EEA FP granted – what next to prove right to work?

[Hadata]

Hi all,

After months of pain due to UKVI’s complete incompetence, my wife was finally issued her EEA Family Permit this morning.

We need to ensure that she is able to evidence a sustained right to work, after the EEA FP expires in 6 months. I understand that what people typically do is apply for a Residence Card, which involved completing a c. 100 page paper form, providing biometric information, and submitting hard copy original documentation (including supporting docs), including my wife’s passport, our original marriage certificate etc. After a period of time, she will be able to request the return of her passport without impacting the application.

Separately, I have been advised that I should apply for a Registration Certificate for myself (Swiss national), which in future may assist in proving that I was exercising my treaty rights in the UK. I am of the understanding that I can add my wife to this application as well. This process also takes 6 months, but as an EEA national I can use the passport return service for both myself and my wife. Aside from passports, this process also requires submitting original hard copy documentation.

Could someone please advise:

(1) Does the registration certificate provide proof of my wife’s right to work in the UK?

(2) If not, I assume that we should first apply for my wife’s Residence Card, and once the paperwork for that is returned, apply for the Registration Certificate for both of us?


I do not believe that we can apply for both at the same time, as the original documentation required for both is much the same (e.g. wedding certificate etc) and in some cases we only have one original copy.

Many thanks for your help

[ElizabethApricot]

As far as I know, your wife's employer can't use your registration certificate as a "statutory defence against liability...for employing an illegal migrant worker." Basically, even though your wife has the right to work under EU law even without possessing the documents on the Home Office's checklist, the employer might not hire her because if it turned out for some reason she wasn't supposed to be working (for example, if she wasn't really married to you), they could receive a massive fine.

Employers can accept a Certificate of Application (COA) as evidence of right to work, as long as it's presented within 6 months from the date of issue. After your wife applies for a residence card, she will receive a Biometric Enrolment Letter. After enrolling her biometrics (at a Post Office which has that capability), she will receive a Certificate of Application.

According to the UKVI's European Enquiries helpline, the service standard for receiving the Biometric Enrolment Letter is 6 weeks from the date the application was received, though I called in April so it might have changed since then. If you don't receive the letter after 6 weeks (or whatever the current service standard is), you can email Euro Biometrics to request the letter. Be sure to include as much information about your application as possible in the email (names, dates of birth, passport numbers, address, tracking number for residence card application, etc.) UKVI's European Enquiries helpline can give you the email address to Euro Biometrics (I'm not sure if I'm supposed to post that here).

I emailed Euro Biometrics when I hadn't received a Bio Letter six weeks after the Home Office had received my application. A few days later I was assigned a Case ID, and about a week later I got the Bio Letter.

I received my COA 5 days after enrolling my biometrics. The COA states explicitly that I have the right to work while I am waiting for my residence card (which I just received yesterday), or until all appeal rights are exhausted. It also has a note for employers that they can accept it as evidence of right to work, as long as it's presented within 6 months of when it was issued.

Some employers might accept the Family Permit as evidence of right to work while you wait for the COA. As far as I know, the Home Office hasn't exactly said that it CAN'T be accepted, but it's not included on their current list of evidence.

Good luck with the residence card application, and with your wife's job hunt.

[dan1988uk]

The Registration Certificate for the EEA citizen can and should be requested at the same time of the Residence card for the non EEA Family Member IN THE SAME ENVELOPE (as HO suggests). We applied for both at the same time in the same envelope of course attaching the two passports and our marriage certificate with all the other documents as proofs of our genuine relationship. After about 2 months we received the biometric enrollment letter for my wife, she enrolled and in a couple of days she received her CoA with right to work in the UK. We also requested and received our passports back and now we are waiting for the Certificate and the Card.
We arrived here in the UK with an EEA FP for my wife and I convinced my employer that she has the right to work in the UK before receiving the CoA so they hired her, but I know that some employers don't know this EEA FP as proof of right to work.

Edit. the EPRS (European Passport Return Service) can NOT be used for the non EEA citizen.

[Hadata]

Thank you very much for your reply. How would I go about requesting both at the same time? Complete the paper form for the non-EEA spouse residence card, and a paper form for myself as the Swiss citizen? (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... -03-17.pdf) and put them in the same envelope? I fear this would slow down my wife's residence card application, which we need processed ASAP to get the Certificate of Application (we can't wait 2 months for that!)

