EEA4 application

Hi, I have some question about EEA4 application and could not find any answer by viewing HO website.

So anyone help me please?

I have a EEA family permit Visa (5 years) valid until 1st September 2008.
And I have been married to EEA national for nealy 4 years and half, and it will be 5 years in the end of June 2008.
I am now planning to apply EEA4 for permanent residence, but I wonder when I can apply?
I should wait until 1st September, or I can apply in June?

One more question.
I know that there is no premium or in person service for EEA application.
Do anyone know that how long does it take to get the permanent residence visa after submitting the application form?
Also I quite often go to business trip abroad, so I need my passport back very quickly. Can I get it back while they are processing the application?

Please anyone advice me.

Thank you.

What you do not say is when you first started exercising EU Treaty Rights in the UK. Your UK immigration history? Did you first came to the UK on an EEA Family Permit? If so when? The date of arrival in the UK?

Or were you already in the UK, in some other capacity, when you got your existing 5-year permit?

And your spouse, how long have they been in the UK exercising EU Treaty Rights?

Hi John,

Thank you for your reply.

I came to UK for the first time in July 2001 with a student visa.
Then I got married in June 2003 with French national.
After I married, I applied EEA family permit for 5 years.
My husband (French) has been here for more than 7 years and worked for almost 5 years.

I wonder if I can apply residence permit in June 2008 which is our 5 years marriage aniversary, or I need to wait until my current EEA family permit expires which is 1st September 2008.

Will you advice me please?

OK, helpful, you need to make your application using form EEA4 before the expiry of the current 5-year permit. But in fact on the 5th anniversary of you exercising EU Treaty Rights in the UK, when the current permit was issued, you will automatically get Permanent Residence status. However you really do need proof of that, hence the need to apply using form EEA4. But in fact the new sticker in your passport will just be confirmatory of the rights you will already (then) possess.

I think put in the form say a couple of months before the expiry date of the current permit. That is, get it in the queue, but I would be amazed if you actually get the PR sticker prior to your 5th anniversary of using EU Treaty Rights in the UK.

You don't mention whether your husband has used form EEA3 to get a Permanent Residence sticker in his French passport? If he has not done that then, on the facts mentioned by you, he automatically got PR status on 30.04.06 when the new EU regulations came into force.

Given that your husband has had PR for more than one year he is now eligible to apply for Naturalisation as British, if he wishes. An advantage of him doing so would be that you would be eligible to apply for such Naturalisation as soon as you get your PR sticker, rather than having to wait a father year before applying.

In order to permit such Naturalisation applications, passes would need to be obtained in the Life in the UK Citizenship test.