2.5yr BRP expiring. EEA(FM) or FLR(m) route to take for dual UK/EU spouse?

Hola compadres!

A bit of a dilemma in our household.

Husband: EU national by birth and UK by naturalisation.

My route: arrived to UK under Fiance visa of British national (which we fought hard to get, taken Home Office to tribunal under Human rights and got visa granted).

Got married in Scotland.

Just before fiance visa expired I applied FLR(m) route (stupid, could have gone EEA(FM) route)

Paid a pile of cash for application and BRP got granted after 10 or 11 weeks which badly messed up our travel plans to EU and had to skip friend's wedding and lose flights and hotels.

However my current 2.5yr BRP is expiring in a couple of months' time and just a few days ago we discovered that we could have used EEA(FM) route originally as Irish/British friend living in NI did EEA(FM) route for his Ugandan wife.

My dilemma is:

Since I look forward to naturalisation in another 2.5-3 years time, should I continue going expensive FLR(m) route (£1033 application fee + £1000 Health surcharge) + in 2.5 years time pay another £2389 for ILR (if fees don't go up, they tend to go up much faster than inflation)?

Or do I just before my BRP about to expire apply under EEA(FM) route and just pay £65 for the BRC (not BRP) and wait up to 6 months to get the answer? Then 2.5 years later apply for "Settled Status" (free, £0) and subsequently for Naturalisation (£1330)?

If for any reason EEA(FM) route got rejected (I don't see any valid reasons for rejection, but dealing with Home office is never straight-forward and they never fail to surprise), would I still be able to apply under FLR(m), or does it become risky business?

My other concern is how would this affect my working rights as I am currently in full time employment, and how would my legal status be defined whilst waiting for the answer on EEA(FM) route.

Would switching the route from FLR(m) to EEA(FM) not reset the clock / jeopardise the naturalisation chances in 2.5/3 years time?

Ideally I would prefer having BRC rather than BRP as:
a) I save a lot of money by not having to pay FLR(m) application fee + IHS and then ILR fee 2.5 years later;
b) BRC states that I am family member of EU national, effectively making me eligible to travel to EU countries without visas, which was a massive headache in the past 2.5 years as had to constantly apply for visas when wanting to go to mainland Europe, even if they were free they were still quite expensive to process, flights that we would not take, VFS fees, postage fees, driving miles away to VFS centres and taking days off work.

Thanks in advance for everyone's contributions and thoughts.

Nobody been in a situation like this to consider this route?

Hello

It's up to you really. It happens often that people qualify under 2 routes such as UK and EEA.

The UK route offers faster option towards citizenship (3 years). While the EEA route is much longer (5 + 1 year, 6 years in total).

The UK route is notoriously expensive while the EEA route is nearly free.

The EEA route is not stable at the moment. With Brexit things are changing and will probably change even more dramatically in the future. At the same time, the UK routes are not affected by the Brexit and offer a more consistent experience.

You cannot mix and match both routes. You have to pick-up one.

Also, it seems the citizenship is important for you. But if you have been illegal in the UK within the past 10 years, you won't be able to get the citizenship. That's to say, if this is applicable to you, the UK route won't bring the citizenship faster than the EEA route.

The UK route offers faster option towards citizenship (3 years). While the EEA route is much longer (5 + 1 year, 6 years in total).

Incorrect on some of the advice. There is no faster 3 year route to ilr. All routes are 5 years for pr/ilr/settled status

The 3 year spouse of BC rule is completely separate to the 5 year residence for ilr as it is under nationality laws and any of the immigration routes.

Thank you for the correction.

So the only advantage of the UK route, is that if the applicant is married to a British citizen (for more than 3 years), it's then possible to apply for citizenship the same day the ILR is received rather than waiting 12 months as it's the case when under EEA route.

Zerubbabel wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 06, 2020 10:54 am

Thank you for the correction.

So the only advantage of the UK route, is that if the applicant is married to a British citizen (for more than 3 years), it's then possible to apply for citizenship the same day the ILR is received rather than waiting 12 months as it's the case when under EEA route.

The requirement is to be married to a British citizen on the date of application, regardless of how long the BC spouse has been British, ie they could attend their ceremony the day before the ilr spouse applies for citizenship. It is not mandatory to be married to someone who must have been British for 3 or more years.

The only advantage is the not waiting 12 months ok n ilr for spouse of BC applications under section 6(2) of the nationality act.