I have completed the online form for the Registration Certificate ( https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/product/eea-qp
) for myself and added my spouse, but the form is completely unclear as to what the outcome of this would be - i.e. whether she would actually be granted a residence card as part of the application.

It just says,

"You are paying

65.00 GBP - [my name]'s application for EEA(QP)
65.00 GBP - [wife's name]'s application for Spouse or Civil Partner"


Many thanks

[Hadata]

Actually I just saw the guidance on page 12 of the below doc re: applying using the same envelope (2 different forms)

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... -03-17.pdf

I wonder how this has translated into the online form?

I'm inclined not to apply at the same time as I don't want to slow down my wife's application.

[Richard W]

I'm inclined not to apply at the same time as I don't want to slow down my wife's application.

I think that if anything, your application will speed hers up.

[dan1988uk]

There is no way to speed process up: at the moment home office take about one and a half month to send the biometric enrollment letter. As you said and as we did you need to fill your form (EEA1) and your spouse's form (EEA2) and put them in the same envelope with all the documents. You don't need to fill and send all the pages but you can remove the pages that are not applicable to your case.

[ElizabethApricot]

I fear this would slow down my wife's residence card application, which we need processed ASAP to get the Certificate of Application (we can't wait 2 months for that!)

I don't want to give anyone false hope, which is why I haven't said anything about this before, but it's worth checking to see if a potential employer will accept the Family Permit as evidence of right to work. The County where I live does, and thus so does my current employer (a college), but they also wanted me to bring in my COA as soon as I got it (and before my Family Permit expired). I didn't think anyone would accept the Family Permit, but a position opened up that I was really interested in so I took a chance and asked.

As dan1988uk noted, they also accepted it in his wife's case, so some will be OK with it, although it's not guaranteed.

[dan1988uk]

I fear this would slow down my wife's residence card application, which we need processed ASAP to get the Certificate of Application (we can't wait 2 months for that!)

I don't want to give anyone false hope, which is why I haven't said anything about this before, but it's worth checking to see if a potential employer will accept the Family Permit as evidence of right to work. The County where I live does, and thus so does my current employer (a college), but they also wanted me to bring in my COA as soon as I got it (and before my Family Permit expired). I didn't think anyone would accept the Family Permit, but a position opened up that I was really interested in so I took a chance and asked.

As dan1988uk noted, they also accepted it in his wife's case, so some will be OK with it, although it's not guaranteed.

Exactly, even if EEA FP entitles the holder to work in the UK (as written on the EEA FP page online) it is not on the list of the valid documents to work in the UK (while CoA is). I would say that 9 on 10 employers will not hire anyone with an EEA FP, I was lucky that my employer contacted their HR and their reply was positive, but before that my wife had a lot of problems in finding a job. Now we received the CoA (2 months and 2 weeks after we sent all the documents) and we provided it to our employer. CoA gives right to work in the UK until RC arrives or until the end of the appeal if RC is refused.

[imbik]

Well, here is my experience as a Non-EU citizen with EEA Family Permit;

We entered to the UK with the whole family in February 2017. A month later I started to work for one of the largest companies (in its scope) in the world with no COA, no NINO, no bank account and only with an address ( rented 5 days earlier). We applied EEA_FM + EEA_QP at the same time in June and I expect my COA in September which means I will have been working for the company for 6 months only with EEA Family Permit.

[dan1988uk]

Well, here is my experience as a Non-EU citizen with EEA Family Permit;

We entered to the UK with the whole family in February 2017. A month later I started to work for one of the largest companies (in its scope) in the world with no COA, no NINO, no bank account and only with an address ( rented 5 days earlier). We applied EEA_FM + EEA_QP at the same time in June and I expect my COA in September which means I will have been working for the company for 6 months only with EEA Family Permit.

When in June did you apply? You should receive the biometric enrollment letter during this month, before September.

[imbik]

When in June did you apply? You should receive the biometric enrollment letter during this month, before September.

Yes, you right. I just didn't need to mention about the biometric as the main subject was the COA. Anyway,

We applied on 24th of June
Received by Home Office 26th of June
Payment taken 28th of June
Biometric letter received 1st of August
Biometric taken 2nd of August

Waiting for COA...

[dan1988uk]

We received CoA just a few days after the biometrics.