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I am a silent lurker on the forums and have received a lot of information which helped me get my ILR on Jan 14 2011 @ PEO Croydon. I thought that details of my case might help someone in the future hence my contribution...
Case details:
Entry into UK Jan 2006 WP + WP Extension Jan 2007 + HSMP Aug 2007 + Tier 1 2009.
I have had lot of absences due to business travel and paid annual leaves totalling 430+ days. Business days were in the last year and half. This caused me some concern but I had a detailed letter from employer with confirmation of continued employment along with details on the absences.
Experience:
I had an appointment at 10 am and reached PEO @9.30. After passing through the security check the case examiner asked me for proof of economic activity along with the SET O form and also employer letter. I had a combined letter for business absences and employment. I pointed out the same to him. The case was accepted and he gave me a token number and I was asked to go to Floor 1 for payment. The payment was made through a credit card without issues. I had to wait on the same floor to be called by a case worker. After 15 min. the case worker called me. I was asked following docs in a sequence. I told him I have an organised file and he can have anything he wants but he told me to handover the items personally. The items requested were:
1. SET O Form
2. KOL in UK test pass certificate
3. 3 months payslips (Oct - Dec for me). These were soft copies attested and signed by my company.
4. Letter of employment + Business absences letter
5. List of absences out of UK sheet

After this he asked me to sit in the common area till he needs me. He was going through the screen and the documents and I could see him the whole time from the common area. I remembered I had spent a lot of money and time on copies as well. I asked him if he wanted those and he was happy and asked me only for copies of front + back page of passport including all UK visa pages + copies of all originals he had asked for. After this I waited in the common area again. This time he took about 25 mins and called me personally to the desk. He asked me to have a seat and this made me nervous. He gave me the best news possible that he had granted me ILR and handed over KOL and payslips back and asked me to collect passport from counter 22 in 1 hr. I could not contain myself but hung on and within 20 mins again my passport was ready. I read the details and confirmed all was ok. The best day in UK was already happening for me... Finally rid of all shackles I stepped out @ 11:30. The whole process took me 2 hours. The worst part of the day was the frigging tubes. At one point I thought I will never reach Croydon but what was meant to be was meant to be.... Now over to Citizenship forums... Please let me know if any of you have any queries and will try to respond as possible....

hi,
congratulations...
could you pls share what kind of letter was given by your company ....pls any tips or can you share content of it...i hv my ILR appointment next week...i have 2 big business absences of 182 days with a gap of only 10 days...in total absences are 394 days but all are paid absences or business absences.

sorry, one more question..how long is your longest absence...or can you give some idea about your absences..

srs1972 wrote:sorry, one more question..how long is your longest absence...or can you give some idea about your absences..

I'd like to know the same please.

Also, it sounded like the case worker made the decision without having to refer to another person, am I right?

This is the letter I used which confirms employment as well as absences:


To,
The UK Border Agency
Date: <>
Subject: Application for Indefinite Leave to Remain
Dear Sir/Madam,
This letter is to confirm that <Full Name> (Emp. No. <Company Emp. No.> Passport No. <Passport No.>) is employed with <Company Name> since <Employment Start Date>. He is in full-time permanent employment with us in the role of <Current Role> and will be required in the foreseeable future. Due to the nature of our business he is required to travel to client sites for business activities like <brief on role>. During his business travel he has been on <Company Name> payroll and has been paying NI and tax in UK. His salary was deposited in his UK bank account.
We can confirm that the travel dates listed below have been necessary keeping in mind our work requirements.

Date Left UK Date Returned to UK Reason for Absence Destination Client Name


In case of concerns/clarifications do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
Yours faithfully,

<HR Name/Contact Details>

@srs - My single largest absence was not more than 50 days. I had paid annual leaves of 40+ days as well but no doubts were raised on these.

@Natita - Yes it does look like that based on the decision time as well as the fact that I could see him at his window the whole time except for going around a couple of times. No additional questions were asked except for initial interaction of 5 mins for document handover.

@ilr2011, thank you so much for sharing this. Congratulations on your ILR.

ILR2011,

Congratulations...

you haven't been asked about any P60's..? what documents did you showed them when they asked about your economical proof..? Please let me know

Sri

At the outset Many Congrats ... Is my understanding correct if you were out of UK less than 60 days ( in 5 Years ) you don't need any letter from Employer ....

Please confirm ... Ta

@smaganti - The case acceptance officer (:roll: for want of a better term) asked me for docs relating to economic activity. The choice he gave was payslips/bank statements/P60's. I had all these and handed over just P60's. But case worker used only the payslips for 3 months as specified in OP as proof of economic activity.

@rajathwp - The case acceptance officer and CW both asked me for the employer letter (so not related to absences at all). Even I found it funny regarding insistence of this doc as I was applying on Tier1. But they ask what your initial Entry Clearance is - since mine is based on WP they needed it. Still I think it helps a lot; this letter and since I am with same employer for all these years the case was straight... Let me know if you need any other info...

Many Thanks Mate !!

Dear Ilr2011,

Thanks for your post and congratulations on getting ILR.

From the description, I understand you have more business abscences. But do you have any un-paid/non-business absences in the 5 year period ? If so how many days it is ? Did you produce any letter from the employer for your paid holidays also?

Cheers

This is a very breif letter from the employer which made caseworker easir to make decision and is depend on case worker mood and his discretion

can you provide us sample of spreadsheet u use to declare absences ?
Did you provide bankstatement of the period you were out of UK ?
anyway congrats !!

@ukmigrant2011 - No unpaid absences and no letter for paid absences. This is assumed to be correct by caseworker if all other parts of your application are clear.

@fahadz1 - The absences letter used is from following post
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=64235
I had bank statements handy but none were asked for absences or for recent period. Only those documents listed in post were asked for.

Thanks for the reply.

My circumtances are totally diff. I've been trying to figure out solution
I havebeen contracted by a company and i was away for 5 months and 2 weeks and they have paid me.
I was NOT employed by the company they pay me against invoices raised.
So i was not getting every money every month. But they are happy to give me any letter required

I have absence of 280 days and one was 5 months and 2 weeks

By the way whats your opinion what you suggest which documents i should produce ? Should i go in person or post ??
My ILR due on June 2012 i knows its quite early to find out

ilr2011 wrote:@ukmigrant2011 - No unpaid absences and no letter for paid absences. This is assumed to be correct by caseworker if all other parts of your application are clear.

@fahadz1 - The absences letter used is from following post
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=64235
I had bank statements handy but none were asked for absences or for recent period. Only those documents listed in post were asked for.