EEA PR / Settled Status

Hi all,

I am an EU national who has been living in the UK for nearly 20 years.

In 2009, I received a criminal conviction for graffiti where I received a prison sentence of 14 months. I served the prison sentence during which I was considered for deportation by the Home Office. After several exchanges of letters, the Home Office decided not to pursue deportation and I was released from prison having served a total of 5 month of my 14 month sentence. This is my only criminal conviction and it was for offences that occurred when I was 15 - 17 years old.

Since being released, I have been rehabilitated; attended university, worked with several charities supporting / mentoring young people in prison, and done extensive public speaking work talking about my journey of turning my life around.

I am now in the same challenge as other EU citizens; in light of Brexit, I need to apply for Settled Status (when the application opens) and given my conviction, I am a bit apprehensive on what the outcome of my application may be given my criminal conviction, even though it was from nearly 10 years ago. According to case worker notes for the pilot Settled Status scheme, anyone who has a sentence of more than 12 months has their case referred to Immigration Enforcement for consideration for removal.

I should add that I applied for the EEA Registration Certification a couple of years ago and declared my conviction alongside a cover letter, and my application was successful.

Given everything going, should I apply for PR? or wait for Settled Status?

Any advice / guidance would be much appreciated.

The Settled Status public beta is due to open from 21 January. Why not go straight to that.
Can't comment on conviction in relation to EU/Settled application.

Thanks for your response. I don’t have and android phone so can’t access the app and not sure it will advise me about settled status as I’m currently only eligible for the pre-settled status. Hence why I’m looking for advice from someone who might know here

Look at this other thread from a few months ago & the links on there:
eea-route-applications/eea-permanent-re ... 67885.html

I understand that a criminal conviction with a 12+ months custodial sentence is considered a serious criminal offence - however, given you completed your sentence more than 5 years ago, you haven't re-offended and you've been rehabilitated, you'll be considered for Settled Status.

Why do you say you are only currently eligible for Pre-Settled Status?