration stamps.

Initially I wasn't concerned about the total number but have been lately due to the delay..but looks like that wont be a major issue. I was a student most of the 10 year period so didn't submit letter from employer or the university.

Hope it wont be a big issue.

cheers,

Hi freebuffalo,
Could you tell me that how many days absence have you had?
You mentioned 293 days and 150 days are weekend and bank holiday.
Could you clarify that is it 150 or 50 days are weekend and bank holiday?
thanks
mozhi

Hi freebuffalo,
Could you tell me that if we have paid leave more than 180 days, is it ok?
mozhi

mozhi12,

More than 180 days is not OK, but the caseworker can apply discretion. In my case my absences were in line with my annual leave entitlement.

I had 293 days total absences of which 125 days were paid annual leave, 18 days were work related and 150 days were a combination of weekends and public holidays. 125+18+150=293.

freebuffalo wrote:mozhi12,

More than 180 days is not OK, but the caseworker can apply discretion. In my case my absences were in line with my annual leave entitlement.

I had 293 days total absences of which 125 days were paid annual leave, 18 days were work related and 150 days were a combination of weekends and public holidays. 125+18+150=293.

what you mean ? conbination of weeekends or bank holidays they DO count as no of days outside of UK

Yes, everything counts irrespective of whether the absence is weekend, public holidays, work related, personal etc.

Paid Personal leave = 125
Work related = 18
Weekend+public holidays = 150

Total = 293.

freebuffalo wrote:Yes, everything counts irrespective of whether the absence is weekend, public holidays, work related, personal etc.

Paid Personal leave = 125
Work related = 18
Weekend+public holidays = 150

Total = 293.

You week+public holiday is a bit confusing , do you mean you have removed the weekends and public holidays when on Paid personal leave or Work related leaves ?

i.e work related 18 days does not include weekends and public holidays ?

It would be very useful if you can share your absence sheet ...

We need to understand how you calculated your absences and how it was presented to the case worker ?

Also how contended was the case worker, did he/she cross check with the stamps on the passport ?