Hints and Suggestions:

1. Make an appointment with the Visa people in Croydon. Do not just turn up or you will queue all day. An appointment should take you to the front of the line (actually it's a different line), yet you will still need to wait probably for a while.

2. Check your current Ancestry Visa very, very carefully. You can only apply for ILR up two two weeks prior to the completion of your four years. This four years started from the date the first entry stamp on the visa says. Do not confuse this with the date your Ancestry Visa was actually issued.

3. You'll need all day. Once you get through the first bit where you pay the money and they do a little interview, they then take your passport from you and tell you the visa will be ready in 3 to 4 hours. You're in Croydon, leave. Get a train to Clapham or Victoria. Go for coffee. Go for beer. Whatever, you have half a day to kill.

4. Read all the application instructions exceedingly carefully. Spend time preparing your documents. Check them. Check them again. Check them again. You don't want to take a day off work, make an appointment, go to Croydon only to find that one tiny insignificant piece of documentation is missing. It's a trap for young players.

Cheers mate. Ange was recently told by a NI person that we had to do it from the date that the VISA was issued, not the date we first entered the country. It was issued in Feb but I didn't enter the country until the end of March. Thanks for that.

So, a few more months yet. I wonder how I'd go leaving and trying to come back in before the 4 years from the first time I entered the country but after the VISA issue date. I reckon they'd have an issue with that.

Hrmmm

He won't be going back to the christmas Kangaroo again. :lol:

Better bring forward the Assen DD round to the beginning of March then :lol:

Where was the good news?

First dibs on yer 998r, 15,000 ...............$aus.

Just need to call a mate at the FO to make sure the deal will happen!!

If yer lucky Blunket will be giving yer application the once over!


Ray.

Maybe it's changed in the last year, but I'd triple check. I turned up two weeks before the ISSUE date on my Ancestry Visa, but this was about 6 weeks before my first ARRIVAL date. They told me to bugger off and come back two weeks before my arrival date.

Dunno about coming and going etc, but I reckon it's four year from your arrival date. The issue date is mostly just there because you need to validate your visa (ie arrive in the UK) no more than 6 months after it was issued.

I'll check it out anyway, thanks again.

Ray - you can have first dibs but you'll need a fatter wallet than that! I want to take it back to Aus when I eventually go home, these things still fetch $30kAUD.

ah, there's the good news.......''he's eventually going home'':lol:

WeeJohnyB

Looks like I'll be heckling on Thursday night then ... ;)

Watch out for the maltesers!