Mrs. ES Case
Mrs. ES approached us on the 13th of January 2020 to apply for the Settle Status.
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Mrs. ES is 86 years old, she born on 27th of December 1934,
Mrs ES arrived in the United Kingdom on 1954 from Finland,
Mrs. ES married a British citizen on 31st July 1965 with who she still living in London.
Mrs. ES attended to the dropping session and brought with her passport and a letter from
home office showing she was granted with Indefinitely Leave to Remain in United Kingdom
dated 1964.
As we stated she got ILR the system did not request evidence and considered Mrs. ES for
Settle Status.
At the time of the phone conversation regarding the application, Mrs. ES seemed to be very
stressful about the application. I explained to her that she may need to show her residence
in the United Kingdom with Bank Statements, Council Tax or other documents she may
have. As she seemed to be confused and distressed I suggested to come to the session with
the letter showing her ILR and if Home Office may request extra information we will see
how we will sorted it.
On 28th of January 2020 Home Office request extra evidence regarding IDR. I left some
messages to Mrs. ES but I did not receive a reply. Home Office sent another email on 27th of
February 2020 requesting evidence for her residence for the last 5 years but Mrs. ES did not
reply to my messages again.
On 8th of April and 1st of June we received as well two more messages from Home Office.
Over the lockdown I was unable to contact Mrs. ES as her file was locket on our office. The
application was made using our mobile phone and email address as Mrs. ES did not have a
mobile phone and also she was not familiar with internet at the time of the application was
submitted. Her husband had mobile phone and email but he was not with us and we could
not contact him at that moment, so we decided to use our contact details with Mrs. ES
consent.
I finally contacted Mrs. ES on 2nd of June after searching online for her land line phone,
hopefully I had her full name and post code. I explained that we needed extra
documentation in order continue with the application process. She was a bit stressed about
this and did not understand why she needs to prove her residence as she was living in the
United Kingdom since 1954. She tried to contact the Resolution Centre but called me back
saying they do not know anything about her.
With the help of her husband, Mr. MS, I could reunite evidence of Mrs. ES’s residence for
the last 5 years. I had to explain to Mr. MS how to take pictures and add them to emails and
send them to me. Mr. MS emailed me Pension letters in Mrs. ES’s name since 2014 missing
the letter from 2019, they could not find the letter for that year, but Mr. MS states that he
added the letter for 2020 proving she still receive her pension after 2019 until today.
I added a support letter together with the documents the couple reunited and sent to Hoe
Office on 5th of June 2020, and on 15th June 2020 Mrs. ES was granted with Settle Status.
Conclusion
It is a reality that elder people is struggling to apply for Settle Status them self.
Firstly, it causes distress and confusion.
Secondly, because they are not familiar with technology and even when we help them doing
the application for them, if it is not possible to meet them in person (as it happens at the
moment over the lockdown, it is complicated to have documentation by digital tools as
smart phones or computers.
Finally they cannot understand why, being living for almost all their lives in the United
Kingdom, married with a British citizen in this case, they still need to prove their residence
and life here in the United Kingdom.