Piece of cake. Honestly. It's SO nothing to be worried about! The only thing I can advise in addition to what's already been said is this:
1. Allow loads of time, even if you have an appointment, in Croydon. This is especially true if you go in September or October, as apparently they're deluged by students during those months.
2. If you bank online, get the bank to mail you statements OR print them off and take them into the actual bank to be stamped and signed.
We decided to drive 'cause we wanted to be a bit more in control than we felt we were using trains/tubes/trams, so we set off a few hours in advance of our appointment to allow time for parking, scoping the scene, etc. We drove straight to it, parked with no trouble and walked over to the office.
Arrived at about 12:30 for a 1:30 appointment. They had us wait outside for about 15 minutes before getting in a line for the first "stop." Short wait and we were at a counter. The guy was REALLY nice, but quite serious (even Jamie said he found it nerve-wracking and he's got nerves of steel!) He went through our financial documents (see above comment about bank statements - he said ours were of no use to him - thank goodness we had a year's worth of payslips!) He looked at our marriage certificate, passports, our payslips, spent a good amount of time reading a letter from Jamie's boss which stated how long he's been with the company, what he earns, and how often he gets bonuses, glanced at a letter from my uni., glanced at our lease, and laughed at how much else I had with me that he didn't need to see! The funniest bit was when he asked how long we had been together. I figured he was checking out the relationship so I started rattling dates off and then he stopped me and said that he was just curious 'cause I was calling Jamie "him" instead of "my husband" and so he figured we'd been together for a while!
He said "congratulations" and sent us upstairs to pay. Again, very short queue, forked out most of my first pay check to pay for the whole ordeal, and we were sent upstairs again to wait in the "interview" room (though they don't appear to do much interviewing there!)
This is where it got annoying. They call you by number and the numbers don't go in order so you have no clue where you are in the queue. I figured since we had had an appointment we'd get through quick-ish, but I forgot that Croydon is not appointment only yet. So we waited for about THREE HOURS. Just sat there. Blah. When they finally called us, we went to a window, the woman checked the application, and our marriage certificate. She sent us away, and then about 20 minutes later called us back to get my passport.
Oddly I now still don't have a fancy sticker - just a black ink stamp saying I'm all legal for two years. The only thing I can figure is that it was because I've been here over a year and so my previous student visa was also only a crummy black ink stamp.
Anyway, aside from the waiting and the drive home (the wait was so bloody long we hit the commute home and it took FOREVER) it was completely painless and absolutely nothing to be worried about!
