I have a shiny new sticker in my passport!
Here's the story, for those of you who like to read such things.
Called Liverpool PEO in early August to make an appointment. Took about half an hour to get through. Asked for a 9 September (exactly 28 days before my FLR expires) appointment. Was given a reference number.
Called again last week to confirm my appointment.
Got home yesterday to find a message confirming that they'd be seeing me today.
Took the train to Liverpool this morning. Got a little lost. Eventually found our way. As it was still early (about 11:30 and the appointment wasn't until 1:20, we headed to Subway. Sat there as long as possible, then headed to Starbucks. Sat there as long as possible, then headed to the PEO.
Our bags were searched, our phones were turned off, and my perfume was taken away (glass bottles not allowed, apparently). Went through the metal detector, was given a number, and headed upstairs.
We were seen promptly at 1:20 by "reception". A lady asked to see our passports and our supporting documents (listed below). I'd typed up a cover letter itemising everying (item/date/addressee), so the lady just looked at that, said it looked fine, and sent us over to pay. While we were at the payment window, the lady from reception came over and asked if we'd bought bank statments. I said no, but that we each had our latest payslip (brought those just in case, even though the application doesn't ask for any financial statements). In the end, we weren't asked for bank statements or payslips.
We handed over the £500 and were given a receipt then were told to sit down again and wait to be called up.
Five minutes later we were called to another little window (though there was only one chair at that particular window -- all others had two...DH had to stand up
). The girl took our passports and documentation. She looked through the documentation (literally just looked through it), said I was approved, and told us it'd take about an hour.
We just waited around until they called our number again. When called, we went up and the girl handed me my passport. I thanked her and we were on our way.
All told, we were there for 1 hour and 20 minutes, about 5 of which was actually spent talking to someone. It was a breeze!
In the office, there was a drink machine, a vending machine, and a coffee machine. There were restrooms and a baby changing room. There's nothing to read, so you might want to bring a book!
One thing did bother me a bit -- when DH and I arrived, there were already 50-60 people there. Of those people, we were the only Caucasians. We were the only people to be processed completely in the time we were there. It seemed that pretty much everyone else was called to various windows several times. I'm sure people were there for different reasons and some probably had more complicated applications, but it felt very strange that we were processed so quickly and that our paperwork was basically just glanced at. Just something to think about.
Also, there was a film loop on the televisions....couldn't really get the meaning of it as it was silent, but I think it was warning people not to lie about anything as you saw a guy in a room with an official who is eventually made to stand and get handcuffed. The film was subtitled in Arabic and what looked like Afrikaans....never in English, though!
Stuff we took with us:my passport
DH's passport
SET (M) application
2 photos of me
1 photo of DH
our marriage certificate
my most recent payslip
DH's most recent payslip
From year one: (8 documents addressed to me, 3 addressed to both of us, 6 addressed to DH only)my NHS card
four of my Bank of America bank statements
my NIN letter
one of my Barclays bank statements
one Simply Be account statement
our first rental agreement
our second rental agreement
two of DH's bank statements
council tax bill
two water bills
two gas bills
From year two: (one addressed to both of us, seven addressed to me, six addressed to DH)our rental agreement
my NHS card
two Simply Be account statments
Bank of America statement
two Barclays statements
one Evans statement
two water bills
two electricity bills
two gas bills
