My applying for ILR story so far.....

Hi everyone,

I don't post on here much but I keep thinking I should more often! Invaluable adviceand encouragement is always offered on here!

I just applied for my ILR by post on December 1st. Just a word of warning to anyone who is submitting by post- I have been doing a lot of shopping online recently for Christmas around the time that my visa application was sent off.

I was away from home for work one evening when my husband rang me to tell me our bank, (Abbey) had called for me. I rang them  and they told me that they had noticed a lot of recent card transaction and they wanted to check a few transactions with me. Now the transactions weren't for very much, 5, 10, 20 quid at a time but they told me that they had denied a 750 transaction to The home office because they thought there was too much recent activity on my account. I had more then enough money in my account, so it was extremely frusturating, especially as they only called me after they denied the payment. They then told me that if they tried to put the payment through again it would definitely go through. A bit late for that now I tried to explain! I tried to ring the visa enquiry line the next day, they told me I wasn't on the system yet so there was nothing they could do and that they would probably just end up sending my whole visa back to me. In the meantime that week, I got a letter saying they had received my visa application, and I now had a reference number and they would contact me by phone, email or in writing if they had any queries or payment problems. So I waited some more, thinking, surely they will contact me, they had my home number, work number, and two mobile numbers for me. But alas, 4 days ago I received the whole application back, with a letter with no reference number on it, and a new application form saying I needed to re-fill it out all over again and send it in again. I did so, and am now waiting for them to take payment again.....praying that my bank will not do the same thing again.


so anyways - thats my story so far. i don't know if abbey is just a crap bank? i know they were just trying to be secure but I didnt have that much money coming out of my account otherwise, it all just seems a bit ridiculous that they denied the one thing i really needed to go through - we have had other problems with abbey bank though, perhpas its time for a change!

so wish me luck, my work is freaking out that I am not going to have a new visa by the time the old one expires (31 december) but esentially the government is saying its okay to be here with an expired visa if you can't submit your application 30 days before it is due to expire and they can't guarantee when it will be ready by?

has anyone else run into this issue at their work? is there anything in writing anywhere saying you are able to work whilst your visa is being processed?

thanks,
ashley

Ashley-Thanks for posting this. This is not the first time I've read about this happening.

It's made me think I might call my credit card company before I submit my ILR application next October. We do this sometimes to let them know when we're travelling out of the country, and they will put a note on the account so that the activity doesn't cause any concern.

I hope it all gets sorted quickly!

Hi everyone,

I don't post on here much but I keep thinking I should more often! Invaluable adviceand encouragement is always offered on here!

I just applied for my ILR by post on December 1st. Just a word of warning to anyone who is submitting by post- I have been doing a lot of shopping online recently for Christmas around the time that my visa application was sent off.

I was away from home for work one evening when my husband rang me to tell me our bank, (Abbey) had called for me. I rang them  and they told me that they had noticed a lot of recent card transaction and they wanted to check a few transactions with me. Now the transactions weren't for very much, 5, 10, 20 quid at a time but they told me that they had denied a 750 transaction to The home office because they thought there was too much recent activity on my account. I had more then enough money in my account, so it was extremely frusturating, especially as they only called me after they denied the payment. They then told me that if they tried to put the payment through again it would definitely go through. A bit late for that now I tried to explain! I tried to ring the visa enquiry line the next day, they told me I wasn't on the system yet so there was nothing they could do and that they would probably just end up sending my whole visa back to me. In the meantime that week, I got a letter saying they had received my visa application, and I now had a reference number and they would contact me by phone, email or in writing if they had any queries or payment problems. So I waited some more, thinking, surely they will contact me, they had my home number, work number, and two mobile numbers for me. But alas, 4 days ago I received the whole application back, with a letter with no reference number on it, and a new application form saying I needed to re-fill it out all over again and send it in again. I did so, and am now waiting for them to take payment again.....praying that my bank will not do the same thing again.


so anyways - thats my story so far. i don't know if abbey is just a crap bank? i know they were just trying to be secure but I didnt have that much money coming out of my account otherwise, it all just seems a bit ridiculous that they denied the one thing i really needed to go through - we have had other problems with abbey bank though, perhpas its time for a change!

so wish me luck, my work is freaking out that I am not going to have a new visa by the time the old one expires (31 december) but esentially the government is saying its okay to be here with an expired visa if you can't submit your application 30 days before it is due to expire and they can't guarantee when it will be ready by?

has anyone else run into this issue at their work? is there anything in writing anywhere saying you are able to work whilst your visa is being processed?

thanks,
ashley

I think as long as you have a visa application processing you're fine but Vicky can likely clarify.

Ashley-Thanks for posting this. This is not the first time I've read about this happening.

It's made me think I might call my credit card company before I submit my ILR application next October. We do this sometimes to let them know when we're travelling out of the country, and they will put a note on the account so that the activity doesn't cause any concern.

Excellent idea to contact the bank ahead of time.  Whether it's ILR, FLR, or any other major and very important transaction!

1. I hope Abbey works differently, but Barclays won't let me pre-authorize transactions with them if I use my debit card. I tried several times and had large transactions rejected anyway and had to call security to sort it out. Which is why we put the ILR fee on the credit card and not my debit card. I had too many nightmares that Barcs would bounce it if we used debit.

2. Assuming you weren't out of status when you applied (your previous visa hadn't expired) you retain the same immigration status while the application is being considered I believe. Meaning, if you were able to work before, you are still able to now.

2. Assuming you weren't out of status when you applied (your previous visa hadn't expired) you retain the same immigration status while the application is being considered I believe. Meaning, if you were able to work before, you are still able to now.

ahh this is good to know. no, i wasnt out of date when i applied, so i should still have further leave to remain then.


Also - I checked my bank today and the payment did come out today! thank god, that means eveything has been received and hopefully it wont take too long to process, but we'll see. but at least they have their money now!