EEA (FM) residence card - proof of living together

[MarcoGvantsa]

Hello everyone,

My wife is going to apply for the EEA residence card as family member of an EEA national who is a qualified person (myself - employed with permanent contract). She has got a EEA Family Permit in the previous December and we moved to London in January together. Her visa expires on 18th June 2015 and we are going to do it before this date.

During these months in the UK, we have been living in flatshares without tenancy agreement, council tax or utility bills. We moved in the new flatshare in April, but on this address we managed to obtain only these documents:

- HRMC corresponence for me (tax code)
- HRMC corresponence for my wife (update of NIN address)
- TV licence on my wife's name
- Bank statement on my name.

We are a bit concerened that these documents might not be enough to prove that we are living together. We have some questions regarding this:

1) Do you think that tenancy agreement/council tax/utility bills are essential to prove it?

2) Our flatmate has got a tenancy agreement for this flat (just on his name) and might be willing to provide us a letter stating that we are living here as his guests; would it count as an evidence? Or the landlord has to do it?

3) She will receive a bank letter from her country (not part of EU), confirming her new address here the UK. Is it considered as an proof of address?

4) Would you recommand sending additional evidences to prove that we live together even after submitting the application?

We would appreciate any recommandation or advice from you.
Thank you very much in advance.
Marco and Gvantsa

[manci]

As you are an EEA qualified person your wife has automatic residence rights in the UK irrespective of her EEA Family Permit expiring in June.

from https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... rmit-eun02

As long as the non-EEA family member of an EEA national continues to meet the EEA Regulations they would not be considered as having ‘overstayed’ simply because the expiry date of their EEA family permit had passed.

from s5 of the application form:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _04-15.pdf

If you and your sponsor are, or have been, living with relatives or friends, and you do not have any bills or other documents addressed to you, please provide a letter from the relative(s) and/or friend(s) confirming you are/have been living with them.

IMHO for obtaining a residence card your wife will not have any problems proving cohabitation on the basis of the documents you and she have.

[MarcoGvantsa]

Hello manci,

Thank you for your answer.

If you and your sponsor are, or have been, living with relatives or friends, and you do not have any bills or other documents addressed to you, please provide a letter from the relative(s) and/or friend(s) confirming you are/have been living with them.

Unfortunately, we can not provide any letter for the flat where we lived before the 1st April. Our concern is about the months from January to March, we can't prove those months together in any way.Do you think it might be a problem?

Thank you again for your time and your precious advice!

[manci]

Hello manci,

Thank you for your answer.

If you and your sponsor are, or have been, living with relatives or friends, and you do not have any bills or other documents addressed to you, please provide a letter from the relative(s) and/or friend(s) confirming you are/have been living with them.

Unfortunately, we can not provide any letter for the flat where we lived before the 1st April. Our concern is about the months from January to March, we can't prove those months together in any way.Do you think it might be a problem?
don't think so. You have to provide the address in any case, suggest you write a covering letter explaining why there are no documents for this period.

Thank you again for your time and your precious advice!

[sheraz7]

First of all the proof of address for married partners are not necessary at eea2 stage (if that one you applying) as usually if they have some suspicion then either they themselves visit the address or call for interview. Secondly anything including treaty rights evidences relating to time when eea2 has not been submitted are irrelevant as only the evidences need to attach which are active/continue at the time of submitting the application and onward at eea2 RC stage.

[MarcoGvantsa]

don't think so. You have to provide the address in any case, suggest you write a covering letter explaining why there are no documents for this period.

Thank you for your answer again manci

We changed house so many times, but we will try to explain it in the cover letter somehow.

[MarcoGvantsa]

First of all the proof of address for married partners are not necessary at eea2 stage (if that one you applying) as usually if they have some suspicion then either they themselves visit the address or call for interview.

Thank you for your answer sheraz7.

