Quickest way of getting Citizenship for my wife

[rotor]

Hello there,

I would like to request the collective wisdom of this board, hoping for some advice or pointers on our situation.

Husband (me), Swiss passport, living in London since July 2008 (i.e. just passed 5 years in the UK).
Wife, latin american passport, living in London since September 2008 (i.e. almost 5 years in the UK).
We were married in the UK, in November 2009 (i.e. almost 4 years married). My wife initially entered the UK with a student visa.
My wife has "Residence Card of a Family Member of a Swiss National" in her passport, valid until October 2015.

So here is the question: what is the quickest way of getting UK Citizenship for my wife?

My theory (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is that we both apply for ILR (EEA3 for me and EEA4 for her), but... do we have to be married for 5 years before that is possible?
Once she has ILR she can apply for citizenship (one year later).

So...

If she has to be married for 5 years before she can apply for ILR, then the earliest she can get citizenship is November 2015 (6 years after getting married).
Otherwise, the earliest she can get citizenship is September 2014 (six years after arriving in the UK).

In reality, I'm not counting the months it will take to actually be given the ILR and then the citizensip, and that's assuming no initial rejections (which seems pretty common from what I've seen on the board). But assuming each thing was granted instantly, are my timings correct? More importantly, am I on the right track? Have I missed anything?

And most importantly, based on what I've described, can we start applying for ILR now, or do we have to wait until November 2014?

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!!

[EUsmileWEallsmile]

Your question would be better served in the naturalisation section, so will move it there.

[EUsmileWEallsmile]

For your PR, generally you need to be living in the UK in accordance with the regulations for five years. You could apply for citizenship one year later.

For your wife's PR, she also would need to be living in the UK in accordance with the regulations for five years. Time spend in another category won't count toward her PR. She could apply for citizenship one year later.

Spouses of British citizens don't require to wait an extra year. It takes time to get citizenship approved.

[Jambo]

Time spend in another category won't count toward her PR.

To be precise, time under other category does count to PR. However, time before marriage doesn't (unless you applied as unmarried couple).

The quickest (but the most expensive) option is for you to apply for British citizenship in July 2014 (after 6 years of residence -5 years exercising treaty rights + 1 year after PR) and assuming you are approved, your wife to apply in November 2014 (5 years after marriage to obtain PR. if applying as spouse of BC, no need to wait 1 year).

[rotor]

For your PR, generally you need to be living in the UK in accordance with the regulations for five years. You could apply for citizenship one year later.

For your wife's PR, she also would need to be living in the UK in accordance with the regulations for five years. Time spend in another category won't count toward her PR. She could apply for citizenship one year later.

Spouses of British citizens don't require to wait an extra year. It takes time to get citizenship approved.

Thanks very much.

[rotor]

Time spend in another category won't count toward her PR.

To be precise, time under other category does count to PR. However, time before marriage doesn't (unless you applied as unmarried couple).

The quickest (but the most expensive) option is for you to apply for British citizenship in July 2014 (after 6 years of residence -5 years exercising treaty rights + 1 year after PR) and assuming you are approved, your wife to apply in November 2014 (5 years after marriage to obtain PR. if applying as spouse of BC, no need to wait 1 year).

Thanks very much Jambo. That makes perfect sense. It's a lot longer to wait than I was expecting, but that can't be helped. Thanks!!

[rotor]

I found this report by a non-profit called The AIRE Centre (AIRE stands for "Advice on Individual Rights in Europe").

http://www.airecentre.org/data/files/EE ... r_2013.pdf

On page 3, under the Family Members heading, it states:

Once an EEA national has acquired permanent residence through one of the Article 17 methods detailed in this section, their family members, irrespective of nationality, also acquire permanent residence in the UK. This is different from the acquisition of permanent residence under the five-year rule: if someone is or becomes the family member of a person who has acquired permanent residence in one of the ways described in this section, (s)he acquires permanent residence automatically, no matter how long (s)he has been here.

This makes sense to me, and suggests that I could apply for PR for myself, and and then as soon as I received it my wife could apply (on her EEA4 form, instead of providing the evidence of 5 years of my exercising treaty rights, we would just tick the box saying I already have PR).

What do you think? Has this already been disproven, and is the AIRE Centre wrong? Or is this a valid avenue?

Thanks again for your input!

UPDATE: Never mind. I re-read the whole section, and this only applies to family members of EEA nationals that obtained PR through either Permanent Incapacity, Retirement, or Frontier Workers.

[Jambo]

Did you notice that the text is under the heading 2. Acquiring permanent residence before completing five years of residence and this includes permanent incapacity, retirement and frontier worker (and their family members). I'm guessing none of these is your case.

Your wife will obtain PR 5 years after marriage (when she became a family member). She could provide your PR card instead of 5 years treaty rights evidence to support her application.

[rotor]

Did you notice that the text is under the heading 2. Acquiring permanent residence before completing five years of residence and this included permanent incapacity, retirement and frontier worker. I'm guessing none of this is your case.

You are, indeed, a guru! =)

[rotor]

Hello folks,

I am a Swiss citizen, have been in the UK almost 7 years. I've been procrastinating submitting an EEA3 so I could use that as a springboard for my wife's EEA4 (she is from South America) and then on to Naturalisation for her (and potentially for me, but not that fussed at this stage, especially given the cost of £1005!). My wife and I will have been married 6 years in September.

