Permanent Residence Card - recently applied

Hi all, apologies in advance if this is not the correct forum for this question.

I am a non-eea applicant for EEA PR based on 5+ years marriage with EU citizen (8+ years in UK). I have recently applied for PR using the EEA PR application form and I was wondering if I can request our (mine and my wife's) passport's back while the home office processes my PR application ?

We both can do without the passports for now, but I was just curious whether I could request the passports back anyways in case it does take them 6 months to process the application ?

Here's my timeline for reference.. thanks in anticipation :

Hi non-EEA national married to Spanish wife for 5 + years. Wife holds PR.
EEA PR Application & Documents Posted : Saturday 23rd June 2018
Documents Received by Home Office : Monday 25th June 2018
Payment taken: Tuesday 26th June 2018
Confirmation email: 28th June 2018
Biometric letter received: 30th June 2018
Biometric details submitted: 2nd July 2018
Certificate of Application (COA) received: Waiting
PR, Document and Biometric card received : Waiting

Yes you can request your passports back but recently its been taking the HO between 2-3 months to deal with applications completely so in my opinion you can leave them to deal with your applications as you have stated that you can do without the passports and if you have no planned travel.

I have requested our passports back both when I applied for my wife’s residence card and when I applied for my wife’s daughter’s residence card. I have requested passports just after receiving the CoA. First time they took 8-10 days, second time 2 days.

Maybe its best to leave the passports with the home office. You don't want to delay the procedure any further besides if you don't need the passports, why ask for it?

All the best I hope everything works out for you.