Non EU spouse of EU citizen - Query

[John]

I think your experience sums it up nicely ... unfortunately!

Thanks to the EU/EEA regulations that came into force on 30.04.06 you have a right to live and work in the UK, assuming your EU/EEA Family Member is exercising their Treaty Rights in the UK. Indeed there is no compulsion for you to apply for a 5-year Residence Card, but if you don't, how do you prove that you have those rights, including the right to live and work in the UK? Therein lies the problem!

The preventing illegal workers guidance is quite specific about what documentation an employer, or prospective employer, should seek. And given that such employers cannot be expected to have a detailed working knowledge of EU/EEA regulations, this leaves you with a real problem.

As you say if you apply for a Residence Card you will get a letter back confirming your ability to work, but that does not help you at this instant in time. The best I suggest at this moment in time is for you to go to this BIA webpage and then download Chapter 2. At 1.1 it states :-

As confirmation of this right of residence, non-EEA national family members may apply for a residence card, which if issued, will be valid for 5 years, or shall be valid for the envisaged period of residence in the UK of the EEA national (if this is a shorter period of time). This refers to Regulation 17(6)(a) and (b) of the 2006 Regulations.

In other words the issue of a Residence Card to you gives you no more rights, but it does confirm that you have those rights. Suggest you print out at least part of the document, and take that to the agency, and hopefully you will be allowed to work.

Final point .... in what way is your EU/EEA Family Member exercising their Treaty Rights in the UK?

[Magarhe]

Thanks John that is good information as usual, and it is a strange situation, and I agree, employers should not need to know all this about EEA rights - it was hard enough for me to track down and understand all the information let alone expect an agency to understand it.

Final point .... in what way is your EU/EEA Family Member exercising their Treaty Rights in the UK?

My wife is working, has done 6 months of her 12 month workers registration period, has applied for and received her WRS card. Note my wife is one of the Ascention States, the A8, she is Hungarian. She is working as a doctor on a 12 month contract. So she is pretty much exercising her rights in every way possible.

But I can see the point of an employer - how do THEY know my wife is exercising her rights? (well I could show them the WRS card).

Basically my advice is that anyone in my situation should apply for their Residence Stamp ASAP.

Note this is NOT a "Residence Card" - which is for EEA members who are not A8.

For A8 ....

an A8 EEA member applies for Worker Registration Scheme of WRS for first 12 months

an A8 EEA FAMILY MEMBER applies for a "Residence Stamp" during the first 12 months using form FMRS

after 12 months, EEA person can get a "Registration Certificate"
and EEA Family Member can get a "Residence Card"

Nice, isn't it, the incredible amount of names they come up with.

As far as I am concerned the 12 months - in fact, all legislation discriminating against the A8 - should be scrapped. A country should be EU, or NOT EU. Not partly EU. It is ridiculous. Nevertheless it is not a perfect world.

If not scrapping these regulations then at least:

- make policies clear, and available, so at least I could refer an employer to a site that explained the rules

- link the WRS and Border control so that when my wife gets WRS I get the residence stamp status automatically, instead of mailing in passports etc... and waiting weeks/months, or at LEAST saving me from filling in the forms again and going to my wifes' workplace again and having them fill things in, AGAIN

You can download this pdf if anyone wants it for A8 rights

http://www.advicenow.org.uk/fileLibrary ... _FINAL.pdf


Now, the conclusion to this contract was that although I had it and the main client wanted me to start work ASAP, and that there is nobody else who can do this work available, and that it was a major project with a crazy deadline, because the payroll company wouldn't accept me and because the agency who found & matched me to the company won't use a different payroll company, the work basically does not get done. The main company is of course extremely angry, everyone loses. A major skilled resource (that's me is left sitting here and a major company is left short - to me, that is just plain bananas.

Anyway hope my story helps someone.

Sent my application away today for FMRS and hope I get that letter soon saying I have applied, and then, hope people accept the letter as well.

[Docterror]

As far as I am concerned the 12 months - in fact, all legislation discriminating against the A8 - should be scrapped.

In due time it will be.

[John]

.... all legislation discriminating against the A8 .....

This is how it works folks! Totally normal for there to be transitional arrangements for a number of years after a country joins the EU. When the UK joined it was certainly subject to transitional arrangements, but I do not recollect that being talked about in terms of discrimination.

[Magarhe]

.... all legislation discriminating against the A8 .....

This is how it works folks! Totally normal for there to be transitional arrangements for a number of years after a country joins the EU. When the UK joined it was certainly subject to transitional arrangements, but I do not recollect that being talked about in terms of discrimination.

"Discriminate" is a strong word but couldn't think of a better one.

In an ideal world there would be no need for it, I can see some need for it, I just wish the procedures were a bit clearer - I had enough trouble deciphering it all, it must be really hard for a non-English speaking person to work it out.

And it should be 100% clear to a potential employer with an official website or something to spell it out completely.

And WRS of my wife should be linked to my passport. And an employer etc.. should be able to ring up with my passport number and get instant verification of my status. Obviously make sure employer should be allowed to know that status and is not some dodgy ringing up.

At least that is how I think the system could be improved.

Of course all this could have been avoided by applying for the stamp much earlier, that will be my advice to everyone.

[John]

In an ideal world there would be no need for it

Yes, but in the real world a transitional period is considered necessary, while the entrant country, and those previously in membership align their economies.

At least A8 nationals have an easy route to employment in the UK at present. I suggest that merely filling in a form and registering under the WRS is a lot easier than getting, for example, a Work Permit to work in say Germany!

But the transitional period will end and then I suspect that many of the A8 nationals will leave the UK and move to an EU country nearer to their own country than the UK. Or at least the flood of people coming in now will reduce to a trickle. After all if someone is say Polish and living quite near to the German border, which is to be preferred ..... travelling many hundreds of miles to the UK ... or commuting on a daily basis to a job in Germany?

[JAJ]

When the UK joined it was certainly subject to transitional arrangements, but I do not recollect that being talked about in terms of discrimination.

I'm working from memory but the UK was not subject to "transitional" arrangements, except in Northern Ireland where EEC employment rights didn't come in until 1978. (it didn't affect the rights of British citizens from Northern Ireland).

The reason behind this is that the Northern Ireland government passed the Safeguarding of Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1947 as a de-facto immigration control measure that affected all those non-indigenous to Northern Ireland. (quite similar to the employment controls in place in the Isle of Man today).
http://www.bailii.org/nie/legis/num_act ... 28/s1.html

This was not repealed until 1981:
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/legislation/nort ... 00.htm#H18

[John]

Sorry JAJ, your memory is against you, as shown by Text of the Act of Accession.

You only have to do a search on the word "transitional" to see that it appeared many times, including as a heading to Part Four, "TRANSITIONAL MEASURES"!

[JAJ]

Sorry JAJ, your memory is against you, as shown by Text of the Act of Accession.

You only have to do a search on the word "transitional" to see that it appeared many times, including as a heading to Part Four, "TRANSITIONAL MEASURES"!

I did of course mean transitional measures on free movement of workers, but it appears there is no reference to that in the document. So the text I read which had this reference (written around 1986 or so) appears to have been incorrect.