Unmarried Partner Visa Experience at the Croydon PEO

so months and months of agonizing over paperworks and compiling evidence together, we finally went to apply in person today and got the Unmarried Partner Visa!!!
I came to this forum and asked for help many times and so many people have helped me out so I'd like to share my experience with everyone so I can help, too!

My status: Student visa, expires in Oct. 31, 2008, I have studied here for three years and just graduated last week.
Boyfriend Status: British citizen, has a full-time job, £30k salary
Couple status: Lived in the same share house for over 2 years, we met in this house as housemates and began a relationship six months after he moved in (our anniversary is June, 2006). We do not have any joint account together but because we are still living in the same house, we both have mails coming to the same address.

Documents we took with us:
Passports (his and mine)
20+ documents per person from June 2006 - June 2008 with names and addresses
School attendance letter and grade book and diploma
Boyfriend payslips
Bank statements (some were mixed in with the 20+ documents)
Finance budget plan
Letters from friends and family
Photos
(These were all in one big binder and in another big binder, I've compiled all the other documents that I didn't think was necessary but I still brought it just in case, all separated by month/year)

Experience at the PEO Office

It is located in West Croydon but we took the train to East Croydon from Victoria Station and it was very easy to find. From the exit, there are signs everywhere leading to the Home Office. The building is called Lunar House, a big, tall, white building, you can't miss it.

At the entrance, there are three lines, two for premium pre booked appointment and one for posted pre booked appointment. Once you stood in line, there will be one or two security guards asking you for appointment time. It is recommended to be there 30 minutes prior to your appointment, we got there about 45 min before and depending on the time of your appointment, the guards will tell you to remain in line or to go inside the building.

Once inside the building, you would go through a security check, like in the airport. Everyone is very nice, I was very surprised but everyone is there to help, not to intimidate.

After security check, another lady will ask you for your time of appointment and see your application briefly, she will then tell you to stand in another line and just wait. We waited about 10 minutes, there were many windows operating so you would not wait that long.

Once you get to the front, you will be told to go to the next available window. This is the reception area and the initial check point. Our appointment was actually on June 30th, we went though all that stuff then got to the receptionist desk and the man asked for our passports. The first thing he said to me was "i need to see you old passport as well" which I did not bring. The reason being my passport expired in 2007 and there were two UK student visas on that from 2005 - 2007 and the new passport only had 2007 so they could not check how many times I came in and out of UK. I was so upset because we didn't even go through the first check point! The gentleman was kind enough to book us another appointment and we were lucky enough it was the next day (which is today).

When I came home, I found my old passport and this time, i decided to bring even more documents, that's why I brought the second binder (mentioned above) and this is basically every single piece of paperwork that I didn't think was relevant, as long as it had addresses, names, and dates on it, I put it in the binder.

So today when we went, we got called to the receptionist desk and it was a really nice lady and the first thing she asked were the application and passports (all 3, old, new, and my boyfriend's). Second thing asked were school papers, grade books, and diploma. She actually has a check list herself so she was just asking for the things listed on that paper. Next she asked for June 2006 paperwork from both of us and compared for a brief minute. She gave all the paper back, gave us a number, and told us to go upstairs and pay and wait.

We then go to the first floor and you would be greeted by a very nice person at the entrance who will look at your number card and send you in. You then stand in line and pay the fee (£595) and they accept all major credit cards.

After you pay, she will tell you to walk to the otherside of the room, which is where everything else will take place (that is the interviewing with case worker, biometric test, etc) and wait for your number to be called.

The room is quite big, red metal chairs and big windows and a few plasma tvs. You would go to the end of the room for the last two windows, Window 6 and Window 7. This is where you register. Your number will be called to one of the windows. Once you go, you give in your application and passport and a nice lady on the other side of the window will register your information on the computer. Takes about 5 minutes. Then she'll return all the paperworks to you and tell you to sit again and wait for your number to be called for the Biometric Test.

