Residence Card Application Query

Hi there,
I am hoping someone will be able to provide some advise.
I am a British citizen and recently arrived in the UK with my non-eea spouse. We were living in Ireland for around 8 months and successfully applied for an eea family permit for him to come back to UK. The main reason for our return is due to the fact that I am currently pregnant with only a couple more months to go and we wanted to be close to family. Now that we are here we obviously want to apply for my husband’s residence card. I am a bit confused though as to what route we should take...that is should we go under the sponsor (myself) looking for employment or should we go down the self-sufficiency route? Although I will be giving birth soon I am still applying for home based roles at the moment. I am a bit reluctant to go down the self-sufficiency route in case the Home Office think my intention is just to stay at home full stop which it’s not. So basically I guess what I am asking is - is it better to go on ‘looking for employment’ and explain that I am looking for home based roles or ‘self-sufficiency’ and explain it will only be until after the baby is born? My husband is also looking for work but with only the entry clearance he is having some difficulty. I know once we apply he will get the certificate of application which will state he can work.
Please if anyone has any advise I would really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.

Do you have enough savings to go self-sufficient? I think for a married couple is around 18,000 pounds. That should be enough. You can add to that income from someone from your family maybe, like parents, brothers, sisters, adding their pay slips and a letter that they support you.
Job-seeker is pretty strict on the supporting documentation and proofs required.
Remember in self-sufficient you need to have Comprehensive Sickness Insurance.
Regards.
Joaquín.

Hi,
Thank you for your reply.
In response to your questions, we are struggling to make sure we have a sufficient amount in our account. I don’t think we’ll quite reach 18,000. It will probably be around 12/13. However, my mother has offered to provide a letter stating the money she has in her account she is happy to provide as ‘guarantee’. (She lives abroad).
I’ve previously spoken with immigration lawyer who have told me we all have to be covered under comprehensive sickness insurance but from what I can see on the eea(fm) form, only my husband has to have this. I’m now doubting whether or not I should actually go through them at all and maybe I can just save money and do the application myself. It’s just a matter of completing the form and making sure we provide all documents right?
If we do go through the self-sufficient route I assume I can always add a supporting letter to state that we will be self-sufficient for the time being and will be looking for work as soon as possible. Would they take that into consideration?

No, actually not. Promises or statements about what you are planning to do in the near future mean nothing to the Home Office, no matter how much sense they make. They want proofs and facts.

For example, for your mother's letter about you having available the funds, I would ask your mother to provide you an extension of her credit card, or something like that. Or have her wire-transfer you money a couple times to present that bank activity as proof.

Regarding the CSI, you all need it, this is what the EEA FM form says:

Comprehensive sickness insurance cover
15.4 Please indicate below how your sponsor meets the requirement to have comprehensive
sickness insurance for themselves and their family members in the UK. Tick all that apply:

My only doubt is that since you are actually British, it might apply differently to you.

Regards,
Joaquín

Hi. The eea(fm) form I’m looking at states in section 9.36 - Please note: if your British sponsor is self-sufficient or a student in the UK on their return, you must have comprehensive sickness insurance in the UK. The British citizen is not required to hold comprehensive sickness insurance.’ Seems pretty straight forward to me. You see why I’m confused?
My mother has already transferred some money but from another international account. So basically we won’t have 18,000 but at least the possibility of getting more of necessary is there.
I see what you mean about the job-seeker bit though. So we may be better off in the self-sufficiency route then, just got to sort out the finances.

Can't he apply for the EU Settlement Scheme? That process doesn't deal with treaty rights or qualified sponsor. Might be simpler.

Regards,
Joaquín

From what I understand he is not yet eligible to apply under that seeing as he has only just arrived in uk.

I wouldn't think so... there is no minimum residence time rule.
Look at this:

eea-route-applications/apply-to-the-eea ... l#p1771980

Is it the same though for eea nationals and British citizens?

Also, if any advice could be offered for what to include in the supporting letter I would be grateful.