EEA(FM) Non-EEA married to British Born Citizen

Hi all,

I have spent a large amount of time reading through threads, but couldn't find a close enough match to my situation. Hoping that doesn't mean I am going down the wrong path.

I am Australian Citizen, by birth
Spouse is British Citizen, by birth (married 4 years now)

I am nearing the end of my second family visa, and have been living un-interrupted in the UK for 6 years now.

The plan is to apply for citizenship, and I am hoping I can do it through the quicker and cheaper way of PR card to Citizenship
I thought I am eligible for PR, however going through the EEA (FM) application, the questions seem skewed more for someone married to a Non-British, EEA Citizen.

Am I on the right path? or is my only option applying for ILR instead?

Many thanks,

You cannot apply for PR using the cheaper EEA route if you have not been in the UK on an EEA Residence Card.

If you have a UK immigration route spouse visa, your only option is to apply for the expensive ILR on form SET(M).

Under the EEA/EU regs, your spouse is considered British only and not an EU citizen for the purposes of migration. The only time there would be an exception is if he lived in another EU state exercising treaty rights and you were there and then used the EU route back to the UK, i.e the Surinder Singh route.

Oh, that is a huge let down. Seems like it would have been easier and cheaper for me to get PR in the UK if my partner WASN'T British. I hope there is more to it than that, as it seems a bit backwards.

Thank you for your reply anyway

A way to understand it is that you cannot be an EU national exercising treaty rights in the country you are a national of. This applies to all EU citizens and states and is not UK specific. For example, a German national in Germany can only use the German domestic immigration rules. A British citizen in the UK is the same.

The only exception to this is if the EU citizen has exercised treaty rights in an EU state of which they are not a national and then migrants back to their home country, this is called the Surinder Sing route, see link below.

eea-route-applications/bbc-explains-sur ... 38469.html

FOO_SAYS wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 24, 2019 9:07 am

Oh, that is a huge let down. Seems like it would have been easier and cheaper for me to get PR in the UK if my partner WASN'T British. I hope there is more to it than that, as it seems a bit backwards.

Thank you for your reply anyway

Yes, that's true. It would have been easier if he wasn't British. You see in this forum extreme cases where people renounced their British citizenship because it was the only way forward in complex cases.

Your British husband is an EEA national BUT he cannot exercise Treaty Rights in his own country. So as long as he is in Britain, he is considered only British and the EEA dimension doesn't apply to you.

There are some exceptions but they are not relevant for your case.