Secondly anything including treaty rights evidences relating to time when eea2 has not been submitted are irrelevant as only the evidences need to attach which are active/continue at the time of submitting the application and onward at eea2 RC stage.

I have read through the Directive, but couldn't find anything that would confirm this. Could you please tell us based on what you assumed this? Just to use it in the cover letter.

Thank you again for your precious contribution!

[sheraz7]

First of all the proof of address for married partners are not necessary at eea2 stage (if that one you applying) as usually if they have some suspicion then either they themselves visit the address or call for interview.

Thank you for your answer sheraz7.

Secondly anything including treaty rights evidences relating to time when eea2 has not been submitted are irrelevant as only the evidences need to attach which are active/continue at the time of submitting the application and onward at eea2 RC stage.

I have read through the Directive, but couldn't find anything that would confirm this. Could you please tell us based on what you assumed this? Just to use it in the cover letter.

Thank you again for your precious contribution!

Can you read carefully the EEA2 application form and try to find that whether they ask about anything prior to the application? EEA2 form does not ask that in contrary to EEA4 form where the documents covering the last 5 years are needed, which means you won't have to essentially supply that at this time.

[MarcoGvantsa]

Can you read carefully the EEA2 application form and try to find that whether they ask about anything prior to the application? EEA2 form does not ask that in contrary to EEA4 form where the documents covering the last 5 years are needed, which means you won't have to essentially supply that at this time.

Thank you for your answer sheraz7.

We read it couple of times. To me and my wife it seems that they ask it. We are going to submit the ex-EEA2 application, now named EEA (FM). On the new form dated 04/2015, they say:

Section 5 - Spouse or civil partner
page 34-35
5.9 If you have lived with your sponsor at an address other than the address given in section 1 of this form during the 2 years immediately preceding this application, please list them below. Continue on a separate sheet if necessary.

Section 20 - Document and evidence
page 117
Evidence of living together with your sponsor (if relevant) If you and your sponsor are living together, or have previously lived together, please provide evidence of this. We recommend that you send at least 6 items, from 3 different sources. These can be addressed to you jointly or individually, provided they clearly show that you live at the same address.

Do you mean anything else?

[sheraz7]

One thing you need to keep in mind that the current version of EEA (FM) previously called as EEA2 is tremendously tricky with the inclusion of numerous irrelevant sections/questions. Since the same form is to be used by married and unmarried partners of EU national, therefore it is causing huge confusion and the documents/sections you referring are probably for unmarried partners where the evidences/documents must demonstrate the cohabitation of previous 2 years.
There is also another sticky regarding this new form:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... 80611.html

[MarcoGvantsa]

One thing you need to keep in mind that the current version of EEA (FM) previously called as EEA2 is tremendously tricky with the inclusion of numerous irrelevant sections/questions. Since the same form is to be used by married and unmarried partners of EU national, therefore it is causing huge confusion and the documents/sections you referring are probably for unmarried partners where the evidences/documents must demonstrate the cohabitation of previous 2 years.

Yes, I agree with you that the application is definitely tricky and daunting; but actually this new form doesn't seem to cover the unmarried partners cases, in fact in the section 4

"4.1 How are you (the person named in section 1) related to your sponsor named in section 2?"

the options are

1) spouse
2) civil partner
3) others (for children and dependant relatives)

then no mention of "unmarried couple" status.

Anyway, to get back to the main point, we are not going to provide them any proof of address from the past 2 years, except the one for the current house. What we are saying is that the form asks information about the previous accomodations in the relevant section for "spouse or civil partner", so shall we indicate it?

An additional concern is that my wife has been rejected her EEA Family Permit before coming in England and while I was working here (November and December 2014). Shall I explain this in my support letter to her application? Again it would involve where we have been living together.

There is also another sticky regarding this new form:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... 80611.html

Thank you, we had already read it, but it didn't really help us because nothing is said about married couple. Only for curiosity I would ask if anyone understood how an unmarried couple should use this form