Perm Resident Status

Hi all,

I am planning to apply for the UK citizenship next week but it seems I am missing something. I would appreciate your advice.

I am a EEA citizen, and have lived in the UK for 6 years and 3 months. I was under the impression that all I had to do in order to apply for the UK citizenship was to prove that I have lived here for 6 years. Therefore, I gathered letters from employers, my qualifications from UK unis, and six P60's from the tax office in order to demonstrate that. However, on the first page of the application I have to declare the "date I was given indefinite leave to enter/remain in the UK". What is this date? Is it simply the date I first entered the country? Or do I need to apply for a Permanent Residence Certificate first in order to apply for the naturalisation? I have never applied for a permanent residence status as nobody has told me that it is necessary. If I do need that first, do I then need to wait for 12 months before I apply for the citizenship?

Thanks a lot

You do not need to apply for PR before BC, it is obtained automatically under EU law. The requirement for BC is not just that you must have lived here for 6 years, you must be able to provide evidence that for first 5 years of the 6 years, you have exercised your treaty rights uninterrupted.

Thank you so much. I hope that my uni degrees, letters from employers and P60's will be enough to prove that?

So, in this case which date do I put down in the 1.3 section? I first arrived in the UK on the 25th of february 2008

You will have to count from the date you first started exercising treaty rights, yes time in Education will count towards PR as well.

dalebutt wrote:You will have to count from the date you first started exercising treaty rights, yes time in Education will count towards PR as well.

yes it will as long as you have "comprehensive sickness insurance".

or if you have been Employed for a period if 5 years continuously that will be fine aswell.

runie80 wrote:

dalebutt wrote:You will have to count from the date you first started exercising treaty rights, yes time in Education will count towards PR as well.

yes it will as long as you have "comprehensive sickness insurance".

or if you have been Employed for a period if 5 years continuously that will be fine aswell.

I don't think I have such an insurance. I only have a mobile phone insurance!
My employment was not exactly continuous, as I changed jobs and there were gaps of few months between jobs, but I was also studying at that time. I'm a complicated case I guess...

May be list the gaps and your time line here and see if a senior member can comment.

The comprehensive sickness insurance might cause a problem if you want use the time u were studying so exercising treaty rights.

Any format of insurance letter u can get from your embassy or health service in your country confirming your cover for that period?

I don't want dishearten you but I would not suggest applying under a false hope. Build a water tight case and then apply.


it's your treaty rights they need not your phone's :-$

I guess the European Health Insurance Card needs to be issued in my country, and not the UK, right? Because I can easily get a UK one