ILR Application Procedure + Timelines - Reference Doc

Timeline info: I got my ILR—whew! Thanks to all of you for all of the guidance over the years, in particular ksand24 for answering loads of my anal questions, larrabee too, and mbmoffat for this fab checklist document, which I will be using for citizenship next.

For reference, my timeline for ILR was:

Super priority
Biometrics: Friday at 11am.
FES email submission confirmation at 11.00am (instant).
ILR approval email same day at 3.30 pm (4.5 hours from biometrics).
BRP received: Tuesday via courier. Came faster than I thought. Yay!

I also want to thank everyone. I just received my ILR last week thanks to everyone here. Once again special shout out to ksand24, larrabee and mbmoffat. All your help with my many questions and answering the questions of others has guided me through this crazy and stressful process. You all really are angels.

Now on to citizenship!!!!

Super Priority
Biometrics: Feb 28 Tuesday 9 AM
FES email confirmation 9:30 (Right after completion)
ILR approval email same day at 3 PM
BRP received March 3 Friday.

Congratulations guys!!! 

No, you should only provide the actual number of documents they have asked for (7 in each name). Any more may confuse the person making the decision.

You just need to include
- only 7 documents in each name, as per the list above
- a short letter of explanation for why the documents are not quite evenly-spaced (i.e. 'we did not receive any suitable official mail in both our names in August 2020, June 2021 and April 2022, so we are providing mail from Sept 2020, May 2021 and March 2022 instead')

As long as an explanation is included, there won't be an issue.

Hi - we have now submitted our application and are uploading docs to UKVCAS.

For our items of correspoendnece, we plan to include:

August 2020:
Barclays - applicant (dated Sept)
Tower Hamlets council - sponsor (Dated Sept)

January 2021:
Barclays - applicant
Barclays - sponsor

June 2021:
This is the tricky one.  We have:
Tower Hamlets council - joint (dated March)
Thames Water - applicant (dated March)
NHS - applicant (this has an April date on it but doesn't specify that it was sent on that specific date, it's listed as 'date of registration')
AmEx (credit card) - sponsor (dated June)

November 2021:
Barclays - applicant
Barclays - sponsor

April 2022:
Barclays - applicant
Barclays - sponsor

September 2022:
Barclays - applicant
Barclays - sponsor

February 2023:
Barclays - applicant
Santander - sponsor

Could you please let us know the best approach on June 2021?  I've drafted some wording below for our supporting letter but know you said previously to avoid including additional mail unnecessarily.

Items of correspondence:
- we did not receive any suitable official mail in both our names in August 2020, so have provided mail from September 2020 instead. 
- we moved home in March 2021 and are lacking correspondence from our new address in June 2021.  Instead we have provided a piece of joint mail from March 2021, a piece of mail addressed to Dana from March 2021, a piece of mail addressed to Dana from April 2021, and a piece of mail addressed to James from June 2021.

Thanks as ever!

Hi - we have now submitted our application and are uploading docs to UKVCAS.

For our items of correspoendnece, we plan to include:

August 2020:
Barclays - applicant (dated Sept)
Tower Hamlets council - sponsor (Dated Sept)

January 2021:
Barclays - applicant
Barclays - sponsor

June 2021:
This is the tricky one.  We have:
Tower Hamlets council - joint (dated March)
Thames Water - applicant (dated March)
NHS - applicant (this has an April date on it but doesn't specify that it was sent on that specific date, it's listed as 'date of registration')
AmEx (credit card) - sponsor (dated June)

November 2021:
Barclays - applicant
Barclays - sponsor

April 2022:
Barclays - applicant
Barclays - sponsor

September 2022:
Barclays - applicant
Barclays - sponsor

February 2023:
Barclays - applicant
Santander - sponsor

Could you please let us know the best approach on June 2021?  I've drafted some wording below for our supporting letter but know you said previously to avoid including additional mail unnecessarily.

Items of correspondence:
- we did not receive any suitable official mail in both our names in August 2020, so have provided mail from September 2020 instead. 
- we moved home in March 2021 and are lacking correspondence from our new address in June 2021.  Instead we have provided a piece of joint mail from March 2021, a piece of mail addressed to Dana from March 2021, a piece of mail addressed to Dana from April 2021, and a piece of mail addressed to James from June 2021.

Thanks as ever!

So sorry to bump this, wondering if anyone can advise as we need to upload docs over the coming days!

Hi, wanted to put our timeline on here for reference:

Super priority ILR:
Applied Friday 17 March
Biometrics 7:30am Friday 24 March
Confirmation of documents being sent received at 08:20am Friday 24 March
Application approval email 11:54am Friday 24 March

Thank you so much to the people on this forum. It has been an absolute life saver over the years, your calm guidance has kept me and my wife sane. I can’t believe she now has permanent residency!!!

