Refused Permanent Residence card, EEA national student, CSI

The story goes like this:

I am a Romanian national. Have lived in the UK for over 6 years. I have applied for a Permanent Residence card in November 2015 and my application has been refused because during Oct 2009 - June 2013 period when I was a student, I did not have CSI - Comprehensive Sickness Insurance. Now, in Nov 2009 I obtained a yellow card Registration Certificate that allowed me to work in the UK. This CSI requirement was introduced on 20th June 2011 and under transitional arrangements for students, all EEA national students who were issued with a Registration Certificate before 20th June 2011 are not required to provide evidence of CSI when applying for Permanent Residence. I will be appealing the decision for refusal of a Permanent Residence card and will have my case heard at the Tribunal. Any advice? Has anyone been in a similar situation?

You can find the document relating to Transitional Arrangements for students here (scroll down for Annex B):
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov. ... iew=Binary

alexxy wrote:The story goes like this:

I am a Romanian national. Have lived in the UK for over 6 years. I have applied for a Permanent Residence card in November 2015 and my application has been refused because during Oct 2009 - June 2013 period when I was a student, I did not have CSI - Comprehensive Sickness Insurance. Now, in Nov 2009 I obtained a yellow card Registration Certificate that allowed me to work in the UK. This CSI requirement was introduced on 20th June 2011 and under transitional arrangements for students, all EEA national students who were issued with a Registration Certificate before 20th June 2011 are not required to provide evidence of CSI when applying for Permanent Residence. I will be appealing the decision for refusal of a Permanent Residence card and will have my case heard at the Tribunal. Any advice? Has anyone been in a similar situation?

You can find the document relating to Transitional Arrangements for students here (scroll down for Annex B):
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov. ... iew=Binary

There have been similar cases posted in the forum;
some cases involving a 'yellow card' were (from memory) successful in winning confirmation of PR.

However, be aware there is a 'gotcha', as shown by paragraph 5 of Annexe B in your link.
Namely that the RC needs to have been issued to the applicant in a 'student' capacity (not, for example, issued to you as a 'worker').

This specific requirement is confirmed in a similar HO guidance document:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ ... issued.pdf

Did the yellow card you have cover you in the activity of being a 'student'
If your card was issued to you as a 'student' then you should have a good case.

Good luck.

fyi various related cases...

This case (involving yellow/blue cards) succeeded after representations & follow up letters to HO:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... w#p1260545

4 more yellow & blue card cases - outcomes not reported:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... w#p1251547

http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... w#p1072824

http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... w#p1064609

http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... ow#p974083

Thank you for your reply !! I indeed found the notice you posted before as well and I will submit it as part of the appeal process together with the European Caseworker Instructions chapter 6. My yellow Registration Certificate was indeed issued in Nov 2009 in the capacity of a student which I was at that time. Hopefully everything should go well with regards to the appeal.

I also understand that if I won the appeal, there will be a fee award which means I can get the £140 back that I now have to pay for the appeal.

alexxy wrote:Thank you for your reply !! I indeed found the notice you posted before as well and I will submit it as part of the appeal process together with the European Caseworker Instructions chapter 6. My yellow Registration Certificate was indeed issued in Nov 2009 in the capacity of a student which I was at that time. Hopefully everything should go well with regards to the appeal.

I also understand that if I won the appeal, there will be a fee award which means I can get the £140 back that I now have to pay for the appeal.

Sounds like you have it covered &, as shown by 1st link above, at least one other person has succeeded on the same basis.

Alexxy, could you please provide an update on how your court appearance went? Any updates and advice would be very helpful for those who are in a similar situation to yours. Thanks

scarlet13 wrote:Alexxy, could you please provide an update on how your court appearance went? Any updates and advice would be very helpful for those who are in a similar situation to yours. Thanks

Hi Scarlet !! I did appeal the decision at the end of January and I still have not heard anything back from them! I called them about a month ago to ask whether they have received everything and how much longer will I have to wait to be scheduled for hearing and the guy on the phone said it will be "another several months at least" ... so I am still waiting. In the meantime, I have decided to apply again to UKBA and see what happens. The whole process is disheartening, lengthy and totally unnecessary.

There is no UKBA, it was abolished in 2013.

Appeals can take months (and months) or a year or so.

noajthan wrote:There is no UKBA, it was abolished in 2013.

Appeals can take months (and months) or a year or so.

Yes, I meant UKBA - Home Office / UK Visas and Immigration, whatever ... it's all the same thing.

