Absence longer that 2 years within 13 years of living in UK

[whiteorchid]

Hi there,

I am an EEA citizen married to an EEA citizen - we first entered the UK back in 2004 and stayed for 5 continuous years until 2009, then left and stayed outside the UK for 3 years. We came back to the UK in 2013 with plans to stay permanently now (well at least we did before the referendum)... We never applied for a PR after the first 5 years here. Am I right thinking that we lost the right to apply for the PR based on 2004-2009 and need to wait another year to apply next year based on 2013-2018? Will the HO still question the over 2 years absence and require the evidence of us living here since 2004? We've been both employed full time for the whole period of staying in the UK.

Thanks - sorry for such a long question but as you can imagine we are a bit anxious now about the future. Thanks ever so much for any insights and advice.

[MrSlyFox]

Permanent residence is obtained automatically after exercising treaty rights for five years, however, it is automatically lost after two years of absence automatically as well. You will have to exercising your treaty rights for five years from when you returned so wait until 2018.

[whiteorchid]

Thank you very much!