# Cardiff PEO and FLR(M) - My Experience!



## Leanna (Oct 22, 2012)

Hello Everyone!

After weeks and weeks of stress, questions, paperwork and all that I'm happy to share that I've been granted my FLR(M) for the next 2.5 years! I originally came to Cardiff on a fiancee VISA, my husband and I got married at the end of November, and I booked my PEO Appointment a few weeks later. 

For those of you who care, I'd like to share my experience today at Cardiff PEO. Again, your experience may be different depending on your situation, but here's how our day went.

We had an appointment at 11:30 a.m. We arrived about 10:45 a.m. and proceeded through security. They told us it might be a bit of a wait as they had had computer issues that morning and we running a bit of a backlog. They also said that because Cardiff is meant to have an onslaught of snow this weekend, more people than usual came in for appointments today. Either way, we switched our cell phones off (no cell phones/computers/etc allowed on inside) and took a seat.

To our surprise, an officer came up to us within about 10 minutes and ushered us to a desk to go over our application. She was incredibly nice and friendly, which put us at ease automatically. She had a quick glance through the first few pages of our form FLR(M), then asked for our passports & supporting documents. She left to process our payment and told us to have a seat and I'd be called for biometrics.

Took about 45 minutes before I was called up. Turns out they only had 1 computer/camera set up and running (the other two were broken) which explains the long wait for biometrics. All in all that was painless. Though I was surprised that they were taking my photo again, as I had assumed that the passport photos I submitted were to be put on my card, but that's incorrect. Thought you should know in case you care a lot about how you look in your photos!

After that I was informed my payment hadn't gone through (tried using a Canadian VISA card but I'm guess they flagged such a large purchase) so they re-printed out the payment page and I filled it in again with different card details. They gave me the option of leaving straight away or waiting for this payment to go through before leaving just to make sure it was okay. I opted to stay to ensure payment had gone through, and all in all waited another 30 minutes or so before they confirmed that it had. 

After that we were given permission to leave and they would call us when our application was done. We left the office about 12:30 p.m. We wandered around Cardiff until approximately 3 p.m., when we decided to return to the office early as it was cold and wet outside. When we returned security notified the PEO and we took a seat. About 3:45 p.m. they called me up to the desk and told me that my application was successful and I would receive my BRP in about 10 working days! 

Overall the process was incredibly simple and straightforward. Everyone there was friendly and helpful. I'm looking forward to getting my card in the mail and going job hunting!

We included way more documentation than we needed, but these are the documents we know they looked at:

- Form FLR(M)
- My current & previous passport
- My husband's current passport
- Both mine & my husbands birth certificates
- Our Wedding Certificate
- 12 months of my husbands payslips
- 12 months of my husband's bank statements 
- My husband's original job contract
- My husband's most recent P60
- Letter from Husband's work showing pay raise in July 
- Proof of address (bills & letters) to both me & my husband
- Tenancy Agreement & Letter from landlord

These are the things we brought that they didn't seem to care about:

- Our Wedding Photos
- Proof of Relationship
- Proof of previous address (some of his payslips were addressed to old addresses)
- My college degree 

The only interesting thing is that we had printed our 12 months of his bank statements online *as well* as include 12 months official bank printed ones, and they appear to have taken the online printouts as well as the photocopies of the bank originals. Not sure why they needed both copies, as we had only included the online ones as we already had them printed. 

We also included photocopies of all our official documents which they took. 

Overall I'm so, so pleased that we booked and paid for the same-day premium service, as its taken a huge load off - it was definitely worth the extra money. 

If anyone has any questions about our application, our documents, or anything, feel free to comment and I will get back to you as best I can. 

This process was made so much simpler with the amazing help from everyone on this forum. Thank you to everyone who took the time to answer every single tiny question I had, you've all been fantastic. 

Saying that, I'm certainly not going anywhere. This is only my first of two FLR(M) stages, then its ILR and all that jazz. So I'm looking forward to sharing more fun and inevitable stresses over the next few years with everyone!

Again, thanks a million for everyone's help, and if you have any questions about anything, let me know! I'm off to relax for the evening and order a celebratory curry with my husband!


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## WestCoastCanadianGirl (Mar 17, 2012)

Congratulations on your approval and thanks for sharing!


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Thank you for sharing your experience. It seems to have gone very smoothly.

Your BRP will be delivered by a courier company, who will require your ID and signature before handing over the packet. So you must stay in, or have to arrange re-delivery.


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## Leanna (Oct 22, 2012)

Joppa said:


> Thank you for sharing your experience. It seems to have gone very smoothly.
> 
> Your BRP will be delivered by a courier company, who will require your ID and signature before handing over the packet. So you must stay in, or have to arrange re-delivery.


Yes, it went very smoothly, which was a huge relief.

Thanks for the advice re: BRP! It'll be hard, having to stay home and wait for the delivery, but thankfully I have the freedom to do so. Wonder which courier it'll come with? I know it says within 10 business days, I wonder if I can steal Monday to myself and get some things done, doubt it'd be here that fast? Who knows. Maybe better to just stay in for the week until it gets here!


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## 2farapart (Aug 18, 2011)

In East Anglia, UKBA are hand-delivering them personally. I thought at first it was some kind of new enforcement strategy when my partner took delivery of her first BRP last year. A non-uniformed chap wearing a UKBA badge and driving a regular car. He photographed her and our house name, and asked her whereabouts I was (also at home) before allowing her to sign for her BRP.

After getting her name changed recently, the BRP was last week delivered by the very same exhausted-looking guy! No photo this time. By way of chat he said he had "thousands" to deliver. Not sure why East Anglia (or at least our part) is not being delivered by courier. Perhaps we have dubious reputation!

