BC / Naturalisation for unemployed wife (EEA citizen).

[bonio_j]

Hi all,

I'm seeking for an advice I would appreciate any input on the matter, details are given below. I believe it might be common
situation for many folks out there and as I haven't found any posts close enough to our situation, I decided to write and ask for help on
my wife's case.

I'm EEA country citizen (Poland) working here (UK) for continuous period of almost 7 years, I had been registered by WRS on
October 2006 (and I had been working for current at that time employer for more than a year). Together with my wife, we
have recently decided to apply for British citizenships, I'm quite certain that my application will be successful however
while reviewing various post on the forum I discovered that my wife's application will be probably refused.

My wife is Polish (EEA country), she arrived in UK 2nd Sep 2006 together with myself an my son. She has not exercised her
treaty rights as a worker since our family had been extended with arrival of two babies in 2007 and 2009, and as I was
earning decent wage we had decided that it would be better for our family (with third child in Primary School at the time being)
having her at home. Since our youngest one will start primary school education this year she will probably get back to
work soon.

We have passed life in UK test and our two AN forms are filled in awaiting for postage right now, I put my wife as a housewife
on her form and I added a letter explaining her situation (adding birth certificates and written comments explaining that she was
self sufficient thanks to my income since our arrival). We have had a joint bank account since 2009 and she have been assigned
NI number and she has been receiving child benefits since March 2007 and she never had extra health insurance. We have not claimed
nor received any other benefits. I didn't add these two latter details on the application itself, though.

Do you think that her BC application might be successful?
If not what would be best solution in our situation, should I apply for citizenship alone and my wife would follow with her application
after another three years (or any other allowable period), or maybe she should apply for PR / ILR as an EEA self sufficient citizen right now
and BC application afterwards if ILR is given?

Any help will be appreciated we would rather want to spend several hundred of pound on our kids and not UKBA officials refusing
her application straight away.

Regards,
Bogdan

[boloney]

Don't say she was self sufficent because she was't. She can apply using your status as a worker and she will be family member. As one she acquired pr 5 years from arrival date. She will have to provide prove that she was in the UK all this time
And of course your pr card or yours paperwork to prove that she have pr status.

[bonio_j]

Thanks for the follow up booloney,

If I got you right she should apply for a PR throughout my statutory rights as EEA worker even if she has not worked. I don't have PR myself (I understand that this will be granted / approved automatically in my case - during naturalisation process), again I understand its not a problem.


Also once somebody is received PR (this will be probably backdated at 27th Oct 2011 in that specific case) through family member what would be next step with regards to BC? Will she / he need another year (likely in work) having PR / ILR granted in order to be able to apply for BC or would it be possible to exercise my rights again and apply for her BC w/o waiting for another year?


Please clarify if possible.

[bonio_j]

OK, I found official confirmation on the family member status in official UKBA docs, which confirms boloney's statement,
relevant wording is highlighted below:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... de-eea.pdf
Page 6:

---------

Permanent residence for EEA nationals
An EEA national who acquires permanent residence under the 2006 Regulations can apply
for confirmation of his or her permanent residence status. Permanent residence will normally
be acquired after you have lived in the United Kingdom for a continuous period of five years
in accordance with the EU laws relating to free movement rights that were in force during the
five-year period – that is, you will need to have been living in the United Kingdom as a worker/
jobseeker, in self-employment, studying or self-sufficient throughout the five-year period
or to have been a family member of such a person or a person with permanent residence.

If you were a national of one of the EU8 Accession States (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia or Slovenia) and your period of residence includes any period
of time where you were required to be registered on the Worker Registration Scheme you must
provide proof of your registration in the form of your Worker Registration Certificates and cards

------


I still have few extra question on this - specific to my wife's case (as described in first post of this thread):
- assuming that she is eligible for PR as a family member, can an extra 12 month period residence BC requirement (for EEA nationals)
be also fulfilled through family member relationship (my wife had not exercised her treaty rights since eventual
PR acquisition date and followed 12 month period -due to unemployment- as well)?
- (as family member of a eligible person, who fully exercises his treaty rights) can she submit AN application for BC directly or
should she rather apply for PR residence first?

Any help will be appreciated.

Regards;

[boloney]

From the date EEA natinal acquired PR they can do nothng, it does't matter what you been doing since or what she was doing. But be careful if you are about to apply directly for BC without confirmation of PR. My brother wife is in the same pair of shoes as your wife and when she applied for PR confirmation she was refused because she did't supply documents what my brother was doing since he was granted PR. Caseworker made wrong decision, as this evidence is not needed because he have PR even confirmed by HO.
She can apply for BC directly but it will depend on caseworker knowledge of the procedures, so I would't be suprised if she get refused. It is recommended to apply for PR confirmation first and than without waiting 12 months apply for BC using the same bundle of documents, just to be safe. It's better loose £55 than nearly £900.
Yours and your wife PR does't have to approved by HO you gained it automatically after 5 years of exercising treaty rights, as she was living with you for this period she was't required to do anything. Her status was dependant on this what you was doing, so she will have PR status now as well.
More likely you both have PR but I would spend £110 and test documents. Its up to you, if anything you can apply for reconsideration.

[bonio_j]

Thanks again, boloney, for your response. I had been thinking about it as
well yesterday while reviewing different posts, and I came in to the same
conclusion. I'm going to submit my application for BC first, once all my
documents are sent back (P60, emplyment letters, WRS, ...), I'm going to
submit my wifes application for PR as afamily member. We will document her
residence in UK in very detailed manner attaching as many confirmation documents aspossible.

Once hopefully she is is graneted PR, we will follow with her separeate app.
for BC.

