background wrote:Hi all,
I thought my case would be simple as I am an EEA national, but turns out not so easy after all.
I have lived in the UK for almost 10 years, first 7 years were in full-time education, although I have also had full time jobs.
My issue is to prove that I had the comprehensive sickness insurance throughout the time in college and at uni. I had the EHIC card issued by my country (so non-UK), but stupidly I got rid of it when it expired. As a result I am not sure how long I was actually covered for with the EHIC and how I need to go about obtaining a proof that I had been insured?
One possible option is that until 25 I was insured under my dad's pension, would it suffice to obtain a statement saying that I was covered accordingly and then have a sworn translation of the document?
Alternatively, even though I was studying, I was also working, so do I still need the said insurance if I was paying NI continuously?
Also, as I am planning to apply for neutralisation and so it really confuses me - if i provide all of my residence history on the EEA PR form, i.e. including until now, even though the period would start 10 years ago, would it count against me? I.e. would I then need to wait a full year until applying for neutralisation? Do I really need to stop my evidence at a year ago? How do I go about it? I have been in a continous employment since the end of uni so every letter etc would say something like '2013 - present' and not have an end date, so do I purposely state my emplyment as, say, only 2013-2015?
It just seems so counter-intuitive!
I would really appreciate your advice!
Hello.
Your case does not appear to be as difficult as you may think and there is plenty of information on this forum and on the web to help you. You may find the following document useful:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _clean.pdf
I hope you find the following information also useful:
- You need to prove that you were in the UK for a continuous period of five years as a 'qualified person';
- It does not matter which five year period of the ten years you are opting for, as long as there were no break in continuity of the five-year period;
- You automatically acquire permanent residence at the end of the five years, regardless of whether you obtain a document to certify this or not
- However, to be able to apply for British citizenship, you should provide a document to certify permanent residence (called 'DCPR' - applied via the EEA3 form) AND have held permanent residence status for at least 12 months;
- So for example, if you attained permanent residence in October 2013, you would have been eligible to apply for naturalisation in October 2014 (provided you met the other naturalisation requirements), regardless of the date the DCPR was issued to you;
- Therefore, in essence, you need to count six years in total to be eligible for naturalisation;
- A qualified person can be a student, a jobseeker, a worker, a self-sufficient person, etc - as per the above document;
- Students are required to show they had comprehensive sickness insurance but workers or jobseekers are not;
- If you are relying on worker category when you were studying, you will need to convince the Home Office that that work was not "marginal" (i.e.where the work involves so little time and money that it is unrelated to the lifestyle of the worker. It is supplementary because the worker is clearly spending most of their time on something else, not work.)
- If your dad's pension provided you with comprehensive sickness insurance and you can prove this, then yes you can use this argument;
- If you've lost your EHIC but you know you were covered, contact the agency that issued the EHIC and ask them to provide you with a letter confirming the card number and the periods it covered. You can then get this translated by a competent translator;
- Re your employment history, you should write "2013-present" if you are still in the same company
I trust this is helpful but if you need further information, I suggest you provide a breakdown of the ten years indicating the activity you were performing during each period - this will be useful for members of this forum to help you. Note that some EEA nationals were required to register under a Workers Registration Scheme or Worker Authorisation Scheme before they were able to work - you need to check if your nationality was subject to those requirements.
All the best.