Anyway, congratulations, Leanna - glad you got your FLR!  Each time, our BRP has been delivered within two days of notification, so it might come quickly.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Leanna said:


> Yes, it went very smoothly, which was a huge relief.
> 
> Thanks for the advice re: BRP! It'll be hard, having to stay home and wait for the delivery, but thankfully I have the freedom to do so. Wonder which courier it'll come with? I know it says within 10 business days, I wonder if I can steal Monday to myself and get some things done, doubt it'd be here that fast? Who knows. Maybe better to just stay in for the week until it gets here!


DX Group homepage is the company that has contract with UKBA to deliver BRPs.


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## WestCoastCanadianGirl (Mar 17, 2012)

For Central London, they use DX Group (as specified by Joppa).

If you're not in when they come 'round, they'll snail mail you a letter telling you that they've been 'round and give instructions on how to ring them back to arrange for delivery (one of those "between the hours of 8am-4pm" type deals) but for a nominal fee (£6 I think, payable in advance, of course), you can name the time window (about 2 hours) in which they'll deliver. I paid the fee and they showed up at the back end of the window I specified... it annoyed me to have to pay, but I wanted the freedom to not have to wonder when they'd show up and I figured that my desire to have my beloved BRP (which I ended up having to send back to them anyway because of a typo in "Burnaby," my city of birth) in my hands was worth more than the fee, so I coughed it up and it showed up.


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## Leanna (Oct 22, 2012)

WestCoastCanadianGirl said:


> For Central London, they use DX Group (as specified by Joppa).
> 
> If you're not in when they come 'round, they'll snail mail you a letter telling you that they've been 'round and give instructions on how to ring them back to arrange for delivery (one of those "between the hours of 8am-4pm" type deals) but for a nominal fee (£6 I think, payable in advance, of course), you can name the time window (about 2 hours) in which they'll deliver. I paid the fee and they showed up at the back end of the window I specified... it annoyed me to have to pay, but I wanted the freedom to not have to wonder when they'd show up and I figured that my desire to have my beloved BRP (which I ended up having to send back to them anyway because of a typo in "Burnaby," my city of birth) in my hands was worth more than the fee, so I coughed it up and it showed up.


Good point. I don't mind staying in 8-4, if I only knew the day! Ah, well. I'd rather have it, as you said, so I'll just suck it up and stay in for a few days and hopefully it'll show!


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## laurastew (Oct 15, 2012)

Leanna said:


> Good point. I don't mind staying in 8-4, if I only knew the day!


For me (Central London address) they came on a day only 4 days after my PEO appointment so I wasn't expecting it nor at home. They left a delivery slip that had instructions on how to reschedule the delivery (for free). On the day I nominated they came before 10am which was really nice.


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## MelodyPond (Jan 4, 2013)

Leanna said:


> Yes, it went very smoothly, which was a huge relief.
> 
> Thanks for the advice re: BRP! It'll be hard, having to stay home and wait for the delivery, but thankfully I have the freedom to do so. Wonder which courier it'll come with? I know it says within 10 business days, I wonder if I can steal Monday to myself and get some things done, doubt it'd be here that fast? Who knows. Maybe better to just stay in for the week until it gets here!



Congratulations Leanna, I'm glad it all went so well! 

In my case I did have to stay home because the main entrance to our building has a password (and no door bell) so to make sure they delivered it I had to make sure they could get in. I put a note and left the door open for a couple of days but still someone was silly enough to close the door and remove the sign (probably some other delivery guy) precisely the day it was delivered. Luckily I did hear the delivery guy knock and so I ran out to open. He had no badge, no uniform and the car was a normal car too. I did know it was still from a courier service because they said so at the PEO so I was not concerned. So he asked me to show an ID which I didn't have with me so ran back inside and he followed to the door. There he told me off (not in a bad way though) for not leaving the door open lol but I explained what had happened though still he insisted next time (?) I should leave the door open so I don't think he believed me lol. I also had to sign like Joppa says. Anyway because it's hard to deliver things where I leave he also asked me if he could simply knock on my window next time as he now knows which one he should knock. I did wonder why he was so concerned about this as I don't expect to receive anything else from UKBA till next year when I change the name on the BRP. 

So in my area (West Midlands) the delivery system is similar to how they do it over East Anglia as 2far told us, and it seems to be a designated man from the courier service others have stated above.


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## sherris (Jul 30, 2013)

I recently went to the Cardiff PEO office too, and all the staff members were incredibly nice. Very patient, their instructions are clear and also very relaxed. They even took a good picture (amazing picture for BRP standards) for my BRP! The previous one I got was taken in a post office and I looked awful in it. A little icing on the cake eh....


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## LeeReddy (Jun 5, 2013)

Hi Leanna,

My partner and I will be getting married in January 2014, and I will be applying for FLR (M) shortly thereafter. I am still in Malaysia and will only be moving over in January 2014. 

Can I ask how you managed to obtain documentation for "Proof of address (bills & letters) to both me & my husband" (even though you weren't residing together until you got married) please?

I'm a little concerned that at present, there are no bills in both our names, and whether we have to have these when the application is made. 

Thanks!


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## Leanna (Oct 22, 2012)

LeeReddy said:


> Hi Leanna,
> 
> My partner and I will be getting married in January 2014, and I will be applying for FLR (M) shortly thereafter. I am still in Malaysia and will only be moving over in January 2014.
> 
> ...


I moved to the UK in October 2012 and we married in November 2012. We didn't apply for our FLR (M) until the end of January 2013. That was plenty of time for me to add my name to the council tax, open a bank account in my name and add my name to other documents such as our tenancy agreement.


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