The Biometric Test is taken place in Window 1 - 5 which is in another room, a door with a fingerprint on it (HO does have a little bit of humor...). This bit is the easiest: You go in, sit down, fill out a piece of paper asking your name and you sign, take your fingerprints, take your picture, and you're done.

You're back into the big room waiting for your number to be called the third time and this time is with a caseworker. We waited about 20 minutes and got called. This is the bit that was worrying.

The lady was so nice, she didn't talk alot, didn't ask a lot of questions, asked for the application and the passports, typed in some info. Then she asked us to separate documents for 2006, 2007, and 2008 so we did 2 piles for each year, one for him, and one for me. She then asked year by year. She will then look through the paperworks and takes only what she thinks is relevant. She did this for all the years. But here was the tricky part: She wanted even more paperworks because she need from 5 different sources PER YEAR, not 5 sources throughout 2 years, which is what I had. We did not have all those different bills so we only had bank statements, mobile phone bills, TV bills, insurance, etc so I had to dig through my "extra binder" for other documents and just gave her all of 2006, 2007, and 2008 and just let her filter through what she needs.

Last thing she asked for were three months of payslips, just my boyfriend since I don't work. She did not check any other financial documents, not even the nice little budget plan we had prepared. Didn't look at photos, or letters from friends and families.

So keypoint here: Remember to bring EVERYTHING for those two years because you never know what they will look for so just bring all of it.

She then just typed more and didn't say anything to us, smiling once in a while and we were just sitting here going mad..well, i was, my boyfriend was too busy making jokes....she then took my passport, told us she needs to photocopy stuff so she went away for a few minutes. She came back, said to me, everything is fine, you are very organized. Come back and pick up your passport from Window 16 in about an hour. I just looked at her and said if I could touch you..I would hug you...she just smiled and said don't worry, everything is good!

We stayed in the room and waited. The door closes at 4pm and there are no readmittance after 4 so this was about 3:45 when she told us so we just stayed. There is a coffee shop on the 2nd floor to get some refreshments.

We waited for about 45 minutes and they will call your number for one last time and then you will receive your passport with a pretty Resident Permit stamp on it which I did!!!

I skipped out of the building, I was so happy and so relieved because now my bf and I can really relax and live, I can get a job and we can just relax!!

I know this was very long but when I was in the process of preparation, I really wanted to read about people's experience as to what to expect so I hope this helps.

All I can say is be organized, I am incredibly anal so all the paperworks were cross referenced, indexed, separated by dividers, not by year, just by his and mine. We also wrote cover letters but they didn't read them. This organization is really for your sake since they do not take the folders/binders, they ask you for the month/year, and you find it so the more organized you are or seem to them, I think it impresses them as it saves them time as well.

Bring everything and I do mean everything, even if you think it's silly. Even though we brought photos and letters and she didn't read them, we think it's because we were so organized and we had so much, she didn't think it was necessary to ask for more evidence but if you are lacking, just put it in your binder. She didn't even ask us about living situation ( we currently live with 6 other people in a huge 8 bedroom house), all in all, we exchanged about...10 sentences.

I know it's nerve wrecking, I was a mess when I went, praying all the way through and I was nervous till I had the passport in my hands but if you have the two years cohabitation evidence, you are in pretty good hands.

I'm so glad we did it the Premium service in person because 1. We'd have to wait via post and who knows how long that'd take and 2. if we had applied via post and she needed all that extra paperworks, we wouldn't have been able to give it to her so all in all, we were happy we were able to have one-on-one process and I don't think the checking officers are so strict that they can't see a couple who has obviously put through a lot of work into this and not think "this is the couple that is serious".

The people at PEO were exceptionally nice, no BS, straight to the point and I was very impressed.

If anyone has any questions regarding the application process, feel free to contact me, I'll do my best to answer you.

P.S. Don't forget to bring your old passport if it just expired recently!!

Once again, thanks for everyone who helped me and good luck to everyone!

Tiffany