British citizen with EEA spouse to settle in UK

British Citizen with EEA wife planning to settle in UK

BACKGROUND
I am a British Citizen and had studied, worked, lived in the UK (1978 to 1993); currently living in Hong Kong with my wife of 15 years. My wife is a Portuguese citizen holding a Portuguese passport and Portuguese ID Card (She obtained her Portuguese citizenship through her parents who are Macau citizen which in turn entitle them to have Portuguese citizenship. My wife has never been living in Portugal). She has also never lived in the UK but had a few visits for holiday. She also holds a Hong Kong SAR passport. Both of us are of Hong Kong Chinese origin and are HK citizen.

We plan to settle and live in the UK permanently with intention to acquire British Citizenship for my wife. Our situation is
1) Both of us are working in Hong Kong as an employee.  We will resign from our jobs in due course for the move to the UK.

2) My wife has no plan to work and will not be working in the UK

3) I will not have a job lined up when we arrive in the UK

4) We would have sufficient funds to buy a house and have some savings left after that to support our living for a few years. 

5) We plan to arrive in the UK by the end of this year (2015). Will be staying in rental serviced apartments/hotels for a few months whilst we will be looking for a house to buy as our home.

6) I intend to start looking for a job when we have bought a house and settled down.

QUESTIONS :
a) Since my wife will not be working, the EEA treaty free movement route would require her to be self-sufficient for 5 years.  She will be buying a CSI. We have heard different views that the CSI on offer by all insurance companies does not cover GP visits and Accidents & Emergency. Hence, my wife will have to use NHS GP service for consultation and initial diagnosis for free and pay for the treatment.  Any follow up with specialist or further diagnosis would be covered by the CSI.  Does using the NHS GP service in this context (and Accident & Emergency for that matter) contravene with the Self-Sufficient conditions set out by UKBA/Home Office ?

b) We plan to buy a CSI for my wife after my wife has registered with a GP upon arrival. The earliest time we could buy a CSI for my wife is one month after registering with a GP as offered by one insurance company.  Once we bought the CSI, we plan to submit a EEA (QP) form to ascertain (just tovhave a piece of mind) we have everything in place as self sufficient for my wife.  In case the turnaround of the registration certificate takes longer than 3 months (which is the maximum period for a EEA staying in the UK if not exercising treaty right), shall we take a short trip across to say Paris and back to the UK just to reset the counting of the 3 month period ? Our thought for this is that if the response from UKBA is not favourable and we need to supplement or take additional measures to satisfy the self sufficient conditions, my wife would have been overstaying in the the UK beyond the 3 months period, hence violating the immigration law which may have an impact to her subsequent application for permanent residency and citizenship. To be on the safe side, would making a short trip over to Europe and back into the UK reset the 3 months period ? Does this work ?

c) We will have funds to buy a house with cash and have savings left to live for a few years (at least 5 years). As my wife will not be working, what would be the minimum amount of money in the bank account as evidence to UKBA for PR application ?  Would 20,000 pounds per year be adequate ?  If we set aside 20,000 (or whatever amount is required) in her bank account as reserve and have it shows in her monthly bank statement plus the same amount each year for actual spending, would this be sufficient ? Can the money be in a joint account with me ?

d) I believe only my wife needs to be self sufficient ? The funds she set aside for this purpose and as evidence to UKBA later for PR application should be enough to cover just herself and not covering me as well as family member because I am a British Citizen ?  I will register with and use NHS as I am a British Citizen.Is this OK ? 

e) Is there another quicker route for my wife to acquire permanent residency ?  For example by taking the Spouse Visa route ?  What are the advantages and disadvantages of the EEA self sufficient route vs Spouse Visa route ?

f) Just in case, can we apply for the Spouse Visa when we are in the UK if it turns out to be a better/quicker route ?

Probably easiest for your wife to be Self-sufficient with CSIC.

There are no quicker routes to settlement. See also 2. Procedural comparison.

Staying more than 3 months while not exercising treaty rights is not really considered overstaying - it just doesn't count as time towards Permanent Residence...technically your are right, but I don't think they are enforcing this a present; there are a lot of students without CSI for example.

The count would only restart if you left the UK for more than 6 months, so a short trip to Paris would not really do the trick.

Don't worry too much; buy CSI and set the funds you have aside in her account. Once you have found a job your wife can then be self-sufficient through your income I believe (as long as she still holds a valid CSI policy).

Your wife will be able to apply for naturalisation after exercising treaty rights for 5 continuous years.

vinny wrote:Probably easiest for your wife to be Self-sufficient with CSIC.

There are no quicker routes to settlement. See also 2. Procedural comparison.

Hi Vinny,

Thx for your information. the CSIC links did say that CSI don't normally cover GP visits and emergency. For these two services, do we just use NHS GP and Hospital and PAY for it on a case by case basis ? Or we should go to a private GP ? Not sure if under an emergency situation, we may not be able to always to find a private hospital ?

LilyLalilu wrote:Staying more than 3 months while not exercising treaty rights is not really considered overstaying - it just doesn't count as time towards Permanent Residence...technically your are right, but I don't think they are enforcing this a present; there are a lot of students without CSI for example.

The count would only restart if you left the UK for more than 6 months, so a short trip to Paris would not really do the trick.

Don't worry too much; buy CSI and set the funds you have aside in her account. Once you have found a job your wife can then be self-sufficient through your income I believe (as long as she still holds a valid CSI policy).

Your wife will be able to apply for naturalisation after exercising treaty rights for 5 continuous years.

Hi LilyLaliu,

So it looks like I shouldn't worry too much. So as long as we have the funds and CSI, the time towards PR will start counting. Would you know if the funds need to be in my wife account or joint account with me also works ?

I think a joint account should work, I believe the important thing is that your wife has access to the funds. However, I'm not an expert on the account thing (but this would be my logic conclusion), so maybe best to wait for a senior's opinion on this