Residence Card or Pre-Settled Status

Good morning all,

My wife just joined me in the UK last Wednesday (this is the first time we live together after having been more than 6 years in a long-distance relationship). We didn't apply for a EEA Family Permit and instead entered the country together with our marriage certificate and she received a stamp on her passport "Admitted to the UK under EEA regulations 2016". It is my understanding that this is equivalent to an EEA Family Permit and that either way, she's legally in the UK as long as I keep on exercising my treaty rights (I've been working in the UK for the past 2+ years).

However I am wondering about what the "best" next step is: either applying for a Residence Card for her (mainly to prove her elligibility to work) or wait until the Pre-Settled/Settled status scheme opens fully (she'll then be able to link her application to mine as I've already been granted Pre-Settled status).

I have two questions:

1. Could you please confirm that waiting until the Settled status scheme opens is an acceptable path?
2. In the EEA FM guidance note there is the following wording in Section 5:

If you and your sponsor are living together, or have previously lived together, please provide evidence of this. We recommend that you send at least 6 items, from 3 different sources. These can be addressed to you jointly or individually, provided they clearly show that you live, or have lived, at the same address.


==> Given that my wife has only been here for 5 days now, we only have her SIM card welcome letter in her name. By the end of next week we should also have both electricity or water bills with both our names on it, as well as her letter inviting for her NiN appointment, and we'll then open a joint bank account in both our names. Should we wait until we have all these documents ready to eventually send the EEA FM form?

There is also a note about pictures together and evidence of how we kept contact. Is that applicable to our case given that we're now married and live together and that we'd apply on this basis (she's my wife and I exercice my Treaty rights?)

Thanks a lot,
Floramie

Floramie wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 17, 2019 11:57 am

We didn't apply for a EEA Family Permit and instead entered the country together with our marriage certificate and she received a stamp on her passport "Admitted to the UK under EEA regulations 2016". It is my understanding that this is equivalent to an EEA Family Permit and that either way, she's legally in the UK as long as I keep on exercising my treaty rights (I've been working in the UK for the past 2+ years).

Correct.

However I am wondering about what the "best" next step is: either applying for a Residence Card for her (mainly to prove her elligibility to work) or wait until the Pre-Settled/Settled status scheme opens fully (she'll then be able to link her application to mine as I've already been granted Pre-Settled status).

There are pro's and con's for both, take a look at this previous post where I discuss them: eea-route-applications/confused-between ... 74461.html

1. Could you please confirm that waiting until the Settled status scheme opens is an acceptable path?

She'll be perfectly legal if she does nothing now and waits for the Settled status scheme to open fully in March 29th.

2. In the EEA FM guidance note there is the following wording in Section 5:

If you and your sponsor are living together, or have previously lived together, please provide evidence of this. We recommend that you send at least 6 items, from 3 different sources. These can be addressed to you jointly or individually, provided they clearly show that you live, or have lived, at the same address.

You have not lived together substantially, so this does not apply to you.

==> Given that my wife has only been here for 5 days now, we only have her SIM card welcome letter in her name. By the end of next week we should also have both electricity or water bills with both our names on it, as well as her letter inviting for her NiN appointment, and we'll then open a joint bank account in both our names. Should we wait until we have all these documents ready to eventually send the EEA FM form?

This will help, but most important will be the evidence you talk about below:

There is also a note about pictures together and evidence of how we kept contact. Is that applicable to our case given that we're now married and live together and that we'd apply on this basis (she's my wife and I exercice my Treaty rights?)

This is KEY to your case, as the evidence of living together is extremely recent. You need to show evidence of how you have kept in touch while living apart. A selection of ordinary messages, pictures, and letters of friends and family, testifying of your genuine relationship will help.