from when is d marriage btwn an EEA member & non-EEA cou

[Jay25]

[quote="NABAS LEGAL"]No Permanent Residence after Divorce
On 02 September 2009 with effect from January 2010 the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal has made significant confirmations of current law relating to the retention of residency by non-European nationals in the United Kingdom following a divorce from a European national.

What is important to note is that what the Tribunal did is not changes, amendments of annotations. They simply confirmed what was being incorrectly interpreted by the Home Office and this verification is not in favour of the applicants requesting their retention of rights.

The Immigration European Economic Area (EEA) Regulations 2006 was interpreted thus: Any non-EEA national who married a national of an EEA state or of Switzerland was eligible for the Residence Card, whereas the European national was granted the Registration Certificate. The question was what happened to the non-EEA national’s residency status in the event the couple divorced. Article 10 of the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2006 states that only if the non-EEA national remained married to that person for at least three years with a minimum of one year’s residency in the United Kingdom could they claim retention of their right to remain in the UK. It must be highlighted that the marriage must have lasted three years and not a day less before the commencement of the divorce proceedings, and not three years from the date of the marriage until the date of the decree absolute.Until now, when the non-EEA national applied to the UK Border Agency for a retention of their rights following their divorce and making sure they fulfilled the requirements stated above, they were usually granted permanent residency in the UK.

However, many lawyers and academics never considered this interpretation as correct. In light of the newest case which indeed changes this analysis, namely the case of OA (EEA – retained right of residence) Nigeria [2010] UKAIT 00003, a retention of rights does not mean the right to permanent residency in the UK but simply a retention of their rights to remain in the UK under the same Residence Card they received as the spouse of an European national.

Senior Immigration Judge Storey, who decided the case, stated: -

“(…) So far as concerns persons who fall within reg 10(5), so long as their marriage or civil partnership is at least three years old it is possible for them to qualify for a retained right of residence in the United Kingdom. But to achieve a permanent right of residence on the strength of a retained right of residence it is always necessary to show residence in the UK for a continuous period of five years.â€

[vinny]

iv) For the purposes of reg 15(1)(b) the period of time during which a person "has resided in the United Kingdom with the EEA national ..." must commence from the date the person first became a family member that being the date of marriage in the case of a spouse.

[bjedaiah]

i got married here since 2004 and have not lived together for two years just got divoiced with a little girl