Edit: Also thought people might find it interesting, but I uploaded online bank statements and they didn't have a problem with it.

Hi, wanted to put our timeline on here for reference:

Super priority ILR:
Applied Friday 17 March
Biometrics 7:30am Friday 24 March
Confirmation of documents being sent received at 08:20am Friday 24 March
Application approval email 11:54am Friday 24 March

Thank you so much to the people on this forum. It has been an absolute life saver over the years, your calm guidance has kept me and my wife sane. I can’t believe she now has permanent residency!!!

Edit: Also thought people might find it interesting, but I uploaded online bank statements and they didn't have a problem with it.

Very glad you were approved with the online bank statements - we have to use one for the employment pay verification, but not the cohabitation mail.

We were able to get a priority slot by staying awake until 1am on a Monday morning (Sunday night), biometrics at the end of the month because I can't travel beyond the closest location right now but it was free so I'm not mad about the timing!

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

Hey all! Is there info on wait time for those of us who didn't opt for priority? A few months ago I'd heard 6-12 months, and more recently it sounded like they were back down to 6 months. Was just curious if anyone has recently received their ILR without priority and how long it took!

I am looking to see the non-super priority timelines as well.

I don't have any real reason to rush it, but if it's taking a year I am hesitant to not go for priority. Would love to hear if anyone knows.

I have an answer to my own question now and wanted to share this info in case others needed it!

I applied for my ILR and opted for NON-PRIORITY. My timeline:

Application submitted: 19 March
Biometrics appointment: 14 April (free, but I paid for document checking)
Email with approval: 20 April

So non-priority took one month. I was honestly shocked that the approval came through so quickly. I was prepared to wait the full six months or longer, so this is a delightful surprise, AND I'm pleased now that we didn't pay for priority.

A few additional details: I followed the guide on this thread to the letter about what to include and how. Our application is relatively straightforward because we use only my husband's PAYE income and have no dependents. So that probably helped speed things up!

Thank you to EVERYONE on this forum who devotes their time and energy. You've guided me through this process every step of the way, and I can't thank you enough. I will take six months to enjoy this feeling and then tackle citizenship! See you then!

Standard/ non priority.
Application submitted: 27 March 2023
Biometrics appointment: 24 April 2023 (free)
Documents submitted: 19 April 2023
Email with approval: N/A
Received BRP: N/A

Hi all,

I have a few ILR questions on Super Priority:

1. Can I apply for my wife?  Sitting up until 1am to find slots isnt easy but I'm willing to do that to find an appointment. I sort of remember my wife filling in the FLR document online last time, so I'm trying to work out if she can complete the core part, and then before submitting I can take over for the 1am night shift.

2. My bank statement always arrives 2 weeks after end of the previous month. Currently I have 01-31 March statement so with the rule about core documents not being older than 28 days within application, then currently I have until 28 April to apply. If I miss that then next one will be 28 May. My wife's visa expires on 29 June. The method of staying up until 1am confuses me regarding this If no slots are available by 28 April then am I right in saying I have to hold off until my next bank statement arrives? How do people handle waiting for a slot and seeing their core documents (payslips, employee letter, bank statement) get older than 28 days?

Thanks,
Martin

Hi all,

I have a few ILR questions on Super Priority:

1. Can I apply for my wife?  Sitting up until 1am to find slots isnt easy but I'm willing to do that to find an appointment. I sort of remember my wife filling in the FLR document online last time, so I'm trying to work out if she can complete the core part, and then before submitting I can take over for the 1am night shift.

2. My bank statement always arrives 2 weeks after end of the previous month. Currently I have 01-31 March statement so with the rule about core documents not being older than 28 days within application, then currently I have until 28 April to apply. If I miss that then next one will be 28 May. My wife's visa expires on 29 June. The method of staying up until 1am confuses me regarding this If no slots are available by 28 April then am I right in saying I have to hold off until my next bank statement arrives? How do people handle waiting for a slot and seeing their core documents (payslips, employee letter, bank statement) get older than 28 days?

Thanks,
Martin

As long as you have the login info you can submit it. It does look like non-priority is pretty quick right now but I am glad to have the security of a 1-day decision in case that changes suddenly.

We requested a partial statement online. It took a week or so to arrive but the date was correct.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

Slightly urgent question - we were scanning documents and discovered my husband's passport (proving he's a British citizen) is expired. Is there any other evidence that can be used for that, or will the expired one suffice because they can check it? He's submitting the renewal today but now I'm panicked again.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

We requested a partial statement online. It took a week or so to arrive but the date was correct.

Alternatively, you can go into your local bank branch (if there is one) and request that they print a partial statement for you in-branch.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk