TFL out of court settlement (Freedom Pass) - Naturalisation

[DaisyChloe]

Hi forum members! Could you please advise me.

A year ago I was caught using the Freedom Pass, I had to attend an interview under PACE, I admit my fault, due to my exceptional circumstances the Prosecutors of TFL decided that my case will not go to court, and I received a letter from TFL asking to pay specific sum of money which amounted to £600. The letter stated that "the facts of this incident will be held for one year since the date of the incident".

One year has passed now.

I have never had any incidents in my life in this was my first incident.

I am an EU citizen and have been living in the UK since year 2009 summer and I am considering to apply for the IRL and/or Naturalisation.

My question is, I was told by the immigration lawyer that because I am an EU citizen, I can apply for the Naturalisation and I do not need to apply for the ILR, however in the Naturalisation Guide there is a statement mentioning that even EU citizens first must hold an IRL for 12 months before applying for the Naturalisation. Could anyone please clarify this for me? The lawyer also said I could apply for the ILR and would not need to wait for 12 months to pass and apply afterwards for the naturalisation, he said in case the HO refuse it on grounds on those 12 months I can apply for the judicial review. I do not want to complicate things and I don't mind waiting 12 months, however I would appreciate if somebody could clarify this for me.

The second question is, do I need to disclose this incident (tfl and freedom pass) in my application even though it did not go to court? I understand that may affect my good character requirement if I do disclose, however i understood I would need to disclose it only if it went to court and if I got convicted. As the matter was dealt out of court, I understand I will not have any criminal records.

[torikelly91]

As an EU citizen you will need to apply for a PR Card not ILR.
ILR is for non EU.
The laws changed recently and say that when EU citizens apply my Naturalisation, they must have a PR Card certifying permanent residence. I think you have to wait 12 months from the date of issue of the PR card before you can apply for naturalisation.

If the immigration adviser is telling you need to apply for ILR then he's just fleecing you for money . PR card application costs £65

[DaisyChloe]

Thanks its more clear now that I do need PR before I submit my application for the naturalisation.

However, I am a bit disappointed that nobody else has posted any replies, I thought this forum is quite active...

[ohara]

What have you been doing since you arrived in 2009? Working, student etc?

As an EEA citizen you will automatically acquire permanent residence after 5 years of exercising treaty rights, for example if you are working. You must have held PR for 12 months before applying for naturalisation. You don't need to wait for 12 months after getting the document; I believe it is only non-EEA citizens who must apply for a biometric residency permit who must do this.

If you have met the criteria, you can apply for a document confirming PR. This costs £65 and the form can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _07-15.pdf

It's 85 pages long but you'll only need to complete about 20 or so, and you don't even need print any of the pages which don't apply to you.

[DaisyChloe]

Ohara - Thank you for your reply!

Since 2009 - 2015I have been a student and in employment.

2009 - student at college doing my esol course for few months, made my bank account.
2010 - started a one year course at the university (Foundation Year)
2011 - still studying at the university
2012- started my HND course in business course and started working part time
2013 - still doing my HND course and working part time
2014 - studying, working part time
2015- finished my degree, working full time

Could you please clarify for me one thing, to prove my residency - bank statements for each year will be enough? Or because I have been studying and working it automatically proves I have been a resident and thus my residency requirement is met. I fully understand that i have to prove i have exercised treaty rights (studying, working) but I also have to prove with separate document my residency during the 5 years or residency is proved with documents from my employer and university. I only have bank statements for the residency proof no other bills as i have always been renting. Just want to understand what documentation proves what....

[ohara]

I'm no expert on this subject, in fact I knew pretty much nothing until a few weeks ago, I just submitted my EEA(PR) application 2 days ago.

From what you have written it looks like you should be OK. Have you held comprehensive sickness insurance for the entire time you have been in education? This is very important, as if you haven't, it won't form part of the qualifying period.

For the evidence of residency etc, yes bank statements are the important one but they normally like you to have 2 separate pieces of evidence for each year. Surely you have a tenancy agreement for your accommodation or something like that? And your university can certainly give you an official letter saying you were enrolled full time between those dates?

I applied solely on the basis of 5 years employment, for my evidence I submitted:

6 years (just to be safe) of P60's plus a random payslip from each year
6 years of bank statements for June 2010-2015
Letter from my employer confirming full time contracted employment since 2007
3 years of council tax bills
Letter from a prepaid debit card application from 2011

I lived with my mother until 2013 so like you I did not have many bills etc in my name, however I was a student right up until I became employed full time so I provided a covering letter explaining this and also included proof of my secondary school and further education which shows that I had obviously lived here as far back as at least 2000. I think it should be sufficient.

[DaisyChloe]

I do not have comprehensive sickness insurance and have never had it. I only have some kind of European health care for which I applied from the uk. I really don't want this to affect my whole application as I have all the other documents.

[ohara]

OK, it's probably not what you want to hear, but I don't believe you can count the time you spent as a student towards your PR qualification as you did not have CSI which is a requirement unless you are paying NI.

Once you have worked for 5 years, you will gain PR automatically and you can get the document confirming it, but you then have to wait another 12 months before applying for naturalisation.

[DaisyChloe]

Does part time employment ~15-16 hours per week would count..? Or only the period in full time employment?

[ohara]

I'm not entirely sure, so you'll need to wait for the more knowledgeable to come along. Were you paying national insurance contributions while you were in part time work?

[ally007]

I'm not entirely sure, so you'll need to wait for the more knowledgeable to come along. Were you paying national insurance contributions while you were in part time work?

Hi Ohara, Can you please enlight me more on this so called CIS thing because i think i am a bit worried now. I am a family member of eea national who started working in the uk since 2009 (full time) and in 2011, he decided to study more and and did for 3years while continue with his full time work and also study as well. He recently applied for PR in OCT and included me as a family member and included it in the form that he studied and stated it clearly that he was also working full time while study.
Now i just came across this so called CIS... Do you think it will affect the application at all? Yes he's been doing his full time job since 2009 and paying massive taxes and NI every month. we included payslips and p60s and hope they will see what they need to see.. Am just confused so please advice.