I'm a native-born UK subject married to a Czech citizen (since 2006) and she has been living in the UK since 2003. We have a daughter who is a UK subject. My wife worked here for the first 3 years, so has a national insurance number and was registered under the workers' registration scheme (now finished), then left work to look after our child and registered for home responsibilities protection. She is the carer of a child with British nationality, if that makes a difference. Although she is from a European Economic Area state and entitled to be here, as she finished her registration in Prague, she wanted to have ILR here to make her residence official and also to protect her pension (or spouses right to my pension if I go first). Also, when the UK leaves the EU in a few years' time, it would be a protective measure for her to have permanent residency.
We claim no benefits at all apart from child tax credit because I work and she is therefore not entitled to anything. We applied for ILR on the EEA3 form in the self-sufficiency section and were refused because (a) I don't give her 18,600 a year (does anyone?) and (b) she is not a member of a private healthcare scheme (which wasn't needed when she started living here). I did not fill out the 'related to a person with ILR from the EEA' section because I probably misunderstood it - this section appeared to apply only to people from other countries who had been granted permission to stay in the UK. I hadn't applied or been granted permission because I was born with the right to live in my place or origin.
Questions: (1) If she re-applies in the 'related to an EEA national with ILR' section, would this be correct or does it not apply to us? (2) In this section, is it still necessary to have private medical insurance? (3) Am I filling out the wrong form entirely? I just can't see why a wife of a UK passport holder and mother and main carer of a UK passport holder, who is from the EEA with treaty rights, who doesn't claim benefits and who's lived here without a break for years is not qualified for leave to remain. Can anyone explain what we should do next? You could really help us. Thank you.
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