matrnity gap in my wife employment

[sandy1988]

hello dears moderators and others i am non eea national my wife is eea national my question is my wife started work in 2013 and then stoped in october 2013 went on maternity leave with contract of employment from company but did not returned to work as we not recieved her p45 bcoz we have cahnged the address so after wards last year we contacted the company for letter for her employment history with them and in letter they states .... that her income from 2013 to 2014 was ××××× that much as she not recieved the p45 but p45 was issued in april 2015 due to nature of something i cant remember and her last pay from us was in sep 2015 but she not returned to work do you think this letter will helpfut to cover 2014 to 15 from 2015 onwards she was self employed and employed till now do you think she or i qualify for pr after 5 years as my solicitor said they will ask proof of return to work we only have letter that company have send us as i mentioned above can you give advice on it i will be very thankful

[sandy1988]

hello dears moderators and others i am non eea national my wife is eea national my question is my wife started work in 2013 and then stoped in october 2013 went on maternity leave with contract of employment from company but did not returned to work as we not recieved her p45 bcoz we have cahnged the address so after wards last year we contacted the company for letter for her employment history with them and in letter they states .... that her income from 2013 to 2014 was ××××× that much as she not recieved the p45 but p45 was issued in april 2015 due to nature of something i cant remember and her last pay from us was in sep 2015 but she not returned to work do you think this letter will helpfut to cover 2014 to 15 from april 2015 onwards she was self employed and employed till now do you think she or i qualify for pr after 5 years as my solicitor said they will ask proof of return to work we only have letter that company have send us as i mentioned above can you give advice on it i will be very thankful

[secret.simon]

It sounds to me that your wife and your continuity of residence was broken by a maternity break of longer than 12 months.

An EEA national woman will retain continuity of residence for the purposes of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 (the 2006 EEA Regulations) for a period in which she was absent from working or job-seeking owing to the physical constraints of the late stages of pregnancy and the aftermath of childbirth if, in line with the decision of the CJEU in Jessy St Prix:
(a) at the beginning of the relevant period she was either a worker or seeking employment;
(b) the relevant period commenced no more than 11 weeks before the expected date of confinement (absent cogent evidence to the contrary that the woman was physically constrained from working or seeking work);
(c) the relevant period did not extend beyond 52 weeks; and,
(d) she returned to work.
So long as these requirements are met, there will be no breach of the continuity of residence for the purposes of regulation 15. Time spent in the United Kingdom during such periods counts for the purposes of acquiring permanent residence.

Your wife need not have started working at the end of the 52 weeks, so long as she can prove that she had returned to the employment market (i.e. was a jobseeker with proof of emailing applications, job interviews, etc).

Even otherwise, if she was covered by private health insurance (CSI), she could claim to be a self-sufficient person.

If, however, she did not have CSI nor did she reenter the employment market at the end of the 52 week period, she broke the continuity of residence and your (and her) five year PR clock is reset to zero to when she restarted as a self-employed person.So, if she restarted working in April 2015 (for example), her and your clock would have restarted from zero at that point and you would get PR, assuming no further breaks, in April 2020.

[sandy1988]

Thanks sicret simon ...she have not returned to work but letter from company say p45 issued on april 2015 and the last pay was in sep 15 and in her employment history 2014 shows the word JSA might she applied i am unawre so shall i take a risk to apply or it will be rejected