EEA national applying for BC without PR

[simply_the_best]

Hi guys after a bad and stressful day in work I have come home and I have seen a brown envelope. Though may be nothing but the home office logo was on it so I opened it and seen my approval. Guys I'm so happy and I want to say a big THANK YOU to the moderators and lovely people that share their thoughts and experience here. And not last for those who waiting for a approval be patience that you will get it soon as you don't expect. they have started to moving quicker

My timeline is

Date of application :29 sept 2014
Eligibility criteria : EEA 6 years ( Romanian ) WITHOUT PR card
Date of acknowledge letter : 8 October
Date of approval: 11 feb 2015 , dated 30 jan (so 4 months)
Ceremony : will book tomorrow

Thanks againg guys and see u at the passport timeline

[Julian11]

Fantastic! Congrats.

[simply_the_best]

Fantastic! Congrats.

Thanks good luck for u too

[Julian11]

An April through:

Hi,

I got my approval yesterday, finally after 9 months!! I'm EEA, 7 years continuous work, never applied for PR card. Agony is over now!

Good luck to the rest of you and thanks for everything! Great forum, helpful with lovely ppl!!

And a June:

I get letter today My application was approved!! I'm so relief !

Date of application 18th june, got letter dated 8th of Feb and got it today! I'm sure they got overtimes in HO as this was sunday. Good luck everyone! Pozdrowienia Trzymam kciuki za was

[Julian11]

And a July!

Eligibility criteria: 5+ Exercising Treaty Rights and Married to British Citizen ( EEA/EU National )
Language criteria met (UK degree, exempt countries, PBS used documents, NARIC, or B1 test): Esol B1 test
Current nationality: Spanish
Method of application: NCS
Council name if NCS used: Northumberland County Council
Date of application: 17/07/2014
Payment method CC/DC, Personal cheque, Bankers cheque etc: Credit Card
Date of receipt by UKBA: 18/07/2014
Date of acknowledgment: 02/08/2014. ( Dated 29/07/2014 )
Date of debit or clearance of fees: 29/07/2014
Date approval received: 12/02/2015
Date of ceremony:18/02/2015

Final Update from me.

EEA/EU citizen exercising treaty rights for over 20 years but with NO PR card.
I wish the best of luck to everyone remaining and hope you all get to hear from HO soon.

Best Regards

[GoodNewsE]

Eligibility criteria: 5years Treaty Rights +1yr, no PR, Life in the UK + UK Uni degree
Nationality:EU15
Method of application: NCS Brent
Date of application:12/01/2015
Date of receipt by UKBA: Not sure, the next day supposedly
Date of debit of fees: 19/01/2015
Date of receipt of acknowledgement: dated 19/01/2015 (received about a week later)
Date of receipt of approval: 12/02/2015 (Dated 06/02/15)
Date of Ceremony: I'll call the Council tomorrow, hopefully soon

I am delighted!

So fellow EU applicants there is hope!

Good luck to everyone else who have yet to receive their good news!

Sorry for the duplicate post, but this thread was my hope while I was waiting

[Julian11]

Wow well done. So fast.

One more Sept one:

I can't believe it!!! I have just got it!!! There it was, the glorious brown envelope.

So here is my timeline:
EEA 6 years, no PR
Applied: 13 Sept 2014
Acknowledged: 26 September
Approved: 12/02/2015 (letter dated 08/02/2015)
Ceremony: will book tomorrow

Thank you guys for sharing the info and pain:) All the best.

[sollie]

Hi Guys, just an update.

I got my approval 2 days ago. I am EEA national with no PR card. I applied towards the end of November.
Good luck to those waiting!

[Julian11]

As I posted in another thread, I was declined, for supposedly not exercising treaty rights for 5 years. It wasn't more specific than that so I don't know where they found an issue. Absolutely gutted.

[sollie]

As I posted in another thread, I was declined, for supposedly not exercising treaty rights for 5 years. It wasn't more specific than that so I don't know where they found an issue. Absolutely gutted.

Hi Julian
Why won't you give us some more details? Maybe we can try to help you figure out what the issue is? When did you come to the UK? Did you have any breaks?

[Julian11]

I had a mix of studies, work, and self sufficiency, all since 2009, which I proved with all the relevant docs (and the NCS was fine with it all): work documents/P60s/HMRC documents for work, the relevant degree documents for studies, and certified bank statements for self sufficiency.

For a short while, I worked abroad but I came back every weekend (and I sent proof of all of these flights) and when you add up the days gone, it does not even come close to ever hitting six months in any residency year (if you hit 6 months away in a residency year, you break your treaty rights).

So I really don't know what they disliked.

[simply_the_best]

I had a mix of studies, work, and self sufficiency, all since 2009, which I proved with all the relevant docs (and the NCS was fine with it all): work documents/P60s/HMRC documents for work, the relevant degree documents for studies, and certified bank statements for self sufficiency.

For a short while, I worked abroad but I came back every weekend (and I sent proof of all of these flights) and when you add up the days gone, it does not even come close to ever hitting six months in any residency year (if you hit 6 months away in a residency year, you break your treaty rights).

So I really don't know what they disliked.

Oh men really sorry to hear that. U were dead excited about is getting approvals and you couldn't wait for your good news. Really feel for you

[Julian11]

Am writing my reconsideration letter right now, but it is really hard to address the issue without knowing what the issue really was. "not exercised treaty rights for a continuous five years" is very broad. I have addressed the time abroad thing, but it'd be a pointless exercise if they know that this is no issue and it was actually something totally different that was the issue, something which I have not realised.

Does anyone know if I can somehow speak to my caseworker to try to get a more specific reason as to why the rejection, so I can address it more specifically in the letter?

