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Sadly EEA nationals require 5 years of residency as a 'qualified person' exercising treaty rights in the UK.eastberks44 wrote:I am a British citizen married to a Hungarian. My wife came to the UK in 2010 and was initially self-employed continuing to work for a Hungarian client. With a few weeks of arriving she obtained a UK national insurance number, but by the time she started work for a UK employer the WRS was already defunct.
She is now being told that she has to wait until May 2016 to apply for citizenship. Is this correct? I thought that being married to a UK citizen meant the residency requirement was only 3 years.
The WRS was abolished in May 2011 hence the nominal calculation until May 2016.If you are national of a member state of the EEA and do not have indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom, you will need to have been resident in the United Kingdom for at least five years even if you are married to a British citizen
If you did not come to UK with a visa (ie under UK Immigration Rules) then you are operating under EU rules.eastberks44 wrote:Hi I am a Hungarian citizen who has just tried - twice - completing the AN form. Below is a summary of my position
1. Married a UK citizen in Budapest in 2002
2. We moved and settled permanently in the UK in April 2010. As our child was still young enough to need me at home full time, I did not immediately seek employment but did obtain a UK national Insurance number for the purpose of claiming Child Benefit. I started applying for jobs only after the Workers Registration Scheme became defunct
3. I have a bachelors degree in Journalism from the USA
4. I took the 'old' Life in the UK test in 2013 and was assured at the time that the result would still be valid even after the new test was introduced.
5. I have been working nearly full time as a supply teacher since July 2013, having had my Hungarian teaching qualification recognised by the UK teaching Agency.
6. My only brush with the law since entering the UK is a speeding ticket 6 months ago.
I have spoken to 2 different people at my local authority's Nationality Checking Service, the first one said I should have been eligible after 3 years on the grounds of being married to a UK citizen, but the second told me not to bother booking an appointment as I had failed to register under the WRS so I would have to wait until the 5th anniversary of it becoming defunct.
Now I don't want to find out come May 2016 that there's some other document that has to be applied for before the citizenship application process can begin. So is there anything I can or should apply for now, for example PR / ILR, or a biometric record?
All replies will be greatly appreciated.
You obtain PR automatically but if you want to apply for citizenship I would suggest applying for confirmation of PR after 5 years of being a qualified person / exercising treaty rights.eastberks44 wrote:So does that mean I should apply for a PR document first and apply for citizenship after I have it?
Go to the guidance rather than relying on helpline or NCS - see sections 2, 4, 6 for example:eastberks44 wrote:If you're an EEA national you can apply for citizenship after 5 years of living in the UK and exercising treaty rights...
If you're married to a UK citizen you can apply after 3 years of living in the UK with indefinite leave to remain...
But I find the guidance very unclear about how these two factors interact together, and have had different answers from different people at my local authority's NCS office.
Does anyone have any clues?
Should I be eligible after 3 years after entry? or 5? Or is there some other document, which I have not need up until now to live and work in the UK, that I would need before the "clock starts ticking"?