Applying for Citizenship with Settled Status/British Spouse - Residence Card needed?

Hello,

I have tried searching the forum and the government website to try to find a definitive answer to this question but have not succeeded. Any advice/answers gratefully received!

My husband is a Polish citizen - he came to the UK in 2005 and he applied for 'settled status' under the EU Settlement Scheme in March 2019. He received confirmation of his settled status/ILR electronically on 4th April 2019. Because we are married and I am a British citizen by birth, we decided it would make sense to apply for his citizenship straight away. The government website states:

*continued*
The government website states that: "You can apply as soon as you have one of the following:

a permanent residence document to prove you have permanent residence status
indefinite leave to remain in the UK
‘settled status’ (also known as ‘indefinite leave to remain under the EU Settlement Scheme’)
indefinite leave to enter the UK (permission to move to the UK permanently from abroad)"

Which, to me, implies that he can apply on the basis of having settled status. However, on the citizenship application it says "You must have a permanent residence card before you can apply for citizenship".

Please can someone confirm whether the permanent residence card is really required to apply for citizenship if someone has settled status through the EU settlement scheme? Or is it an excuse to pump an extra £65 out of people? Or both?

Thank you and apologies for the bad formatting!

this is exactly what I just stumbled across!

Please can someone answer this question, I'd be very grateful!

I'm no expert and only just started completing my application, but on the print version of the AN form, section 2.4 (page 13), it says:

EEA or Swiss nationals with permanent residence
2.4 If you are an EEA or Swiss national or the family member of an EEA or Swiss national and
wish to use a permanent residence card to support your application, please complete the following
section.
If you have been granted indefinite leave to remain under the EU Settlement Scheme you do not
need to complete this section – make sure you have completed section 1.3 and then move on to
section 3.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... on-form-an

So I'm interpreting that you do not need a PRC if you have ILR under the EU Settlement Scheme. The online version did not mention this and had me confused as well.