2 Questions from EU national living in the UK

[+nairam+]

Hello all,

I have two different things to ask. I hope they are both ok in this forum. If not, tell me where to ask them again.

First of all let me say that I am a Greek citizen who has been living in the UK for 6,5 years now (3 of those as a full time student, 2 as part time and the rest 1,5 partly working, partly self-supporting). I do not have a Residence Permit at the moment as I've never needed one but I am applying for one as soon as my printer starts working again (ie. hopefully this week)!

My questions are these:

1) I know I have to have been here 4 years to apply for ILR, but time spent as a student does not count. Does this include time as a part time student as well?

2) My other question and most urgent: my American fiancé and I are planning on finally being together here in the UK. At first we thought we'd apply for a Fiancé Visa, but now we are thinking we might want to get married first and save on some paperwork. But now I see that the procedure is different for EU nationals when it comes to married couples? Have I understood right that we can save ourselves $520 by applying for EU Family Permit instead of Spouse Visa? Is there a difference between the two in essence (after he gets here)? Is there some reason why we might prefer the Fiancé Visa route over the EU Family Permit one (how long the EU Family Permit takes to issue for example)?

Any advice/ideas/answers are most welcome. If am I asking something very obvious I do apologise, I have tried to read everything I could.