What to apply for following EEA Family Permit

[lloydchristmas]

Hello, I was hoping someone here could help clarify a question I have about the EEA family permit. I have been reading the GOV.uk website but it is quite confusing.

I am an Irish National who will be moving to the UK with my wife who is from Israel. I have been working in the UK for most of the past 7 years, but in 2018 I spend the year working remotely for my company in Israel. Now I am moving back to the UK to continue working - I only mention this to explain why my company won't be helping with a Visa for my wife as I am just continuing my employment and not starting a new job or doing a company transfer.

We have secured a EEA Family permit for her, that is valid for 6 months until July 2019. My question is what to do once the 6 months expires - and more realistically what we should start looking into doing quite soon after arriving in the UK in Feb 2019.

The gov.uk website states:

Stay after your EEA family permit expires
You can stay in the UK after your permit expires if you:

are the family member of an EEA national - see if you’re eligible
qualify for a ‘Surinder Singh’ application
have a retained right of residence
have a derivative right of residence

So quite clearly we qualify on point one above. Unfortunately it does not give clear guidance what to apply for. It states that you can apply for a residence card following the expiry of the EEA Family permit, but in the same page states that - You do not need to apply for a residence card as a family member of an EEA or Swiss national

To add to the confusion, it now appears that these cards are no longer valid after 31/12/2020 and are replaced by the EU settlement scheme, which you can apply for starting on the 30th of March 2019 but you are not eligible for settled status if you have not been in the UK for the majority of the 5 years previous (Which will be our case). It appears you can get pre-settled status in this case.

So my understanding on what we should do, and this is where I am open to correction or advice:

- Come to the UK on the EEA Family Permit
- Apply for the EU Settlement scheme, for pre-settled status (for her I do not need it as an Irish National)
- At the same time apply for a residency card - I am not sure if this is required or not?

would this approach make sense? This is my best effort based on what I have red on the Visa website.

I am also not totally clear on what would be her right to work, she would not be looking to work straight away but definitely in a few months down the line. I believe you can work on the EEA Family permit, is the correct and would also be the case for the EU Settlement Scheme?

I would very much welcome any comments on the above, or any advice if I have gone wrong somewhere or misunderstood something. Thanks a lot in advance!

[NikiGio]

- Come to the UK on the EEA Family Permit
Yes
- Apply for the EU Settlement scheme, for pre-settled status (for her I do not need it as an Irish National)
Yes
- At the same time apply for a residency card - I am not sure if this is required or not?
No. Given your wife is already applying for Pre-Settled Status under the UK immigration route, there's no need to double-up with a Residence Card as they are equivalent documents.
A Residence Card gives her the right to live/work via the EU immigration route and therefore, if Brexit goes ahead, will become obsolete in Dec 2020 I think.
Strictly speaking there's nothing preventing her applying both for the Pre-Settled Status (UK immigration route, free) and the Residence Card (EU immigration route, £65) - it's just unneccessary.

I am also not totally clear on what would be her right to work, she would not be looking to work straight away but definitely in a few months down the line. I believe you can work on the EEA Family permit, is the correct and would also be the case for the EU Settlement Scheme?
Both give the right to work.

[lloydchristmas]

Hi Niki,
thank you very much for that, its extremely helpful and I very much appreciate it. Do you happen to know if there is also the NHS Surcharge for the EU settlement scheme that I would need to pay for my wife?

[Adey]

@lloydschristmas how did your wife's application go.

Can you please tell me what documents you submitted. I want to submit my application next week and I wanna be sure i have all necessary docs available.
I will appreciate your response.

Hello, I was hoping someone here could help clarify a question I have about the EEA family permit. I have been reading the GOV.uk website but it is quite confusing.

I am an Irish National who will be moving to the UK with my wife who is from Israel. I have been working in the UK for most of the past 7 years, but in 2018 I spend the year working remotely for my company in Israel. Now I am moving back to the UK to continue working - I only mention this to explain why my company won't be helping with a Visa for my wife as I am just continuing my employment and not starting a new job or doing a company transfer.

We have secured a EEA Family permit for her, that is valid for 6 months until July 2019. My question is what to do once the 6 months expires - and more realistically what we should start looking into doing quite soon after arriving in the UK in Feb 2019.

The gov.uk website states:

Stay after your EEA family permit expires
You can stay in the UK after your permit expires if you:

are the family member of an EEA national - see if you’re eligible
qualify for a ‘Surinder Singh’ application
have a retained right of residence
have a derivative right of residence

So quite clearly we qualify on point one above. Unfortunately it does not give clear guidance what to apply for. It states that you can apply for a residence card following the expiry of the EEA Family permit, but in the same page states that - You do not need to apply for a residence card as a family member of an EEA or Swiss national

To add to the confusion, it now appears that these cards are no longer valid after 31/12/2020 and are replaced by the EU settlement scheme, which you can apply for starting on the 30th of March 2019 but you are not eligible for settled status if you have not been in the UK for the majority of the 5 years previous (Which will be our case). It appears you can get pre-settled status in this case.

So my understanding on what we should do, and this is where I am open to correction or advice:

- Come to the UK on the EEA Family Permit
- Apply for the EU Settlement scheme, for pre-settled status (for her I do not need it as an Irish National)
- At the same time apply for a residency card - I am not sure if this is required or not?

would this approach make sense? This is my best effort based on what I have red on the Visa website.

I am also not totally clear on what would be her right to work, she would not be looking to work straight away but definitely in a few months down the line. I believe you can work on the EEA Family permit, is the correct and would also be the case for the EU Settlement Scheme?

I would very much welcome any comments on the above, or any advice if I have gone wrong somewhere or misunderstood something. Thanks a lot in advance!

[doury]

You can apply for both EU Settlement Scheme and residence card when you make the first application with documents you can apply for the second one mentioning your documents is with the other department

[mezien]

Found the following topic addressing the various routes:

eea-route-applications/eea-rc-pr-vs-pre ... 81827.html