I see that now, but I didn't know at the time of the appeal that it would take so long, plus I didn't think there was any other way to get my PR which I rightfully deserve. It stated on the refusal letter that "if you are unhappy with the decision you have the option to appeal to the First Tier Immigration Tribunal", which is what I did. It never said "if you are unhappy with the decision, you can send us another application", but I will try my luck once again. Maybe this time, they will actually look at my cover letter and see that I am exempt from providing CSI evidence.

Hello alexxy. Has there been any progress on your appeal? Any information would much appreciated. Thank you!

Hi ! So I've appealed on the 24th of January 2016 and have not heard anything since. I have phoned them a few months ago and they said it would be at least another several months.

In the meantime, I have re-applied for Permanent Residence at the end of July, got an email from them after about a month confirming they have received the application, but no progress since then. I guess the wait for Permanent Residence cards is now probably 6 months from the date you get the email.

In terms of appeals, timeline might as well be 2 years.

Hi, just to update you on the situation ! Yesterday (12/11/2016) I received the papers from the First Tier Immigration tribunal dated 10/11/2016. The oral hearing is scheduled for 05/05/2017 in London.
If anyone has got any advice on tribunal oral hearings it would be very much appreciated.

Hi everyone ! I'm back on this forum this time with another issue ! So, after having been refused PR, I've appealed to the First Tier Immigration Tribunal and finally got an oral hearing scheduled for 5th of May 2017.

Because of the incredibly long wait for a hearing date I had also, in the meantime, re-applied to UKVI at the end of July 2016 and today (02/12/2016) I've received my PR card. This means that there is no point in the hearing taking place as the issue has already been solved, so should I withdraw my appeal?

If I withdraw my appeal, does this mean that I will not get my £140 appeal fee back?

Should I just let the appeal go ahead and go to the hearing and wait for the judge to decide on the fee award?
Is there any other way for me to get the £140 back?

I know this is not a huge amount, but I've spent £300 on this so far when it should have only been maximum £80 and this was solely due to a mistake from the caseworker's part. Surely it can't be fair that I should incur the entire cost to rectify their error.

Posts merged.

Congrats.

alexxy wrote:Hi everyone ! I'm back on this forum this time with another issue !.

Please do update us about what you're doing. I may be in a similar situation very soon.

Also can you please give the timeline of your second application + details about what evidence you gave them that you DO NOT require to show evidence of CSI?

Thanks

salmintin wrote:
Please do update us about what you're doing. I may be in a similar situation very soon.

Also can you please give the timeline of your second application + details about what evidence you gave them that you DO NOT require to show evidence of CSI?

Thanks

I will have to withdraw my appeal I suppose or at least notify the First Tier Immigration Tribunal that I've been granted the PR, but I'm just wondering if there is anything I can do about the fees. I read somewhere that you can phone UKVI and ask for compensation or some kind of refund. I also read that if you withdraw the appeal, you have 28 days from the date you receive the letter from the Tribunal confirming that the appeal has been cancelled, to apply for Order of Cost or something like that. I will need to read more about it.

Timeline for 2nd application: I sent it at the end of July 2016 and received the PR card on 02/12/16.
In terms of evidence provided to UKVI that I do not need to show evidence of CSI, I included a cover letter explaining my situation. See below.

Section 9/A(7) Study- Comprehensive Sickness Insurance
Re: exemption under Transitional Arrangements for Students

FOR THE DIRECT CONSIDERATION OF THE CASEWORKER:

Following the Communication of the UK Visas and Immigration published on 11th of December 2013 on Gov.uk, specifically Chapter 6 ‘Permanent Residence’/Annex B ‘Comprehensive Sickness Insurance – transitional arrangements for students’, I understand that I am in the legal position to request that the following official guidelines are respected:
Annex B/2: "Transitional arrangements are being introduced, so that an application for permanent residence as a student will not be refused solely on the grounds that there is no evidence of comprehensive sickness insurance on the date of decision where UKBA issued a registration certificate to the applicant on the basis of their residence in the UK as a student before 20th June 2011."

I then went on detailing about my Registration Certificate and what documents I provided and this is the conclusion.

I trust this is conclusive evidence that I was issued a registration certificate on the basis of being a student in the UK before 20th of June 2011 and therefore I do not need to provide evidence of CSI with this application.
This should serve as proof that the requirement of the Transitional Arrangement detailed above has been met, hence my request will not be refused solely on the grounds that there is no evidence of comprehensive sickness insurance on the date of the decision.