Naturalisation vs. EEA PR - please advise

[jeff.lebowski]

Hi All,

I am Polish national living and working in UK since 2006. I have already applied for naturalisation as British citizen back in July 2015. It's been nearly 5 months now and I still have not heard about the outcome from Home Office. I hope they will get back to me by the end of January / early February 2016. In the meantime I am wondering whether to apply for document certifying permanent residence, just in case my application for naturalisation is unsuccessful.

I have registered for WRS and after a year applied and was issued with residence documentation registration certificate. I have been in continuous employment and can provide P60 certificates from 2007 to 2015 as a proof of exercising treaty rights.

Since November 2015 EEA nationals need to provide PR document with their application for naturalisation, I was lucky enough that back in July 2015 I only had to prove that I was exercising treaty rights for continuous period of 6 years as EEA nationals were automatically getting status of permanent resident after exercising treaty rights for 5 years. I fulfilled this obligation by providing WRS certificate and letters as well as my P60 forms.

I do not mind spending extra £65 now and applying for EEA PR but am wondering if this might affect my application for naturalisation which is still in progress at the moment. The reason is that I want to leave my job but fear that case worker might reject my case if I will not be in continuous employment.

I believe I qualify for EEA PR now as I am still employed. Once issued with PR card would I still have to be employed for another year to apply for naturalisation or it would it not matter and I could even be unemployed?

I would really be grateful for any advice.

[lake1]

Once you qualify for PR then you fine, applying for PR is just confirming what you have.

Not working after you acquire PR won't affect you meaning it's not a requirement that you work for the 1 year between your PR and applying for citizenship.

[LilyLalilu]

I'd say wait for the outcome of your naturalisation application; if successful another £65 for a document certifying a status (PR) which you have already acquired would just be a waste of money. Should the application be rejected, you can always apply for PR then

[jeff.lebowski]

Got my citizenship application approval letter today (31/12/2015) so no need to worry about PR document. Managed to skip this step when it was still possible. Thanks for your advice.

[ohara]

Congratulations