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This is a difficult question but what would happen if England had a referendum and came out of the EU? I understand that one of the things UK wants is to restrict the access of more immigrants but what would happen to the other people who have been here for years? I am from Spain and have been in England for just under seven years. Thanks

If you have already been working/studying (or otherwise exercising treaty rights with the proper medical insurance if required) you would already be eligible for PR in the UK. That way, leaving the EU wouldn't have an impact on you. You might even already be eligible for British citizenship which would further ensure that you wouldn't be affected. Of course, you need to consider the impact, if any, on your Spanish citizenship.

You might want to note that you are actually talking about the UK, not only England. It's unlikely England itself would be able to leave the UK and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would stay in... Scotland may no longer be part of that equation in the near future.

Thanks for helping. I rang the UKBA to enquiry about the EEA resident card and permanent card, I was told that I can apply for residence card now but not for permanent residence card yet. My first job in England started 10 December 2007, but since then there were also times when I have been unemployed and collecting JSA and housing benefit. I believed at the time that I was exercising treaty rights, now they tell me that for permanent card it starts to count since the time when I last stopped receiving JSA and housing allowance which was November 2011. Because I am on low pay I still receive tax credits now, I wonder if that will affect my chances of a permanent residence.

According to what I was told the residence card lasts for 5 years and the residence card lasts for 10 years, that is what I understood, is this correct? Does that mean that if for some reason UK came out of EU with the residence card I would be allowed to stay for 5 years and with Permanent card would allow me to stay for 10 years?

Thanks for helping.

You don't need to apply for a PR card, PR is attained automatically, small periods of job seeking shouldn't break the required period. Apply for a PR card and submit p60s for each of the last 5 years and proof of receiving JSA for any periods. PR is indefinite subject to not leaving the UK for more than 2 years. you may also be eligible for British Citizenship now by naturalisation.

Thanks for replying to my previous questions.

I am confused, I have spoken to Home Office and they told me one thing, I managed to speak to an immigration solicitor and he told me a different thing, I don't know what to do.

The Home Office told me that I can't apply for Permanent Residence yet because during the 6.5 years I have been here there were periods of time (Longer than 6 months) when I was receiving JSA + Housing Allowance but the solicitor told me that this should make no difference because even being a jobseeker and collecting unemployment benefits is exercising treaty rights but the Home Office says another thing. The solicitor told me that I can apply now but the Home Office says if I apply now for Permanent Residence it will not be granted. What can I do?

Also I am very surprised, I asked the Home Office if receiving Working Tax Credits can affect my application for Permanent Residence and they said they weren't sure, my job for the past 2.5 years is part-time, the number of hours each week went up but I have not stopped receiving Working Tax Credits.

All help is greatly appreciated.

You are only considered a "worker" if your work is genuine and effective. There is case law that says 10 hours work a week is genuine and effective, but even if you do less hours than that other factors can be taken into account to decide whether you're a "worker" such as duration of work, regularity and whether you had a proper contract that entitled you to holiday and sick leave/pay.

Plus you keep "worker status" if you worked for more than 1 year and were involuntarily unemployed and registered as a jobseeker.

You can also keep "worker status" if you worked for less than 1 year and were involuntarily unemployed and registered as a jobseeker for no more than 6 months.

You also keep "worker status" if you're temporarily ill.

As long as you keep "worker status" you can claim social assistance benefits to top up your wages. Working tax credits fall into that category.

Plus if you keep "worker status" continously for 5 years you can get Permanent Residence.

This type of question has been asked trillions of times. Whenever any major change/changes going to happen uk government/ukba always inform the public in well advance and also introduce some transitional measures to cope the situation, and i believe the same will happen under that case. But in general sense there must be a rigorous control of immigration population coming from regardless corner of world for the better utilization of existing and available resources.