Travelling during PR application

[JulietSoul]

Hello all,

I am due to apply for Permanent Residence soon via Surinder Singh. My current five year residence card will expire in mid November and I assume I can apply at any stage until then, and will have to submit this card.
My questions:
1. At what stage can I ask for my passport back? When I receive the COA?
2. Once I receive my passport back and the COA, can I travel abroad and come back? Would this be only until the date of my residence card expiring (I won't have it anyway)? I do a lot of business travel abroad so it's going to be a bit crippling waiting to get my PR.

I have tried looking back on old threads but haven't found anything except for one person who does say he did this (travelled with COA while waiting for PR).

Thanks very much!

[JulietSoul]

To clarify, I am an Israeli national. Would I be able to re-enter the country while application was ongoing? Would they be able to see in the computer what visa I was under and that I have been in and out many times over the past 5 years?

[kamoe]

I am due to apply for Permanent Residence soon via Surinder Singh. My current five year residence card will expire in mid November and I assume I can apply at any stage until then

You can apply when you are eligible, in other words, as soon as you meet the residency requirement. Ideally, you should plan this so that you have a valid residence document at all times. If you can, don't wait for your residence card to expire before you apply, as this will likely create a gap in which, depending on your circumstances, it might not be straightforward to prove you have the right to work or leave the country between your application and the issuing of your permanent residence.

1. At what stage can I ask for my passport back?

In theory, at any stage; in practice, after you submit your biometric details.

For my 5-year residence card, I did not use the online passport request service. Instead, I sent a pre-paid priority envelope with my application or for them to return my and my partner's passports (with correct postage stamped on it corresponding to the passports weight). It worked. I received my passports back in this envelope, with a letter dated shortly after I submitted my biometrics (around a month after I sent my application). This means, even when effectively I requested my passports back the same day I sent the application, they only sent them back when it was possible: after they received my biometrics.

Not saying you need to do what I did, but just to illustrate timelines.

2. Once I receive my passport back and the COA, can I travel abroad and come back?

This depends on your circumstances.

Since you say you are applying via the Surinder Sing route, I take you are a direct family member of a (British) EEA national. Only if this is the case, and you are not an extended family member, I believe you can travel with a COA, and, you might need to take relevant documentation with you (marriage certificate, birth certificate, etc.). I'm not 100% sure if you need to be traveling with your EEA family member or not, but I'm sure you can find a relevant post that's not too old that answers that.

If for some reason you are indeed an extended family member, and if you do find yourself with a documentation gap, because your previous card has expired and your new one is in progress, you might not be able to re-enter the UK with a COA. In these cases, you might need to apply for a family permit while abroad, to be able to come back.

[JulietSoul]

Hi kamoe, thank you, that was very helpful.
You are right I should try to apply as soon as possible, I am already eligible to apply as the wife of a British citizen.I will send a pre-paid envelope with my application like you, that is a really great idea and I think I did that for my RC application too. This means I won't even have to ask for the passports back via the online form, they'll just send them back?
As for the travel - I actually came into the country a couple of days ago with my RC and asked the people at immigration at Heathrow, what would happen if I arrived with my passport and a COA, without the RC. The person there said he thought I would be taken aside and questioned and that some checks would be done but then I would be let in. I guess going with the marriage certificate as well can't hurt.

Thanks again for all your help!

[kamoe]

I will send a pre-paid envelope with my application like you, that is a really great idea and I think I did that for my RC application too. This means I won't even have to ask for the passports back via the online form, they'll just send them back?

Correct, however, just to make sure the message was crystal clear, I did ask them to use my envelop explicitly in my cover letter, and also in a smaller envelope I used to enclose my passports in. The details of what I did, are in this old post: eea-route-applications/eea2-application ... s#p1249246

Good luck!

[JulietSoul]

I will send a pre-paid envelope with my application like you, that is a really great idea and I think I did that for my RC application too. This means I won't even have to ask for the passports back via the online form, they'll just send them back?

Correct, however, just to make sure the message was crystal clear, I did ask them to use my envelop explicitly in my cover letter, and also in a smaller envelope I used to enclose my passports in. The details of what I did, are in this old post: eea-route-applications/eea2-application ... s#p1249246

Good luck!

Thanks! That is very helpful. Why did you send your old passports, is that necessary? And what is a police certificate form?

Thanks!

[kamoe]

Why did you send your old passports, is that necessary?

Not necessary, but it helped to prove that we both had traveled together in the past. Made for a stronger unmarried partner application.

And what is a police certificate form?

Police registration is a document some nationalities, like mine, need to request upon arrival to the UK. If you have never heard of it, after a long residence, chances are you don't need it. https://www.gov.uk/register-with-the-police