As this and probably many other cases falls under grey area with
regrads to unemplyed dependent partner & BC process, hopefully others
will benfits from informaton provided here. I'll try to repost more info on
developments in next few months as well.

[bonio_j]

Hi all,

As promised, few months later, as a follow up I'm submitting new post which illustrates current situation
(see previous posts on the details), hopefully someone will benefit from the thread. My wife's EEA3
application had been refused (I'm outlining details below) I likely appeal on the Home Office decision
so I'm also seeking for further advise on the matter.

Further details:

I acquired my citizenship couple of months ago (w/o any problems) once my documents were returned
we had submitted application for my wife's ILR confirmation just as described earlier. My wife was a
main applicant on EEA3 ILR confirmation application and I had been added as a person exercising
Treaty Rights and as such my wife was described as a "family member of such person". In fact on the
cover letter I put following statement (see UPPER CASE wording):

"I would like to apply for confirmation of my permanent residence under 2006 Regulation Act.
I'm a EEA / Polish national, and I have been living continuously in United Kingdom for more than
7 years since September 2nd 2006.

Please note that I HAVE NOT EXERCISED the TREATY RIGHTS DIRECTLY (as I have never worked after my
arrival in United Kingdom staying at home as a housewife) however I'M APPLYING AS A FAMILY MEMBER
of such person, who is my husband Mr. xxxxxx. In accordance to official “EEA Guidance Notes”
this should suffice for a permanent residence eligibility, related document content is shown /
highlighted below:"

Relevant quote followed (see also post from Sun Aug 11, 2013 5:56 pm):

" EU laws relating to free movement rights that were in force during the
five-year period – that is, you will need to have been living in the United Kingdom as a worker/
jobseeker, in self-employment, studying or self-sufficient throughout the five-year period
or to have been a family member of such a person or a person with permanent residence. "

Therefore application was surrounded with set of document proving that I have exercised the Treaty Rights
and that main applicant is my wife and had been resided in UK for required number of years.

Now excerpts from the refusal letter, note is addressed to my wife and not to myself:

1)
"You have stated in your application that you have EXERCISED TREATY RIGHTS in the UK for a
continuous five year period as a self sufficient-person, wholly reliant on your EEA national spouses
earnings from employment" ...

2)
"... Your application has been considered and the following has been ascertained from the evidence
provided: You have not provided evidence that you hold comprehensive sickness insurance in the UK.

You have failed to provide evidence that you are a qualified person."


So to summarise case worker accepted proof of evidence on my wife's residency however they treated her as
a main person exercised treaty rights and not family member of such person. I'm of course familiar with
CSI requirement for self sufficient EU members however we did not state that my wife is self sufficient EU citizen.
I thought that family member of working person who fully exercise treaty rights would be fully covered
by national insurance system such as any other family member of any other worker in UK.

On that basis I think i'm going to appeal, the ultimate aim is to have my wife applied for British naturalisation as well,
however it might be not possible without her having permanent residence in the first place.

If you have any comments on the case which would help during appeal process or else
if you think that our case is lost pls. follow up any help will be appreciated.

Regards,

[Jaeger]

How have you filled in EEA3 form?

I assume that you wife's details were in Section 1 and then your details in Section 3. Also what have you written in Section 7? Details of your activities should be there.

Probably a covering letter simply confused a caseworker and gave him/her a reason to refuse an application.

[bonio_j]

Hi Jaeger,

Yes her details as she was main applicant were in section 1 and mine in section 3, and 7 (where I documented my employment
status for affected period of time).

I added cover letter for a reason, and I tried to emphasise that she is applying as family member of a person
exercising treaty rights I also added reference to my already approved naturalisation application (so to speak
my residence and employment status was already confirmed in some way). i think cover letter is quite clear
in that regards as well, it clearly says that my wife is applying as a family member.

I'm confused a this stage I was quite certain that my wife (EEA citizen) has full rights to ILR status w/o comprehensive
sickness insurance cover for affected period of time since I was EEA worker exercising treaty rights in full throughout
the same period of time.

Can somebody please confirm whether applicant is similar case should be refused or not (I believe above sentence
fully summarise our situation)?

Many Thanks & Happy New Year for Everyone,

[bonio_j]

Comments are still welcome please continue on this other (EEA related) thread, though:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... 5&t=154537

[sanami]

Dear Bonio,

I am waiting for any decision that you will get back from HO.
I recently wanted to apply for British citizenship on the basis of exercising treaty rights...likely I talked to a solicitor at CAB first.

I am EEA national, came here in 2006, registered with WRS straight away, worked full time till 2008, 2008-2011 was studying (no work whatsoever), started to work again in 2011. I was told that because i did not work at all during 2008-2011 I would have needed to provide comprehensive health insurance for that period...obviously had none, as I thought my entitlement to nhs was enough...

However, I got married in 2007 (my husband was non-eea) and my husband got British passport in 2009. The solicitor told me that in that case I can apply in 2014 ( in few months time) on the basis of being married to him. As an eea I will acquire permanent residency in 5 years from being married to him, and he said not having insurance will not make any difference to that application. However I am still scared searching everywhere to confirm that I do not need to get the documents about the health insurance, my husband has been in full time work all this time.

You did not need official PR yourself, could have just applied for British naturalisation ( can do that after 6 years of exercising treaty rights) same as your wife on the basis of being married to you.
I am sure her application will be accepted eventually, as by all the laws she applied as your family memebers and not exercising treaty rights.

[bonio_j]

As answered on the other thread, there might be a problem to apply "family member" status of EEA worker
to yourself, since your husband cannot be treated as an EEA worker.There might be other (non EU) routes
for you to gain PR status, though.