Advice regarding status of non-EEA married to EEA

[RVanon88]

Hello everyone!

I'm a EU/EEA national (Italy) currently living and working in the UK (I've been in the country for 12 years but I've only been working for about 1.5 years, as I was a student and PhD student before that) and my partner is from Malaysia; we got married recently.

She is currently staying in the UK thanks to a Tier 4 (student) visa which will be expiring in January 2019.

Our understanding is that, being the spouse of a EEA national, she has automatic right to live and work in the UK (or any other EU country). Is that correct?

However, when applying for a job for herself she would obviously need proof of having the right to work in the UK, and from what I've been told the marriage certificate (plus my Italian passport) does not constitute proof of her working rights (although we thought that was the whole point...)
We know of the existence of a few types of visas/permits/residence cards for family members of EEA nationals working in the UK, but we are puzzled about their differences.

Could anybody explain (to the best of their knowledge) the difference between a residence card, a EEA family permit, and a spouse visa? Since she is currently still on her Tier 4 visa (and therefore living in the UK), we thought that the residence card was the right option, but one of the employers she has contacted for a potential job suggested she may need to switch her current student visa to a spouse visa.

Also, the problem with the residence card is that I (the Italian national) have only been working in the UK for 1.5 years as before that I was a student and PhD student (still in the UK), and unfortunately I didn't know about students needing a comprehensive health insurance in order to apply for a permanent residence.
So assuming that a PhD researcher is considered to be a student, I guess I wouldn't qualify for permanent residence, and hence she can't get a residence card?

How can we confirm my spouse's right to work and live in the UK? And which visa/permit/residence card should we take to achieve this?
Ideally we would like her to remain in the UK throughout, so permits/visas where she'd need to apply from outside the UK are not ideal.

Thank you in advance for your help!

[fmdddv]

Your wife is entitled to apply for a residence card as long as you are exercising your treaty rights in the UK. As you are in employment, you are exercising treaty rights and it does not matter that you've only been in employment for 1.5 years.

The form you need is EEA(FM) and the fee is £65.
You will need to print and post your application.
The guidance notes are very helpful.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... orm-eea-fm

Regarding permanent residence for yourself, if you've applied and held a registration certificate as a student prior to 2011, you do not need to prove you had CSI during your student years.

[fmdddv]

This forum is full of information, so you may also search for topics on residence card, which will be extremely beneficial to you.

[RVanon88]

Thanks for your reply!

I don't think I had applied for a registration certificate before 2011, so it looks like I'll need to wait for permanent residence.

But at least it looks like we can apply for my wife's residence card! Hopefully it gets accepted though, we've read many stories about it being debited for no particular reason...