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Hi everyone,

I am in a slightly unusual situation. I have been resident in the UK with a student visa on a US passport for several years. I am about to acquire an Italian passport through ancestry. However, under Italian law, this does not mean that I will now acquire Italian citizenship, but rather that I have been an Italian citizen since birth, and this is now being recognised. Thus under Italian law, I have been an Italian citizen during the entire period I have been resident in the UK.

My question is: Does this mean that I can claim to have been exercising treaty rights as an EEA national during the period I have been in the UK? Or does the fact that I have been using my US passport to live here mean that although I was an EEA national resident in the UK, I was not exercising treaty rights?

Many thanks!
Mark

Rights under EEA law are obtained automatically. Applications for confirmation from the HO are optional. It doesn't matter whether you have applied or not or held a EEA passport or not or if you had a different visa on a different passport.

mark83 wrote:My question is: Does this mean that I can claim to have been exercising treaty rights as an EEA national during the period I have been in the UK?

The UKBA expects both students and self-sufficient persons to have held comprehensive sickness insurance when exercising Treaty rights in these categories.

Have you had any insurance on top of the NHS while you were here? If so and if you have already been here for 5 years, you can try to apply for permanent residence (EEA3). If not, you should an insurance now and apply for EEA1 to make sure your PR clock starts ticking.

You can always apply for PR and see what they say. Worst case is "nope".

Note that there may be additional funding available to you as a student, either from the Italian government or from the EU. It may be worth checking.

And of course, your wife and children (if any) are now free to live and work in the UK without restriction

It is established EU law that as long as the national law is not inconsistant with Community law - then the national law is recognised and applicable

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cg ... od=boolean

The jus sanguinis principle of Italian Nationality law that has no generational limit (fathers at least) is not incompatible.

The concept of a sort of retroactive nationality might need a bit of persuasion first time round but ultimately I cannot see how you were not exercising rights as an Italian citizen.

Like the purpose of a Residence Card, your Italian documentation is merely confirmation of what you already had ie Italian citizenship

keffers wrote:It is established EU law that as long as the national law is not inconsistant with Community law - then the national law is recognised and applicable

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cg ... od=boolean

The jus sanguinis principle of Italian Nationality law that has no generational limit (fathers at least) is not incompatible.

The concept of a sort of retroactive nationality might need a bit of persuasion first time round but ultimately I cannot see how you were not exercising rights as an Italian citizen.

Like the purpose of a Residence Card, your Italian documentation is merely confirmation of what you already had ie Italian citizenship

More clearly member states have the total right to decide who is a citizen. And Italy has decided.