Exercising treaty rights and naturalisation - EEA citizen

[Isaclare]

Hi all and thanks in advance for any help!

I am an EU citizen and moved in UK on 1st February 2006 . I worked from day 1 (relocated for a job offer) and up till end of Nov 2008. I left my job to go for an MBA which I did outside of UK. I came back to UK in Jan 2010 (14 months after) to look for a job.

I did not register as jobseeker but have all the email correspondence with my future employer, showing I was in the recruiting process and was invited to interviews.
I got an offer and signed a contract in April 2010 and started working on 1st June 2010. I have been with them since.

My questions are

1- Are any of the 3 years I worked in uk from Feb 2006 to Nov 2008 of any validity for the naturalisation process? I was away 14 months but for studying which I understood is an exception that can be considered.

2- Are the month between Jan 2010 and June 2010 of any validity for ‘exercising treaty rights’? I would have to prove that I was either jobseeker or self-sufficient. But in the first case I was not register as such (and did not claim any benefit). If I were to say I was self-sufficient, which type of documents would they request to prove? What would be an ok level of savings in the bank account?

I forgot to mention that in 2009 I kept my flat and address in Uk, my GP and bank account

Thanks again!

[milan69]

All EEA nationals have a right to continue to reside in the UK as long as they are a ‘qualified person’, i.e. they are an EEA national exercising Treaty rights in the UK.
Treaty rights refer to any of the following:
Employment (including job seeking)
Self-Employment
Study
Economic Self-Sufficiency
Those in study and the economically self-sufficient have to have comprehensive sickness insurance in place (in order not to become a financial burden on the host state) before their Treaty rights are effective.

The Economically Self-Sufficient
A self-sufficient person is someone who has enough money to pay for their living expenses without claiming benefits in the UK and who has comprehensive sickness insurance in the UK.
To be accepted as a self-sufficient person they must be able to show more than the maximum level of resources which a UK national and their family members can have in order to qualify for social assistance under the UK benefits system.

[Isaclare]

Thanks for your answer Milan!
So it looks like I can not claim to have been a self-sufficient between Jan 2010 and June 2010 as I did not have an health insurance at the time.
But what about job seeker? Is it true that the only way to prove that is by being register at a job center?

Thanks!

[milan69]

I don't know the answer to that one but maybe these posts here could be of some help:

http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... 81633.html

http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... 81656.html

[sagareva]

Hi all and thanks in advance for any help!

I am an EU citizen and moved in UK on 1st February 2006 . I worked from day 1 (relocated for a job offer) and up till end of Nov 2008. I left my job to go for an MBA which I did outside of UK. I came back to UK in Jan 2010 (14 months after) to look for a job.

I did not register as jobseeker but have all the email correspondence with my future employer, showing I was in the recruiting process and was invited to interviews.
I got an offer and signed a contract in April 2010 and started working on 1st June 2010. I have been with them since.

My questions are

1- Are any of the 3 years I worked in uk from Feb 2006 to Nov 2008 of any validity for the naturalisation process? I was away 14 months but for studying which I understood is an exception that can be considered.

2- Are the month between Jan 2010 and June 2010 of any validity for ‘exercising treaty rights’? I would have to prove that I was either jobseeker or self-sufficient. But in the first case I was not register as such (and did not claim any benefit). If I were to say I was self-sufficient, which type of documents would they request to prove? What would be an ok level of savings in the bank account?

I forgot to mention that in 2009 I kept my flat and address in Uk, my GP and bank account

Thanks again!

there are two issues here and you shoudl not confuse them into one.

1. have you acquired a right to permanent residence? This is what you need to look at. job seeking counts for treaty rights, you dont need to register with job centre, enough to have letters etc. but job SEEKINg means you are applying for different jobs not just corresponnding with one future employer.

2. so long as you can count 5 years of continuous treaty rights, you add 1 more year and this is your citizenship appplication date.

3. so i really think January 2016 is your date, in all probability. i do not think you can claim pr based on a 14-month period you have been away studying. maybe somehow but i dont see it imho.





Plus, of course, you can;t really apply now because you were not in the UK exactly 5 years before the application date -- will not have been until

[LilyLalilu]

1- I do not think the time before 2010 counts. Only absences of up to 12 months can be disregarded, and only if they occurred for important reasons such as studies/illness etc. As your absence exceeded 12 months you would have broken your continuity of residence.

2- As long as you can prove that you were a jobseeker by providing job application confirmation letters/emails, rejection letters, invitations to interviews etc., I see no reason why this time should not count. As I understand it (someone please correct me should I be wrong), being registered with the job centre is only one way of proving you were a jobseeker, but there are of course other ways to show that you were looking for a job, such as providing the above documents for example.

So you could do one of the following:

1) Apply for EEA3 (PR) now to see if they let the job seeking period count. If yes, then apply for BC 1 year after being issued with the PR card. If they reject EEA3 based on the job seeking period you can then:
2) Wait until June 2016 and apply for BC without a PR card, including evidence of your treaty rights from the job you started.

Applying in Jan 2016 without PR card may be too risky, as they could reject the application if they do not count the job seeking period.
If they reject EEA3 (PR) you only loose a relatively minor amount of money, at least compared to the approx. £1000 that you'd loose in the case of an unsuccessful application for naturalisation...