Singh route - lack of docs

[Beany2012]

Hi there,

Does anyone know if a lack of supporting documents from our time in Spain is likely to derail a EEA4 PRC application?

My non-EU wife and I (British citizen) arrived in the UK in early September 2011 and I've been employed ever since, having been made redundant after three years in Spain back in late 2010. My wife has the right to work and has done so on a full-time and freelance/self-employed basis. We now also have a small child.

We provided piles of Spanish documents to the British Embassy in Madrid to obtain the EEA Family Permit without a hitch, and then used the same documents and some up-to-date UK ones (wage slips, London rental contract, bank statements etc) to the HO in Liverpool back in late 2011 to get a five-year residence sticker in my wife's passport that expires August 2017.

She now wants to apply for citizenship, but needs to have a PRC to do so. My concern is that we appear to have lost some of the documentation from our time in Spain (rental contracts, tax info) during one of our many house moves, although it could be an elderly relative destroyed/lost some by accident.

What are the chances the HO has all the info on file somewhere but would still refuse the PRC application for such a reason given the embassy in Madrid and the HO office in Liverpool both approved the original applications without a hitch?

I'm sure I can request old pay slips and copy of my work contract from the Spanish firm, but papers related to old addresses are likely irreplaceable.

Anyone had any experience of such problems with supporting documents? It's obviously in the HO's interest to issue the PRC as they would then make more than £1,400 out of us further down the line through the citizenship application.

I'd obviously explain all this in the application letter/pack for the PRC, but would like everything to run as smoothly and quickly as possible.

There is no question of us not meeting the Surinder Singh criteria, it's just being able to provide all the necessary documents from our time in Spain.

Assuming this is a major headache, what are the alternatives given my wife can't apply for citizenship until she has a PRC?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[noajthan]

To avoid confusion & jumbled responses, I have moved your question to its own thread (this one).

[noajthan]

Hi there,

Does anyone know if a lack of supporting documents from our time in Spain is likely to derail a EEA4 PRC application?

...

I'd obviously explain all this in the application letter/pack for the PRC, but would like everything to run as smoothly and quickly as possible.

There is no question of us not meeting the Surinder Singh criteria, it's just being able to provide all the necessary documents from our time in Spain.

Assuming this is a major headache, what are the alternatives given my wife can't apply for citizenship until she has a PRC?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

This can absolutely derail such an application.

HO does not view you as a cash cow with a £1400 naturalisation fee to be surgically extracted at a later date.

Its very binary in EU route. (And SS is not current government's favourite route into UK).
Meet requirements, get PR confirmed.
Fail to meet - or fail to prove - and get denied.

Unfortunately for you the proof of PR status, by virtue of what is an optional EU confirmatory document, is now used as a mandatory prerequisite for the privilege of citizenship.
Suggest work away at plugging the gaps, contacting whoever to supply missing docs & etc.

You can request a SAR from UKVI to see what is on file about you/wife in HO CID databanks.
That may help.

And btw - PR will be acquired in September 2016, so you can apply in next few weeks. No need to wait until 2017!
(Assuming you haven't enjoyed prolonged absences from UK since arriving back).

[Noetic]

Does OP need to resubmit Spanish documents for UK PR application? PR documents should be about treaty rights in the UK the last 5 years although knowing what I know from a SAR about case worker notes there's no guarantee anything about your SS journey will have been noted down correctly.