Now to get to the point: I am a Croatian citizen, married to a German citizen, and we are currently living in Iceland (we also married in Iceland in 2012). We are moving to Manchester this week (moving may be too broad of a term, we will visit and try to find jobs and a flat in the following months). There are several questions which I was not able to find an answer to, despite scouring through the Internet and the UKBA agency. I have consulted the British Embassy in Reykjavik, and have also emailed UKBA directly, but no avail (aka, I have told them I went through all the info on the UKBA pages, asked my questions, and I was only linked back again to the UKBA agency pages in their replies), so I will ask here, as you seem to be more competent than them
1. The infamous blue registration certificate: being married to a German citizen, I am (according to UKBA) exempt from needing a work permit. BUT, there was some confusion about whether our marriage is recognized as a marriage (since it's a gay marriage), and whether and where we have to register our marriage in order for me to have access to the job market. secondly, it is written that, due to me being exempt, i don't really need the blue registration certificate, but i can get it if i want. i have asked what are pros and cons of having or not having it (since this would cost 110£ I would really want to know all about it), but got no relevant answer.
2. Medical insurance: do we have it in UK, if not, how do we get it? do we need the E104 form? this was for example necessary in Iceland, we brought these forms which showed that we were insured in our home countries, and then we were automatically insured by the Icelandic healthcare system. does something like this exist in UK?
3. am I really an EEA citizen? while the (most) UK government pages claim that Croatia is an EEA country. this, sadly, is not true, because the EEA agreement negotiations are still ongoing, and Croatia is NOT part of the EEA until the agreement is ratified by all countries. and this I presume will take a long time. the reason why I'm asking this is because, for example, in Iceland I was pretty much nobody when it came to EU rights, despite my EU status, because Iceland is only interested in the EEA status, which I do not have. I would really not want to go through this again
4. can we, or can we not, search and get a job without any problems, or we first have to register with the government institutions? I suppose that German citizens can do this without any problems, but nobody was able to exactly pinpoint my status once we arrive.
many many thanks to whomever tackles these questions, I really appreciate it!