[LilyLalilu]

Just checking; did you have CSI while studying/being self-sufficient?

[Julian11]

Yes. They did not mention that as an issue at all.

[sollie]

I had a mix of studies, work, and self sufficiency, all since 2009, which I proved with all the relevant docs (and the NCS was fine with it all): work documents/P60s/HMRC documents for work, the relevant degree documents for studies, and certified bank statements for self sufficiency.

For a short while, I worked abroad but I came back every weekend (and I sent proof of all of these flights) and when you add up the days gone, it does not even come close to ever hitting six months in any residency year (if you hit 6 months away in a residency year, you break your treaty rights).

So I really don't know what they disliked.

Well Julian I see a couple of potential problems here. Firstly if you came in 2009, you can only apply for naturalisation in 2015. You acquire PR status after exercising EEA rights for 5 years, but you can only apply for naturalisation AFTER you have had the PR status for 1 year. So that means that you need to be exercising your rights for 6 years and not 5. Secondly if you were working abroad, even if you were coming to the UK every weekend, you could have easily exceeded the number of days that you are allowed out of UK in the last year (which is 90 days allowed out in the last 12 months before applying).
I am sorry your application was rejected. However it looks like you may be allowed to apply again in a few months. Good luck!

[Julian11]

I am married to a British citizen so no worries there - only 5 years needed. I did wonder, however, if they might have missed that and that is why I got declined, however their reason says I didn't exercise treaty rights for a continuous five years...if it was something to do with having PR for a year, I'd have thought they'd have mentioned that specifically.

I provided a document listing the total number of days I was absent -- it was about 1/5 of the limit that breaks your exercising of treaty rights (6 months), so well within the limit. All within the normal residency limits too (for marriage). It was only a few months and I was in the UK for 3 days each week (sometimes more with holiday days), so the number of days absent was actually quite small in the end as a result. Same for all other years where it was just holidays, nothing long. The work thing was in year 3 or so so didn't affect the 90 day requirement in the last year either. So I am really clueless!

[sollie]

I am married to a British citizen so no worries there - only 5 years needed. I did wonder, however, if they might have missed that and that is why I got declined, however their reason says I didn't exercise treaty rights for a continuous five years...if it was something to do with having PR for a year, I'd have thought they'd have mentioned that specifically.

I provided a document listing the total number of days I was absent -- it was about 1/5 of the limit that breaks your exercising of treaty rights (6 months), so well within the limit. All within the normal residency limits too (for marriage). It was only a few months and I was in the UK for 3 days each week (sometimes more with holiday days), so the number of days absent was actually quite small in the end as a result. Same for all other years where it was just holidays, nothing long. The work thing was in year 3 or so so didn't affect the 90 day requirement in the last year either. So I am really clueless!

Hi Julian
Yeah in this case I am clueless too. It's definitely worth writing to them in case it was a mistake.
Good luck and let us know how it went. Best wishes

[Julian11]

Interesting to note that in the only other couple posts I've found online about this rejection reason, they've only come after a letter requesting more information, which was never responded to appropriately. I never got a letter - wonder if they did send one requesting alternative evidence of a particular time period of treaty rights, and I never got it? Would they have not sent a reminder or something?


A couple other thoughts:

I only had to prove 3 years' worth of residence and thus I had absences listed for the last 3 years, but I originally had all my absences listed for the past 5 years on the form. NCS asked me to cross off the first two years worth, but it'd still have been there, so the naturalisation people would have easily been able to see that in no residence year of treaty rights did I ever hit six months' loss. Could the NCS asking me to cross off the absences from the first two years made any difference? I am assuming not since you don't need to have that, only for the 3 years of residence you need to prove..for treaty rights you just have to prove how you were exercising them.

I submitted my application exactly on the day when I hit five years, it arriving there the day after. I think I signed it as of the day that I filled out the application, which was a few days before that, but the NCS didn't have a problem with that.

Thanks for the well wishes. Feel quite discouraged to be on this forum with all the good news flowing for others, haha, and I'm really not expecting them to change their minds (I wonder what the rate of success for reconsiderations are?), but who knows.

[jaweb]

It might be not relevant but can I ask you how long you have been married and what's your nationality?

[Julian11]

Neither should make a difference - I'm Scandinavian and since last summer.

[jaweb]

So when you sent your application you were married for a couple of months only? Isnt there any time limit of marriage of a british national?
Maybe the reason they say you have not exercised your treart rights? They did not count /noticed that you are a family member of a british.
Just thinking out loud...

Have they said when you can apply again?

[Julian11]

There's no time limit on the marriage.

I did wonder if they didn't notice the marriage and thus were expecting six years, but their letter says I am being rejected for not exercising treaty rights for five years, no mention of six (though it says it elsewhere in the letter, seems generic though). It says at the top I was considered under section 6(2) though, which is for marriage, so I am guessing this is no issue here.

The letter says I can apply again immediately, though of course it says I am unlikely to be successful if I have not exercised treaty rights for a continuous five years. Where it was broken - and thus where in their mind it started at 0 again - who knows though, so who knows when, in their minds, I'll hit 5 years (again).

[jaweb]

What about if you call HO? The best if you could speak to the case worker however I do not think it is possible but if I werw you I would give a try

Anyway I am clueless now...

[Julian11]

Yeah, I am going to phone tomorrow first thing and see if I can speak to them. Need to make sure the reconsideration letter addresses the exact point that caused the issue for them if I am to have any hope (and see if any letters requesting info were sent that I did not get). I have very little hope of being able to find out anything more specific than the generic reason I got, though.

I know people have spoken to caseworkers here in the past but it seems to be more the caseworker phoning them than the other way around.