EEA member divorcing non EEA spouse

[Jay25]

A non EU citizen had married a non-EEA citizen and got a five years visa in UK.
But had decided to divorce 5months before their 3year marriage, which is before the end of the five years requested to grant the non EEA partner an ILR, is there still any chance that an application for an ILR goes through ?

Would appreciate any info given.

[alejandrouk]

5.4.2 Retention of a right of residence following divorce or annulment of
marriage / dissolution of civil partnership

Regulation 10 (5) of the 2006 Regulations makes provision for the following:

If the marriage or civil partnership has lasted for at least three years immediately before
the initiation of proceedings for divorce, annulment or dissolution, and the parties to the
marriage or civil partnership had resided in the United Kingdom for at least one year
during the duration of the marriage or civil partnership, then the third country national
retains a right of residence if:

(a) they are pursuing activity which would make them a worker or a self-employed
person if they were an EEA national;
(b) they are a self-sufficient person – including a retired person;
(c) they are the family member of a person in the United Kingdom who is either a
worker, self-employed, or is a self-sufficient person.

If the non-EEA national is a student then they will not qualify, unless they are a student
with sufficient resources to be self-sufficient.

[bobobo]

Unfortunately No. The golden rule in lay man terms is the divorce should have been initiated atleast after 3 years of marriage. Which means that you should apply for a divorce to the court after atleast 3 years, this time does not include the grant of Decree Absolute.
Hope this makes sense!!

Alos its not ILR in EEA route but PR, try to avoid the confusion.

[vinny]

See also OA (EEA - retained right of residence) Nigeria [2010] UKAIT 00003.