Help with residency period for EEA applicant (naturalisation

[FinnGirl]

Hello everyone,
I am in a bit of a limbo and getting quite stressed about submitting my application through the checking service next Friday. Those of you in the know, would you be able to answer a few questions and hopefully put my mind to rest?
My timeline is as follows:
1. I have been living full-time in the UK since Sept 1998. I am a Finnish citizen. From Sept 1998-Sept 1999 I lived here as an au pair. I had medical insurance from Finland, but have long since lost ay documentation.
2. From Sept 1999-July 2003 I was a student at a University in London. Again, had medical insurance but no documentation at hand.
3. From July 2003 until Nov2008 I was self sufficient through being married to a British man, i.e. I was a house wife.
4. We divorced in Sept 2008. I have payslips confirming employment since Nov 2008 to present day. In addition, I have been employed by the central Government since Oct 2009, and have payslips and letter from employer to prove this.

Q1: Should I state my entry into the UK as Sept 1998, even though I can't prove that I held medical insurance during the period I was not employed? Are they likely refuse the application on the basis? I was going to state this as my entry into the UK, and then use the payslips/P60s and employer's letter to show that I have been exercising my treaty rights for six years. Is this likely to be acceptable? I haven't held any medical insurance since 2003 as I have just used the NHS, and plus the Finnish authorities wrote to me around that time to say that since I was no longer a student and had been residing in the UK for over 12 months, I no longer had the right to the Finnish welfare system. Is it going to be a problem that I haven't had medical insurance before the six year residency period started? I assume that if I have been employed and paying tax/NI no insurance would be required: is this correct?

Q2: I have not applied for indefinite leave to remain or for permanent residence: am I correct in understanding that as an EU citizen I do not need to apply for those? Do my payslips grant me the permanent residence status, plus 5 years residence?

Q3: I don't know the exact date I divorced in 2008 (divorce handled in a County Court in the UK). Do I need to try and find this out: I have lost my Decree Absolute (silly, I know!), but the date of Sept 2008 should be reasonably accurate. Are they likely to verify any date I put down, therefore, would I get away with 15 Sept 2008?

Q4: I have only taken the odd short holiday during the last six years, so I know that I won't have been absent too many days for the residency period to qualify. How do I prove the dates I flew out on holidays and came back if my passport wasn't stamped? Can I get away with estimates for flying to Finland and back, or will they check somehow?

Q5: How can I prove that I was in the UK five or six years prior to date of application? Are they looking for proof?

Thank you very much to everyone who takes the time to respond. I really don't want to waste nearly a grand!

[boloney]

just send payslips, p60`s, p45`s covering last 6 years it will be enough to cover your permanent residency and 12 months free from immigration control period. whatever you was doing before this should`t make any difference.

[FinnGirl]

Hi there,

Thanks for your response. I am getting into a bit of a state over this. My local registry office managed to get through to HO and they confirmed that, as you say, the period before 6 years shouldn't be an issue.

Would you happen to know whether submitting a British Bachelor's Degree certificate is enough for proving the language competence (I have the Life in the UK test too), or do I need to get a confirmation that the degree was taught in English, even though it's from a British University? The guidance is quite confusing and seems to mostly talk about foreign qualifications. Any info in that at all?

Thank you so much again!

[Samaralady]

Hi Finngirl,

I know how you're feeling, I was in a similar situation before I applied.

Re Q1, I think that's been answered (I would state date of entry 1998, though - I arrived in 2005 but really only the last 6 years are decisive).

Re Q2, that's absolutely correct, you don't have to apply for PR, this has been granted to you as a EU citizen after 5 years. Once you've held this for one year, you can apply for citizenship, so it's effectively 6 years. Having said this, there's a lot of grief here for EU citizens without a PR card, they're just not being dealt with. To my knowledge I was the first "lucky" one in this forum who got their citizenship approval - after having waited for 7 months.

Re Q3,can't help you with this, never tied the band (fortunately), but I would state separately that this is an estimate.

Re Q4, if they want to check they can - every time you enter or leave the country, your travel document (passport, ID card, etc) is registered, so the data is verifiable even if there is no stamp in your passport (the only reason why I know is is because I'm an accountant and there are ways and means the government can find out how long a person spends in this country as this has tax consequences). So again, it might be best to state that these dates are estimates, but do not exceed the maximum absence allowable.

Q5, you don't have to prove it, but they can find out if they want to (see Q4).

Having said this, I doubt they do these checks. They didn't even bother to check my references.

Good luck with your application - it's a daunting process, but the NCS is really helpful, and if there's anything that isn't quite right, they'll tell you there and then to prevent you from wasting your money.

ATB,
Kate