nataliedelmar wrote:
Basically, what they said was that if you’ve been exercising Treaty Rights for 6+ years, once you’ve got your document, certifying permanent residence, you can apply for Naturalisation straight away. However (and this is the confusing bit), as the document proves only 5 years, you would have to (again) prove the last 6 years, or at least the 1 year before the 5 years covered by the permanent residence card.
In my case, I’ve been exercising Treaty Rights for over 9 years and we proved these 9 years when applying for a permanent card. I asked if this would be on their system, as I really don’t see a point to prove same period twice, but they said that they don’t hold this data, so I’ll need to prove it again.
HO telephone helpline is notoriously unreliable and unfortunately cannot be held liable for decisions made by people acting on their 'advice'
Technically you only need to exercise treaty rights for 5 years, as once you gain PR, your economic activity is immaterial afterwards. If you exercised treaty rights continuously from 2009-2014, you can apply for the DCPR and then immediately for naturalisation once you receive it. HO certainly do hold the date that they determine you acquired PR on their computer system. They also don't just guess, and will go to some lengths to make sure they get the correct date.
I've been in the UK since 1991 and exercising treaty rights since June 2007 (as a worker). I knew I only needed to show evidence of a 5 year period ending at least 12 months ago so I could apply for naturalisation immediately. I did put the details of my education on the EEA(PR) form but as I did not have comprehensive sickness insurance, I knew that period wouldn't count so I specifically wrote in the
additional information section that I was applying on the basis of being a worker from 2009-2014.
My DCPR came through with no problem. I booked an NCS appointment to submit my AN form, and while I was there the adviser said she was unsure if I met the
12 months free of immigration time restrictions requirement as my DCPR issue date was 22nd January 2016 (even though I told her the issue date is irrelevant). She phoned HO through their hotline and the guy on the other end said the date they hold in their computer system for my permanent residence is June 2012. So clearly I have been free of immigration time restrictions for over 3 years
This is interesting because even though I only submitted evidence of working from 2009-2014, HO have actually investigated and noted that I began exercising treaty rights in June 2007 (when I started working) and correctly noted my PR date as 5 years from then (June 2012). I had to provide payslips for the last 4 years along with my AN form to prove that I was still resident in the UK.
