ILR SET(M) extra documents requested

Firstly.....Hello!

I have been lurking here for several years and have always found this to be a wonderful place to find information and see people's stories x

My husband is currently here on a spouse visa and we applied for his SET(M) in January 2013 via the Settlement Checking Service. We went to the appointment with everything that was required for the application ( we have both been very careful to keep all our documents over the years for proof of cohabitation etc ). The woman checked all our documents and ticked them off on her timeline sheet and told us that they were fine. She copied our passports and returned them to us and she made copies of all the supporting documents. This all seemed to be ok and our case is very straight forward ( we have both worked for the whole two years, lived together the whole time, and we have more than enough bills and documents to prove everything ).

Today we received a letter from UKBA requesting the following evidence :

Detailed bank Statements from 2011, 2012

Most recent Council tax Bill 2011, 2012

Further documentary evidence from October 2010 - January 2013 for cohabitation

It must be some sort of mistake? Could they have lost the supporting documents the checking service sent? How do I go about solving this? Panicking slightly as they have only given us until the 26th March to get all this evidence to them.

It seems almost as if they have ignored the fact that we went through the checking service? I thought the whole point of the SCS was to provide a service that made sure we gave them the right documents that they needed? We even signed a form ( which we have ) to say we gave them the 6 pieces of cohabitation information from different sources. We gave them ( all jointly addressed ) Council Tax bills, Water Bills, gas and Electric Bills for the two year period. The woman said these were sufficient for proof and spaced out evenly through the two years.

I have no idea why they would need the bank statements and they don't say if they want the whole two years worth ( which seems insane ) we took 6 months worth of bank statements (the most recent ones ) for both of us to the appointment and the woman told us they were not required and she just copied one of the most recent months.

We are going to try and contact the Settlement Checking Service and the Immigration Enquiry Bureau but if anyone knows if there is a better way of resolving this please do let us know. We do have all the documents they have asked for in this new letter, but as we have gone through the SCS already this does seem to be just a mistake on their part, we just have no idea how to ask them to clarify what is actually wrong.

Any advice would be much appreciated!



Natasha and Matt

Hi,

This is the problem with the SCS. They just do what you could do - tick the boxes and provide whats asked for on the form. They don't take into account the individual's specific circumstances and there is no guarantee that what they do helps at all. To be fair to them some are better than others.

As the UKBA has asked for the documents you'll need to provide them or explain why any particular document is not available. If you can't make the deadline, you'll need to write to them explaining why you can't meet the deadline and giving an estimate as to when you will be able to provide them. 

The IEB is on the whole pretty useless. The SCS may not be willing to help either as you paid the fee and there is no duty on them to assist if any issues arise.

Thanks very much for the comment. Of course, you're absolutely right.

We gave the UKBA all the documents they asked for, they received them on the 19th March and on the 22nd they posted my ILR approval to me.  So everything worked out fine. Wishing I had just submitted a postal application and saved the money I spent on the SCS but I'm mainly glad it's all over.

Thanks again.

Matt