Will the 1A stamp at border work for us?

Hello everyone,

I have a query about family permits & the 1A stamp. TIA for any help.

A bit of background:
My wife & I (both foreign nationals) are currently living & working in the UK on my Tier 2 visa. We have also almost completed the process of receiving her Polish passport (she is Canadian with Polish heritage), after which we would like to change our immigration status from tier 2 to EEA, and be free of tier 2 related restrictions.

The way I understand it we have a few options on how to accomplish this.

1) Leave the UK on a holiday and apply for a family permit from somewhere in Europe. Re-enter the UK together once we have it.

2) Leave the UK and re-enter asking for a 1A stamp at the border, which from what I gather is roughly the same as having a family permit, if you can get it done.

Question 1:
It seems strange to me that we need to leave the country in order to change our status, but everything I've read points towards this. Could somebody confirm that this is necessary? Is it not possible for me to simply apply for a residence card once my wife's Polish passport arrives, or is a re-entry required to "refresh" our status?

Question 2:
If we do have to leave the country, I would prefer to do the 1A stamp route, which seems quite doable if we arrive at the border with supporting evidence. It also seems like this would save significant time, money & hassle, as we could avoid hanging around in Europe waiting for a family permit to come back from the consulate. I am a bit worried that the border officer will try and stamp us in on our existing tier 2 visas once he/she learns of them. Does the 1A stamp route sound feasible?

Thanks very much for any help that can be offered

No need to leave the country. Just apply for Residenc Card

Awesome, thanks!

You can stay in the country and apply for the RC because, if your partner will already be exercising treaty rights, the rights extend to you automatically. Also, since your Tier 2 status will not necessarily be affected, you can apply for the EEA2 card while working on your current visa and not have to worry about the time it takes them to process the RC.

That sounds pretty good, thanks. Except that it looks like it can take around 6 months processing time for the residence card to come back?

I should have added in my original question that my current tier 2 work situation is not optimal, as I'm not able to earn to my full potential, so it is in my interests to move from tier 2 to EEA status as soon as possible.

Given that information, am I back to deciding between the family permit or 1A stamp, in order to be allowed to work freely (not tied to my tier 2 sponsor)?

jonalport wrote:Given that information, am I back to deciding between the family permit or 1A stamp, in order to be allowed to work freely (not tied to my tier 2 sponsor)?

Hi jonalport, just in case my experience is useful: I was in a similar situation, I was under a tier 2 visa and received a better job offer, so wanted to switch categories ASAP. I knew I qualified for EEA2, but didn't want to wait 6 months, so I just took the cheapest flight I could find and spent the weekend in another country, and re-entered the UK hoping to get a Code 1A. The immigration officer told me that I couldn't enter under two different routes at the same time, so to issue a Code 1A he would need to cancel my Tier 2 visa, which he didn't have the authority to do, only the Home Office could do it. So he just stamped me under Tier 2. After this I applied for EEA2 and received my COA within a few of weeks, which enabled me to safely change jobs. I did receive many Code 1A stamps after that when I travelled using my COA while waiting for the EEA2 to be issued.

I now think that he was wrong and I should have received the Code 1A, but the point is that you have to be wary that officers might be reluctant to issue a Code 1A while your Tier 2 is still valid.
If your EEA2 application is straightforward and you're not in a huge hurry, I think the best would be to send an application and wait for the COA.

Thanks for sharing that, Captcha.

The COA is the certificate of approval, which you get back as confirmation your residence card application has been received?

You have confirmed what I thought, that an IO will try and stamp me in on the Tier 2 if he sees it. So one of my plans was to quit my tier 2 job before leaving the UK on a holiday. Then when I re-entered with my wife, the tier 2 visa would no longer be valid and they would "have to" 1A stamp me. In practice this could backfire I realise, and I could be left with no 1A stamp or tier 2 visa, at which point I could try and enter as a tourist on my US passport, but they might be quite irritated with me by then and send me back from whence I came anyway.

Technically, we could apply for my residence card at the moment, except that we don't have my wife's Polish passport yet, only a "confirmation of citizenship" certificate from the Polish government, and I'm not sure that will be enough proof for the residence card application.

This stuff sure is complicated!