EEA Citizen + US Citizen (Complicated situation)

nikkosan · Post by **nikkosan** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 12:51 am

Hi all,

I just found your website and Iâ€™m trying to go through the impressive amount of information in the â€œEEA-route Applicationsâ€

alekos · Post by **alekos** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 8:45 am

Hi. First, EEA national needs to exercise treaty rights in the UK. As a student you also need Comprehensive Sickness Insurance covering both of you in the UK as well as any dependent children.

Your partner can apply for a Residence Card (form EEA2) at any time, bearing in mind you need to have CSI, plus proof of relationship for at least two years.

If today you're exercising treaty rights, you have the right to sponsor your partner to remain here, regardless of whatever stamp in a passport says. Getting a RC does make life easier, though.

You don't need a Registration Certificate, but you can have it if you want to. See http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... dlaw/ecis/

Also http://eumovement.wordpress.com/directive-200438ec/

Both links contain very useful info.

Post by **Jambo** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:38 am

You are not required to apply for Residence Certificate (EEA1). It is also not needed to support your partner application. If you do wish to apply for it, better to do it together (in the same envelope) with the EEA2 application as the supporting documents needed would be similar.

nikkosan · Post by **nikkosan** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 10:32 am

Thanks to you both Alekos and Jambo, I appreciate your contribution as it helps ease some of my concern.

Alekos: I won't be physically enrolled in school until Induction week on September 19th, does that mean that right now I am not exercising treaty rights and cannot therefore sponsor my partner? I think this is a crucial point that could potentially make a difference here.

Also, I have an Italian EHIC (expiring mid 2012), do I still need to have CIS, and if yes, which one would you recommend?

Proof or relationship shouldn't be a problem as we do have enough evidence for that, and I did go through the notes on the UKBA website.

Jambo: Thanks for clarifying the EEA1+EEA2 application. I wasn't quite sure how to file for both together (as I knew I could only include EEA citizens in my EEA1), but you just gave me the answer.

Also, the stamp on his passport says he has to leave 3 months after June 22nd 2011, which means he has to be out of the country on September 22nd 2011, am I correct in the assumption that if we do apply for both EEA1+EEA2, he will be "in status" here in the UK while waiting for UKBA to make a decision on our case?

Wishing you all a great beginning of the week.

alekos · Post by **alekos** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 10:48 am

You don't need to exercise treaty rights for the first three months after entering the UK. But in order to get a Residence Card for your partner, you need to be exercising treaty rights when the application is lodged.
Italian EHIC being a valid CSI is open to debate, according to some threads found in this forum.

Apply by September and your partner will be "on hold". But remember, legally speaking, it's not the stamp in the passport that counts, just the relationship between you two, if you are exercising treaty rights.

nonspecifics · Post by **nonspecifics** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 11:12 am

All good advice.

There has been a lot of argument about EHIC before, but on the latest EEA forms (late June 2011) UKBA are accepting EHIC as proof of CSI.

Is the Italian EHIC an exception to this? If so, can you point me to those threads, as that is interesting?

This was mentioned already, but is worth highlighting again:

Even if the EEA National has proof of CSI, for students to be regarded as self-sufficient, CSI IS ALSO REQUIRED FOR ALL FAMILY MEMBERS.

WPA is one health insurance company I had read about before being recommended on here. Found here:

http://www.wpa.org.uk/

If you choose the policy with a large excess, it reduces the policy price to a more reasonable annual price.

nikkosan · Post by **nikkosan** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 11:47 am

alekos wrote:You don't need to exercise treaty rights for the first three months after entering the UK. Apply by September and your partner will be "on hold".

Thanks for clarifying that for me Alekos. Can we just go ahead and file the application within the next few weeks (considering it will take HO a long time to process the application anyway)? What does being "on hold' entail?

I'm asking because if we wait for me to be exercising treaty rights (I'm starting a postgrad program at King's on Sept.19th), he will potentially be overstaying his "visa stamp" (I know, you said it doesn't count, but I'm just trying to play it on the safe side after the mess we created in May applying for the VAF1B).

nonspecifics wrote: Even if the EEA National has proof of CSI, for students to be regarded as self-sufficient, CSI IS ALSO REQUIRED FOR ALL FAMILY MEMBERS.

