Urgent please - EEA4 question

[immigrant_life]

Hi,

My 5 years visa expired in November. I am non-EEA, submitting EEA4 application for PR on the basis of my marriage to EEA national, who is self-employed. We need to provide the prove that he's been exercising his treaty rights in the last 5 years.

We've requested his tax/NI contributions records from HMRC for the last 5 years and also have his accountant letters for each year. His income is very low. Is these documents are sufficient to prove that my husband exercised his treaty rights? There is a long list of proposed documents on the application form but we're unable provide all of them, as some simply don't exist or lost. Also, is the fact that his income was really low going to have any effect on the outcome?

Many thanks for your help!!!

[Azhaar]

if you have bank statments that could help as well

[fysicus]

immigrant_life,

I think your case is actually very straightforward. Tax records in combination with accountant letters are a convincing way of proving that your husband was exercising treaty rights (as self-employed). A low income is no problem, as long as you have been independent of public funds during those five years.
Indeed there is a very long list of possible supporting documents given on the application form - these are just examples; there is absolutely no need to send in all of them. Look what is relevant in your situation, and from what you described I think that will be enough.

The other thing (that you did not mention) is that you also have to prove that you were resident in the UK during these five years.

[DestinyChild]

@immigrant_life

Just as Fsyicus said, you will need to prove that you have been resident in the UK to make your PR Application scale through the Home Office hurdles. I think you will need to provide documents that shows you've been living with your husband i.e Your Bank Statements that were sent to your address, your payslips at work for the 5 years you've held your Residence Card. Utility bills can also be used to prove that you've been residing in the UK for the 5 years. You can also get letters from the employers you've worked for throughout the 5 year period. Cheers and best of Luck.

[immigrant_life]

Hi, Thank you so much for all the replies! Much appreciated!!!

@ DestinyChild and @fysicus - I think we have the prove that we live together: shared account bank statements, utility bills on both names for all 5 years. I can also include letters and graduation certificate from my University as i was part time student for the last 4 years, graduated in 2011. I hope this should be enough?

@Azhaar -He used our shared account to make all the deposits from his business. Before marriage it was his personal, but after he added my name to it too. Most of the deposits were either in cash for the small jobs he did or cheque . Do you think it might be a problem? Cash deposits might be hard to prove that it was money from his business? But maybe with cheque it's more obvious because there were names of his customers on them. But I will include the statements anyway and maybe try to clarify this in the covering letter?

[nonspecifics]

From the Guardian newspaper their financial adviser says that it isn't legally required to have a business bank account when you're an individual trader or in a partnership, but for a Limited company you should have a business bank account.

[fysicus]

@immigrant_life

remember, you don't need to prove any fixed income at all or provide details about your financial situation. As long as you didn't need support from the government (public funds) you're fine.
Don't send in all bank statements; just a few (let's say about three months apart) as support for living together in UK. And certainly don't even start to try to account for every single transaction on your statements.
If I were you, to be honest, I would not send in any bank statements; only the utility bills, may be some letters from the university (but not the graduation certificate!). If you can support your application with documents that are not a big loss if they might disappear, then don't send in any documents that are hard or impossible to replace unless it is absolutely necessary!
Your case is very straightforward; I see no reason to be worried about anything.