Hi guys,
I got my ILR today from the Home Office in Croydon - it was through the new (six documents application form) so hopefully this might help anyone who's doing the same... if not please feel free to delete/move!
I applied for my visa in person because a) I live about a 15 minute drive away (yeah Croydon!) and b) I don't really like sending my important documents through the mail and figured it was better to just pay the extra 200 and get it over with in one day rather than have an endless wait. Anyway when I called up and made the appointment they gave me a reference number and a bit of instructions, and told me to arrive a half hour before my appointment.
When my husband and I got there (there's a parking garage across the street, 2 hour street parking, plus two train stations and a tramstop nearby in case anyone's interested) we joined a decent-sized queue to get through security. This was outdoors though (although we were under a roof) and it was COLD! Bring a coat! When the security guard let us through we passed through security, then waited in another queue by the lifts where a woman had a look at our application and passed us on to a receptionist in the next room.
The receptionist took our reference number, had a look at our passports, the application form and my Life in the UK test certificate (I finally found out what I got on it - she was very impressed it was a 24/24!) and asked if we had bank statements, although we didn't have to show those to her. She also checked to make sure I had at least one document from September 2006 - December 2006 and then told us that it looked like we had plenty more documents than the eight (er, the application says six!?) that were required.
Then she sent us upstairs to pay, then afterwards we were handed an printout with an appointment number and went over to wait in the sea of red benches... some seriously weird interior design going on there. Then we waited some more... finally (about an hour after we first arrived) we were called up to the desk.
The woman asked for our passports, the application, the life in the uk test certificate (again, she was very proud of my score - yes I am a nerd!) and our two years' worth of documents. Because I'm also a neurotic nerd, I had them organised in a notebook, by month order (the dates highlighted) and in clear plastic protectors. So I just passed the whole thing over and she picked what she wanted out of it. She probably picked about 12 things, including some bills, some council tax statements, bank statements, a phone bill and our NHS cards. She was really pleased that it was all organised and kept saying things like 'If every appointment was like this my job would be so much easier!' Then she made some photocopies, came back and said that I was granted an ILR, handed back our stuff and said we could pick up my new passport in about an hour and a half.
So that was it! Basically it was a lot of waiting (about 3 hours from the time we got there until I had my passport back) but relatively painless. Except for those awful red benches!
Anyway I hope this helps someone - it's a nice feeling not to have to worry about visas anymore! Basically I would recommend being organised as possible and taking much much more than they ask for! We had about 50 letters to us, and although the application said we only needed six she probably photocopied about a dozen. And bring a coat and a book.
Now, on to citizenship in 2009!
Michelle x
