Eligibility of EEA PR application EEA wife, British husband

[tentacles]

Dear forum users

I'm looking into a PR application for my EEA wife who has lived in the UK for over 10 years. We have been together for over 10 years, and she has no disqualifying absences. We also have two children born in the UK including one born over 10 years ago, and both are British. We were married around 18 months ago. Before that time (and again for more than 10 years) we lived together. As far as I understand, as my wife has not been for any continuous five year period either a student or employee (because of her looking after our children) she cannot apply for PR by that route and in any case didn't have private medical insurance when a student.

I therefore believe she will need to apply with me as her sponsor. I was born in the UK, have always lived here, and have been employed continuously for just short of 10 years.

I'm interested in the 'state benefit' section of the PR form. Although I received benefits these were in the distant past and I don't think I have the documentation to be able to list them. The form says it wants them listed 'since you have lived in the UK' (the 'you' refers to my wife). So if I take the form literally I should include things more than 10 years ago (the time I received benefits was while my wife was in the UK). What am I to do here? I can't see the relevance if it isn't in the five year period that eligibility needs to be proven for. There is the possibility that we have received some child benefit in the last five years and I hope, should this be true, it isn't a disqualifying factor.

Thank you very much. I thought this was a simple query but listing the background took more words than I imagined. If anyone sees anything in that background that would disqualify my wife from a PR application then please let me know!

[GMB]

I went back and forth on this section several times for my own application. My situation was a bit different in that I am the non-EEA and my EEA wife vaguely recalled that she claimed three or so months of JSA right after she graduated university in 1993. But of course she had no records of it at all. I ended up checking the 'no' box and moving on because I interpreted "since you have lived in the UK" to mean that I didn't need to report it at all as I didn't arrive in the UK until 2002.

But back while I thought I needed to report it, I'd prepared a note to include to the effect of "JSA benefits were claimed by EEA sponsor in the period XXX to XXX 1993. Sponsor has no surviving records of these benefits, does not recall amounts given, and the associated bank account was closed years ago." I figured that way they couldn't say I lied on the form, and as they had her NIN anyway if they really wanted to pursue it they could have.

[tentacles]

Thank you. I did not consider that option but it seems a good one. Hopefully that will suffice, and I'm hoping for a similar thing with the time out of the country which is another one for which our records don't go back sufficiently far.

[tentacles]

Hello, and thanks in advance for any replies

I've been looking into a PR application for my EEA wife who has lived in the UK for over 10 years. We have been together for over 10 years, and she has no disqualifying absences. We also have two children born in the UK including one born over 10 years ago, and both are British. We were married around 18 months ago. Before that time (and again for more than 10 years) we lived together. As far as I understand, as my wife has not been for any continuous five year period either a student or employee (because of her looking after our children) she cannot apply for PR by that route and in any case didn't have private medical insurance when a student.

I believe she will need to apply with me as her sponsor. I was born in the UK, have always lived here, and have been employed continuously for just short of 10 years.

I've already asked and kindly had answered a question about the state benefits section but now am having doubts on the eligibility.

What I want to know is if she should be eligible on the basis of the above. I've interpreted the route as 'family member of an EEA national qualified person or permanent resident'. Does this seem valid?

Thank you

(in case you are wondering this application is to be able to apply for British Citizenship in case the government makes it more difficult, or expensive)

[Richard W]

I don't see how you can your sponsor your wife for any sort of residence card under the EEA Regulations or any analogy thereof. If you have always been British and only British, and have always lived in the UK, then you cannot be her sponsor.

If she is presently performing work that is genuine and effective and not marginal or ancillary, then she can apply for a 5-year residence card. While she is a 'qualified person', she has the same immigration rights as an Irish citizen. Their immigration status privileges are activated by entering the UK from the Republic and are lost by entering the UK from outside the Common Travel Area, e.g. from France.

It may be that you have earning enough that when the time comes to apply for permission to reside, your wife would have qualified by a combination of being a student, a worker and self-sufficient if only she had had CSI. In that case, your wife might then be able to obtain a grant of settled status.

[tentacles]

Thanks for the reply.

I was trying to take what the form said as literally as possible. I thought that I could consider myself a permanent resident. Am I not an 'EEA permanent resident' as someone born in Britain (and who has always lived in Britain)?

Is it the case that my wife could receive PR if instead she was married to a non-British EEA worker who had themselves been granted PR?

I wonder, is there some route where I myself apply for PR, and add my wife to the application?

If it helps, I've applied for Irish citizenship, but that has not come through yet. My aim is simply to make sure my wife won't suffer at the whims of the current or a future government, and I feel that time is running out for the PR route.

Thanks again

[GMB]

Am I not an 'EEA permanent resident' as someone born in Britain (and who has always lived in Britain)? Is it the case that my wife could receive PR if instead she was married to a non-British EEA worker who had themselves been granted PR?

Being British and resident in the UK generally means you can't take advantage of EEA law for your family members. EEA law normally applies to an EEA citizen living in another EEA country other than his or her own. So the same rule limits a German in Germany and a Hungarian in Hungary. There are some exceptions, but they would have required you to live/work in another EEA state with your wife for a while then return to the UK to live, which isn't the situation you're in.

I wonder, is there some route where I myself apply for PR, and add my wife to the application?

See above. There's no scenario I can think of in which the UK government would ever give a UK-only citizen PR under the EEA rules.

I think your best bet is for her to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain under the UK domestic rules, under 10-year long residence. The form is SET(LR). It is much more expensive, she has to take the Life in the UK test and may have to prove English proficiency, but it can be done same-day and unlike PR under the EEA rules, nothing to do with BREXIT could cause her to lose ILR.

[Richard W]

I think your best bet is for her to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain under the UK domestic rules, under 10-year long residence. The form is SET(LR). It is much more expensive, she has to take the Life in the UK test and may have to prove English proficiency, but it can be done same-day and unlike PR under the EEA rules, nothing to do with BREXIT could cause her to lose ILR.

That requires 10 years residence 'not in breach of the immigration laws'. When she was not a qualified person and had not been outside the UK in the past three months, she needed leave to remain and did not have it. She was therefore 'in breach of the immigration laws' as defined by the Immigration Rules, which is less strict in this respect than the British Nationality Act 1981 as it currently stands.

[GMB]

She should be able to cover that gap by claiming self-sufficiency based on spouse's income. That is identified as a means of exercising treaty rights in some of the HO directives I've read. I don't recall if that requires the person to have health insurance or not, however.

[Richard W]

She should be able to cover that gap by claiming self-sufficiency based on spouse's income. That is identified as a means of exercising treaty rights in some of the HO directives I've read. I don't recall if that requires the person to have health insurance or not, however.

She needs CSI to be self-sufficient. However, when time comes to apply for leave to remain as part of the Brexit transition arrangements, she may be able to apply for settled status because apparently CSI won't be insisted on, as I said last week. However, the mention of lawful residence in this context seems contradictory.