Permanent residence application questions

Hello and thank you in advance for reading and any help offered,
My husband came to UK in November 09 on a EEA family permit visa, I am from Northern Ireland so have dual British/Irish nationality.
He wants to apply for a permanent residence card in November however we have a gap of about a year in my exercising treaty rights, we have had 2 children since 2009 and I stayed at home to look after them while he worked, during this time we lived on his wage, tax credits and claimed housing benefit (which we still claim). This was a mistake on our part and our fault in not being clear about my requirement to exercise treaty rights after the visa was granted.
I have spoken to a lawyer who said that we could make the application anyway and in a covering letter argue that during the gap we were self sufficient and living on my husbands wage, I don’t really understand how as we claimed HB and tax credits, or we could argue that I was incapacitated as my husband was working and I needed to look after the children and had no family to help me with childcare. My questions are:
*Is it worth making and application on either of these grounds?
* If the application is refused, what happens next, what is my husbands immigration status then?
*Will a refusal jeopardise an application for a renewal of his current residence card, which runs out in April 15? He needs a valid residence card in his passport to keep his job.
Finally and unfortunately we are going to separate. Even though he works full time he will need to claim a top up of housing benefit to pay the rent.
*Is this allowed?
*Will this jeopardise any application for a permanent residence card, now or in the future or an application for a renewal of his current residence card?


Thank you for reading so far and I hope and would be so grateful for any advice you could offer. Below is the timeline of my exercising treaty rights if this is any help to you.


Nov 09-Feb11 Supply teaching
Feb 11-Nov11 Maternity (DWP)
Nov11- Sept12 JSA
Sept 12-Nov13 Gap
Nov13-present Self Employed


Thank you again

Are you living and working in Northern IREland? If so, why not consider applying for Irish citizenship for him? He can do this if you have been married and living in the ISLAND of Ireland (including NI) for the last 3 years. Of course, there are some requirements too.

See the details here:
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/mo ... riage.html
http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/WP11000014

Not sure that his PR for the UK would be approved as you've been getting HB and Tax Credits (which you shouldn't when you are self-sufficient). Have you had comprehensive sickness insurance for that time period too? If not, I would say that you would face problems, but I'm not sure. I'm just Irish here (no British citizenship).

See this re: public funds: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... pter12.pdf
'EEA nationals who are in the UK as self-sufficient persons and students should be able to support themselves without public funds. Such persons are only able to claim public funds without losing their right of residence if they are able to demonstrate that they are not an
unreasonable burden on the state.'

Hi Chaoclive,
Firstly, thanks for your reply. 3 yrs in Ireland, I didn't know this, however, we are living in East Sussex and have been for the whole time, had we lived in NI we wouldn't have claimed any HB either as we could have afforded the rent !
I think you are right that we would have trouble arguing this case because of the benefits and added to that we didn't have any health insurance. Do you think the lawyer is right that there's not much to lose other than the £55 fee in making an application or would a refusal cause any problems when applying for a renewal of his current residence card which expires in April 2015 ?

Jepa wrote:Hi Chaoclive,
Firstly, thanks for your reply. 3 yrs in Ireland, I didn't know this, however, we are living in East Sussex and have been for the whole time, had we lived in NI we wouldn't have claimed any HB either as we could have afforded the rent !
I think you are right that we would have trouble arguing this case because of the benefits and added to that we didn't have any health insurance. Do you think the lawyer is right that there's not much to lose other than the £55 fee in making an application or would a refusal cause any problems when applying for a renewal of his current residence card which expires in April 2015 ?

It wouldn't cause any problems. If he was rejected all you have to do is to apply again when you meet the requirements or for another EEA2 residence card. It's only 55 pounds after all. I've seen people doing this on here: fine as long as you are still exercising treaty rights.

Brilliant, thanks Chaoclive for your help.

Jepa wrote:Brilliant, thanks Chaoclive for your help.

It would cause some delays though. Who knows how long they would take to process his application. Don't forget that they can take up to 6 months! As long as you're prepared for that it should be ok!

So if we made an application for permanent residency in November and it took 6 months, his current residence card would run out in April. Therefore, I'm thinking this could cause a problem for him as he needs a valid residence card to be able to work. A co worker of his recently got laid off as his residence card had expired and he hadn't renewed it in time. Feeling confused and a bit worried over the fact that we have claimed housing benefit, if this will go against us.

Jepa wrote:So if we made an application for permanent residency in November and it took 6 months, his current residence card would run out in April. Therefore, I'm thinking this could cause a problem for him as he needs a valid residence card to be able to work. A co worker of his recently got laid off as his residence card had expired and he hadn't renewed it in time. Feeling confused and a bit worried over the fact that we have claimed housing benefit, if this will go against us.

You could talk to his employer first and 'educate' them a little. If they say it will be fine then I wouldn't worry as he DOES have the right to work.

Yes, I think this would be very wise as there seems to be a lack of understanding around this. Thank you again for all your help, it's appreciated.