Success story of an Unmarried partner EUSS (NON EU/no EEA Card/No 2 years cohabitation)

I am asking this in an attempt to shed some light in what I believe is still a bit vague after some changes were introduced in 2020.

As far as it could be to interpreted last year, any unmarried partner applicant to the EUSS needed to have a EEA-issued RC in order to be able to apply for the Settlement Scheme.

After August 2020, however, one exception emerged, as Northern Irish citizens were able to apply, and their unmarried partners were exempted from the requirement of having a EEA RC.

Now, I believe this exception is really badly explained in the EU Settlement Scheme page, and it can lead to believe that the exception applies to every applicant, not only family members of Northern Irish nationals (in other words, that holding a EEA RC is no longer a requirement for unmarried partners), as long as the applicant submits the usual cohabitation proof.

Can anyone offer their firsthand experience here to confirm or debunk the above?

Are you an unmarried partner without an EEA RC card, and who has been successful in applying for the Settlement Scheme? (and your EU family member is not from Northern Ireland)

Or, are you an unmarried partner who has unfortunately been unsuccessful, precisely because you do not hold a EEA RC?

Thanks

Example of unsuccessful application because of no EEA Family Permit here.

This points to a possible confirmation of the fact that the exception only applies to unmarried partners of people from Northern Ireland (and that the explanation in the EUSS official page is very badly written).

Any other examples (or counter examples) are very welcome.

Hey everyone, this is not my story. But one that I saw on Reddit. Basically, they were able to obtain the EUSS by explicating that they tried to get married but due to Covid they were unable to do this.

So, if you create a really good case you DO have options.

They didn't have the EEA Residence Card, they didn't cohabitate for 2 years, and the sponsor wasn't from North Ireland.

If anyone is in the same boat, I would recommend you to read the thread and get some insights for your own application.

And counter-example of successful application without EEA RC, non-Northern Irish here.
However, this is not a first-hand account.

So no strong trend either way, this seems to rather point towards an outcome strictly dependent on applicant's circumstances.

Thanks, for centralisation, I just posted this on the original post where I asked for examples.

Topics merged.

In that latter (Reddit) case, I wonder if the fact that they had given notice of marriage before December 2021 was a major factor.

Hi there,

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for your bold sharing on this forum, hereby I am sharing my case and hopefully, it would help you if you are having a similar experience. The application I applied for is called EUSS pre-settled status based on a relationship with an unmarried partner.

The timeline at a glance:
06 March 2021, applied for EUSS pre-settled status
12 March 2021, enrolled biometric information
19 May 2021, received COA
21 July 2021, received additional information/evidence request
01 August 2021, submitted additional information/evidence
02 August 2021, received a pre-settled status

Prior Application
I entered the UK by holding a Tier 2 visa in December 2020, it is valid for 3 years. However, in January 2021, my sponsor was no longer to sponsor my visa anymore and I was told that my Tier 2 will be curtailed. While I was waiting for the curtailment letter, I found that I am maybe eligible to apply for EUSS pre-settled status. When it comes to the eligibility for the EUSS application, we got both YES and NO for the same question, but we gave our best shot and worked hard to make the application.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that both I and my partner had been living in the Republic of Ireland for 15 months plus 3 months in the UK, which is less than 2 years prior to the application date.
About cohabitation evidence for 18 months, I collected the landlord letter, utility bill, flight tickets to prove that we arrived before 31 December 2020, and tenancy agreement to prove that the relationship continued.

Post Application
Regarding the process of the application, I have not heard anything in the first 4 months after enrolling biometric information except the COA received in May. I actively looked for similar cases in this immigration board forum. Thank you for all your contribution, which incredibly helped me when I was asked to submit additional evidence for the relationship that has been subsisted for 2 years prior to the application.

(Individually, I prefer to keep my privacy, as well as, help the casework team find the relevant and sufficient evidence rather than reading a story called ‘When Harry met Sally’. I found it is interesting to reach the balance between them. )

Followed by suggestions given on this forum, in my case, I gathered things we did together along with supporting evidence for that period of 6 months pre-cohabitation. Specifically, evidence is from bank statements, pictures, official correspondences from the third party, AppleMaps, and our chats before/after the event via WhatsApp.

TBC
It was an unbelievable quick turnaround, I was granted the approval decision the next day. Thank you everyone here for sharing your story, please keep going, make it a regular habit to overwhelm someone with your kindness.

One more question:
Here is my further question about the future settled status, I understand that I can apply for settled status once I have qualified 5 years of residence in the UK, in case the relationship between my partner and myself comes to the end before the future application for settled status, would the current pre-settled status be curtailed then? If not, then would I still be eligible for applying for settled status without a continued relationship? You are very welcome to share your thoughts.