Ok, so it sounds as if we will have to look into CSI for both of us through a provider such as WPA (I think I read someone quoting 78GBP/month for a family of four), this will certainly make things less complicated I believe.

If you care to read more about how EHIC can be used as proof, you should take a look at ECI Ch.4 (Annex A, Point B) that's where I found the information.

alekos · Post by **alekos** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 11:59 am

From 19 September you'll be able to exercise treaty rights as a student. Till then you could be "Self-sufficient", but it entails disclosing your financial, yours only not your partner, position to UKBA.
Easiest would be to get a p/t job now and apply for your partner's residence card.
You entered the UK on 22 JUN. Applying on or near 19 SEPT as a student is fine. Your partner will get a Certificate of Application within a month of applying with which he will be able to prove a right to be here.

"on hold" = "in status".

nikkosan · Post by **nikkosan** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:04 pm

alekos wrote: You entered the UK on 22 JUN. Applying on or near 19 SEPT as a student is fine. Your partner will get a Certificate of Application within a month of applying with which he will be able to prove a right to be here.

Hi Alekos,
Thanks once again for your helpful answer.

I was reading through the "GUIDANCE NOTES FOR APPLYING AS A EUROPEAN NATIONAL OR AS THE FAMILY MEMBER OF A EUROPEAN NATIONAL" and noticed this on page 4 towards the end:

Please note that a Residence Card application can generally only be accepted from the spouse, civil partner or child of the student, or the child of the spouse or civil partner, when the European national is exercising treaty rights as a student. Other family members will generally not automatically qualify for a Residence Card.

Does that mean they won't consider an application for sponsorship made by a student?

My partner and I have joint bank accounts both here and in the US and are economically self-sufficient. Should we just forget about the reason while we here (my postgrad studies) and apply through the "self-sufficient" option?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

alekos · Post by **alekos** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:17 pm

My gut feeling is to best apply as a worker. Go to a Jobcentre and register as a jobseeker, p/t, weekends only. Once you have proof of job seeking at least, your partner could apply for his RC. That way you'd avoid taking out a expensive CSI.

If self sufficient, you must disclose your, and yours only, financial situation to the UKBA.
Other forum members might correct me on this, but as an unmarried partner the Certificate of Application will say "UKBA cannot confirm his right to work" until he receives his RC.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... cklist.pdf Have a look at Jobseeker.

nikkosan · Post by **nikkosan** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:38 pm

Thank you once again Alekos.

I'm having a look at jobseeker online right now and will register ASAP. My reason for not seeking employment right now is that I need to put a monstrous effort on my studies (which means a lot of extracurricular "work" on campus), in order to be able to secure a PhD spot from a top ranked university in the US. I don't know anything about the British system (in terms of academics) and therefore can't make an informative decision whether to apply or not for a job. I've been dealing with renting a place, setting up accounts here, etc., next step is to go visit career services on campus to talk with someone about potential job vacancies and how to modify my US resume to turn it into a UK CV.

I do agree though that applying as a worker is possibly the best chance we have right now.

Also a little upset he was only given 3 months by the IO when we know that as a non-visa national, he can come to the UK as a visitor for 6 months.

alekos · Post by **alekos** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:44 pm

nikkosan wrote:Also a little upset he was only given 3 months by the IO when we know that as a non-visa national, he can come to the UK as a visitor for 6 months.

What stamp did he get?

nikkosan · Post by **nikkosan** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:49 pm

alekos wrote: What stamp did he get?

There's a code starting with LNX and a 5-digit number (I suppose it is just a reference to the entry in the database), and then it says:

Leave to enter for/until (with "until" crossed out)
Three Months
----------------------------------------
No work or recourse to public funds

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EEA Citizen + US Citizen (Complicated situation)

EEA Citizen + US Citizen (Complicated situation)

Self-sufficient / student