But having read a bit more about the Naturalisation process, I'm starting to think I should skip the EEA3 and just go straight for naturalisation. Even though it is a lot more expensive, I would probably eventually do it anyway, and it would allow my wife to gain a full year (she wouldn't have the requirement of 1 year married after my PR).

NEW Plan:

- I apply for Naturalisation (takes up to 6 months)
- The moment I receive the citizenship certificate, my wife can apply for her Naturalisation -- she has 5+ years living in the UK, 3+ years married to a (brand new) British Citizen (takes up to 6 months)

Under the new plan, we both end up with citizenship, and my wife ends up with citizenship after 12-14 months.

OLD Plan:

- I apply for EEA3 (takes up to 6 months)
- My wife immediately applies for EEA4 (takes up to 6 months)
- One year later (1 year after her PR) my wife applies for Naturalisation (takes up to 6 months)
- Optional: I apply for Naturalisation at some future date

Under this scheme, only my wife ends up with citizenship (optional for me), and it takes her 2.5+ years (6mo + 6mo + 12mo + 6mo) to get it.

The NEW plan seems vastly preferable, the only downside is that I will be risking £1005 as opposed to the £65 that the EEA3 costs. Risking in the sense that I have been self-employed my whole time in the UK, and given the vast amount of paperwork required under this category for the EEA3, I'm feeling a little apprehensive about how likely I am to be approved -- in my mind there is no question I fully qualify, it's just a matter of how picky they are about things like originals (I scan and shred everything as I receive it, so I have no originals).

So here's my question: assuming I hand in a comprehensive application (with lots of documentation on evidence of residence and evidence of self-employment) am I taking a massive risk with the £1005, given my wife will gain a full 18 months (which would be enormously handy)?

Thanks in advance!

[fwd079]

Guide notes starting from Q5 onwards in this link might be helpful. Good luck.

[rotor]

Thanks, I saw that, and it is useful, but I was hoping for someone who has been through the same experience and could offer any guidance or feedback.

[fwd079]

Thanks, I saw that, and it is useful, but I was hoping for someone who has been through the same experience and could offer any guidance or feedback.

What I have read in forum across months, its 50-50 either way, members have applied with PR and without it. But it seems to me that without PR get delayed usually.

[rotor]

Hello folks,

Here is my situation: EEA citizen in the UK since 2008, going to my British Citizenship ceremony on 7-Jan-2016. Happy days, as I managed to apply before they changed the rules in November 2015 (requiring the explicit PR).

I have a question about my wife.

Her situation: from South America, in the UK since 2008, married to me since November 2009 (so her 5 years were November 2014, and her 6 years were November 2015). She has an expired (in October 2015) "Residence Card of a Family Member of an EEA National" in her South American passport. We didn't bother to renew her Residence Card as we had decided to go straight to Citizenship.

As I will be a UK Citizen in 4 days, is there any way to bypass the new process, or is she going to have to apply for an EEA(PR) (takes 6 months, can't travel during that time), wait 12 months, and finally, apply for citizenship (takes 6 months), for a total of 2+ years?

Are there any other suggestions you might make? Her actual citizenship is not super urgent (although of course it is the end goal), but I do want her to be in a position where we can travel at will without having to worry about applying for e.g. spouse visa for her to return on.

Thanks very much for your time and assistance!

[geriatrix]

is there any way to bypass the new process,

No.

[CR001]

You could have included her in your PR application.

She will need PR and as soon as she receives it, she can apply for citizenship as the spouse of a British Citizen. No need to wait 12 months.

[rotor]

You could have included her in your PR application.

I never applied for PR -- I went straight to Citizenship (and received it in just over 5 months).

[rotor]

She will need PR and as soon as she receives it, she can apply for citizenship as the spouse of a British Citizen. No need to wait 12 months.

Ah OK. So total timeline is more like 12+ months. I'm dreading the EEA PR process as the form is so detailed and asks for so many things. The Citizenship one (done through NCS) was trivial by comparison.

Thanks CR001.

[rotor]

One more question: section 9 of the EEA(PR) form asks "does the relevant EEA national have a document certifying permanent residence?". That would be me (the sponsor), and my question is: does my citizenship certificate qualify as that document? It would save me having to supply all the evidence of my 5 years of exercising treaty rights all over again (already did it for the naturalisation process).

Thanks!

[rotor]

Hi there.

I'm an EEA citizen who has recently been granted UK citizenship. My wife was going to apply as soon as I received mine (our 6th wedding anniversary was in November), but the rules changed, so now she has to apply for PR first.

Section 9 of the EEA(PR) form asks "does the relevant EEA national have a document certifying permanent residence?". That would be me (the sponsor), and my question is: does my citizenship certificate qualify as that document? It would save me having to supply all the evidence of my 5 years of exercising treaty rights all over again (already did it for the naturalisation process).

Thanks!

[1kiril]

No.

Since you've been naturalised you're no longer a EU national in the eyes of the British legislature. You are British and British alone. Your wife will have to apply as a spouse of a British national.

[rotor]

With respect, I don't think that's right. I am still an EEA citizen, and she is applying for PR as a result of the 6 years she has spent married to an EEA citizen.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.