ILR Success @ Solihull (WP+Tier 2) - With Dependant (Wife)

[chuba2012]

I got my ILR today at Solihull. I want to say thank you to all contributing members of the forum. I took with me a whole array of documents but was not asked about most of them. I will only list what I was asked.

My appointment was for 10:25am. I went by car and parked at the John Lewis car park just behind the UKBA office. Car park is not pay and display therefore the coins I had for the car park was not used. I paid using my debit card.
- I got to the door at 10:03 am. The security asked for my appointment letter and ticked off our names off a list. They also had a look at our application form. We were asked to empty our pockets and switch off our mobile phones.
- We passed through security and found seats. One of the security ladies came and gave us a ticket with a number.
- After about 20 mins our number was called. There is a screen showing the progress of various tickets including ours. We therefore knew when we were to be called next.
- We went to a nice lady over the counter who asked to see our form, passports and photos. She also asked to confirm that my last five years were spent as a work permit holder (4yrs) and Tier 2 (1 yr)
- She asked the rest of our documents in the following order
1. Employer letter
2. 3 months latest payslips
3. 3 months bank statements
4. Life in the UK pass letter for myself and dependant
5. Original work permit letter
6. Cohabitation documents (I gave her a pile I had and she picked from my wife's docs a bank letter, council tax bill and a university letter. From my pile she picked 2 different bank statements (one each in 2010 and 2011).

I asked her if she needed to see our marriage certificate but she said she has got everything that she needed. I was surprised she did not ask for P60's too.

She then asked me for photocopies of everything I had given her. She then asked me to go and pay at a counter further down. After payment she gave back our passports but kept our previous BRP's. We went back to the hall and waited for our number to be called for BRP.
We were called in for the BRP after waiting for about 15 mins. We could see on the monitor when our turn came up (really helpful). We went in for BRP (finger prints + face picture). This took about 15 mins because there was 2 of us. We were asked to confirm names were spelled right and date of birth. The BRP lady now said to us that we could go and come back after 2 hrs however we should have our phones switched on just in case.

We left at about 11am, loitered about and had lunch in the shopping centre. We came back at 1pm. Security told us our application is now approved and to expect our BRP's within 7-10 days. There was a letter giving us information about the BRP and an attachment with further details about our ILR.

All in all it was a pleasant experience and we are glad all the intense preparation paid off and is now over. Less than 5 % of our documents were used at the end of the day. But it is best to over prepare.

Thanks to everybody on the forum.

[chuba2012]

This is just to add that we received our BRP cards today. Just 4 days (2 working days) after approval.