US Citizen: Renew EEA2 or apply for settled status?

[macncheese]

Hi all,

I'm a US citizen and my wife is Polish. We have lived in the UK since 2011. My wife was recently given her Settled Status letter. All I have right now is an expired EEA2 visa in my (expired) American passport. It was issued June 2014 and expired June 2019. I of course should have tried to renew it before it expired but failed to do so.

I recently tried to go through the Settled Status application for myself, but for non-EEA citizens the app only accepts a biometric residence card or permit. My (expired) permit is a sticker in my passport and doesn't have fingerprints and isn't accepted by the app.

So my question is - what should I do next? Should I try to apply for a different biometric visa before I can apply for settled status? If so, which one exactly should I apply for now? Thank you very much for any assistance.

[Zerubbabel]

Hello

This is bad. As a foreign national, you shouldn't let your passport and residence expire. These kind of things should never happen. You need to start fixing this situation immediately to avoid problems later.

- Step 1: renew your US passport. As you cannot get any immigration document with an expired passport.

- Step 2: apply for EEA PR (https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... orm-eea-pr) with the new passport.

- Step 3: ensure you apply for EU Settlement Scheme before June 2021.

As long as you are married, there is no break in your lawful residence even if you 5 year card expired. But if you wait post Dec 31, 2020, you may break your lawful residence at one point.

[kamoe]

- Step 1: renew your US passport. As you cannot get any immigration document with an expired passport.

Agree.

- Step 2: apply for EEA PR (https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... orm-eea-pr) with the new passport.

- Step 3: ensure you apply for EU Settlement Scheme before June 2021.

Disagree. Applying for the EEA route now makes no sense, because:

1. He would need to wait 6-7 months to get the PR card.
2. He would need to replace the card soon by a EUSS card anyway
3. He would need to do biometrics twice (one for the EEA RC, one for the EUSS card)

Why have all the inconvenience above when he can apply directly to the EUSS?

I would say,

-Step 2: apply directly to the EUSS with online+post option (not the app).

And there is no Step 3.

As long as you are married, there is no break in your lawful residence even if you 5 year card expired. But if you wait post Dec 31, 2020, you may break your lawful residence at one point.

Agree. The married status covers him until the end of the transition period, so best to make sure to apply by that date.

[macncheese]

Thank you very much to both of you for your advice. I too wondered about the time it would take to process the new EEA2 and thought it might now be too late. I wasn't aware there was a way to do the Settled Status application through the mail, so I think I'll go that route.

It makes me wonder, though, does my wife with her settled status not have the right to sponsor me for a visa after Jan 1, 2021? Or would it just be that she could, but I might lose my 'credit' for uninterrupted time in the UK? Either way, I'll get it going now.

(I realise this was misleading, so minor point of clarification - I do have a valid US passport, it's just that the expired EEA2 permit is stuck in a page of my older/expired passport, so I would normally travel with both passports and the border agents never seemed to mind.)

[kamoe]

It makes me wonder, though, does my wife with her settled status not have the right to sponsor me for a visa after Jan 1, 2021? Or would it just be that she could, but I might lose my 'credit' for uninterrupted time in the UK? Either way, I'll get it going now.

I just double checked, and the way things are worded, seems you could do it as late as June 30th 2021. But the earliest you sort it out, the better.

(I realise this was misleading, so minor point of clarification - I do have a valid US passport, it's just that the expired EEA2 permit is stuck in a page of my older/expired passport, so I would normally travel with both passports and the border agents never seemed to mind.)

Oh ok, no issue there. People do travel with two passports all the time for that reason. Completely valid. I think you can apply to transfer a visa or permit from and old passport to a new one, but usually this is not mandatory.