>>>>>>> Preamble >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I arrived to the UK in Nov 2001 and have been on and off the UK under
a combination of tourist and student visas, in total during that period I have been out of the UK for about 6 months.
Then in 2004 after having been denied entrance to the UK (as I overstayed for
three months in 2003), I obtained a student visa.
Since 2004 I been renewing my student's visa, and after being a relationship
with my EEA partner for one year we decided to start living together in
September 2006 (she has been in the UK exercising her EEA rights from
March 2005). In 2008 (after two years of living in a relationship akin to marriage)
I applied for my residence card EEA2 (still with a valid student visa) and after waiting for 14 months (my student visa has already expired).
The UKBA discontinued our applications because they say that we did not
reply to a letter they sent requesting our documents to be sent back to them
(that letter never arrived to us, we had requested our passports back for traveling
Purposes after the six months of our application).
Now that I have been sending complain letters and making a series of phone calls to
UKBA, and with the new immigration rules coming into play in 2011, I have
been starting to think about alternative routes with the aim of obtaining UK Citizenship.
>>>>>>>>>Options in mind>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The ideas are:
((Please note that we are unmarried partners))
1. Continue pursuing the EEA2 route, and after 10 years (the student visas + time living with my EEA partner + time holding the resident’s card) apply for citizenship under the long term residence category.
2. My EEA partner can apply for ILR (as she has been exercising rights in the UK
for 5 years in March) then once that she obtains ILR, I apply under UK law for
ILR as a partner of a person residing in the UK. Then after one year holding ILR I apply for
Citizenship (considering on counting the previous 4 years that I have been living with
my EEA partner + the 1 year holding ILR that would make the five years required for
UK law and the 12 months period as a resident of the UK).
So we would both obtain citizenship under the current immigration law.
3. My EEA partner applies for ILR in March 2010, after she obtains ILR I apply under
UK law for ILR as an unmarried person of a resident of the UK, wait for the two years
probation period and then apply for citizenship. (hopefully also still under current Immigration
laws).
4. Apply from overseas for an family permit come back to the UK wait until we have been living together in the UK for four years and apply for ILR. Then after a total period of five years in the UK (student visas+ waiting time for the EEA2 denied application + family permit + ILR) apply for UK citizenship.
>>>>>>>>>>Question >>>>>>>>>>>>
Could somebody tell me in particular if idea 2 and 4 are possible? (As they seem to be the fastest).
Thank you in advance for your time and advice
