Well the good news is my wife passed the test on Friday afternoon! What a relief.
So now we just need to navigate her difficult employer who has decided to call a meeting about the process - such an easy time they give us all...
Congratulations
.
Can I just check the timing/order of these things? (sorry)
We have the application for ILR 95% completed - are at the payment screen now. Should we proceed with that and if so what happens afterwards?
We would like to be able to tell her HR that the application has been submitted and here is the ref number. That would calm things down I hope.
The date you pay for the application is your official application date and you have to show you met all the requirements on that date, so you MUST NOT pay for the visa until you have all the documents in your hands and are completely ready to upload them.
Therefore employer letter MUST be dated BEFORE the date you submit and pay for the visa application... if it is dated afterwards, you will not meet the visa requirements and the visa will be refused.
All documents must be dated BEFORE you apply online, and all of the following must be dated no more than 28 days before the date you submit the online application:
- latest payslip
- latest bank statement
- employer letter
Also, if you wish to use the Super Priority Service for £800 to get a decision within 24 hours of biometrics, slots are released at midnight every night and there are very few of them... so if you want to try to get one, you will need to wait until midnight to submit and pay for the visa - and you may need to try a few different times/nights to secure one.
But what deadlines would we need to meet once that happens - we still need to gather a couple more documents from people, scan, upload, attend biometrics.
- All documents must be gathered BEFORE you submit the online application
- Once the online application has been submitted, you will book biometrics - I believe you have about 2 months to attend biometrics after applying online
- you have until a couple of days before the biometrics appointment to upload all the documents
Also we were planning on going to Belfast for Easter and although her Maryland drivers license should in theory be fine it might be easier if she can keep her passport or BRP until just after that.
The passport and BRP are scanned and uploaded, which means she keeps them while the visa is processing. She cannot travel outside the UK after applying for the visa, but she should be fine to go to Belfast as it is in the UK.
So I guess the question is, if we were to pay and submit the application today, and have all our paperwork in order by the end of the week, what would be the most logical order to approach things.
As you have gathered, you CANNOT pay for and submit the application today because you do not have all the documents yet.
Once you have all the documents sorted and ready to upload, THEN you can submit and pay for the application.