Hola compadres!
A bit of a dilemma in our household.
Husband: EU national by birth and UK by naturalisation.
My route: arrived to UK under Fiance visa of British national (which we fought hard to get, taken Home Office to tribunal under Human rights and got visa granted).
Got married in Scotland.
Just before fiance visa expired I applied FLR(m) route (stupid, could have gone EEA(FM) route)
Paid a pile of cash for application and BRP got granted after 10 or 11 weeks which badly messed up our travel plans to EU and had to skip friend's wedding and lose flights and hotels.
However my current 2.5yr BRP is expiring in a couple of months' time and just a few days ago we discovered that we could have used EEA(FM) route originally as Irish/British friend living in NI did EEA(FM) route for his Ugandan wife.
My dilemma is:
Since I look forward to naturalisation in another 2.5-3 years time, should I continue going expensive FLR(m) route (£1033 application fee + £1000 Health surcharge) + in 2.5 years time pay another £2389 for ILR (if fees don't go up, they tend to go up much faster than inflation)?
Or do I just before my BRP about to expire apply under EEA(FM) route and just pay £65 for the BRC (not BRP) and wait up to 6 months to get the answer? Then 2.5 years later apply for "Settled Status" (free, £0) and subsequently for Naturalisation (£1330)?
If for any reason EEA(FM) route got rejected (I don't see any valid reasons for rejection, but dealing with Home office is never straight-forward and they never fail to surprise), would I still be able to apply under FLR(m), or does it become risky business?
My other concern is how would this affect my working rights as I am currently in full time employment, and how would my legal status be defined whilst waiting for the answer on EEA(FM) route.
Would switching the route from FLR(m) to EEA(FM) not reset the clock / jeopardise the naturalisation chances in 2.5/3 years time?
Ideally I would prefer having BRC rather than BRP as:
a) I save a lot of money by not having to pay FLR(m) application fee + IHS and then ILR fee 2.5 years later;
b) BRC states that I am family member of EU national, effectively making me eligible to travel to EU countries without visas, which was a massive headache in the past 2.5 years as had to constantly apply for visas when wanting to go to mainland Europe, even if they were free they were still quite expensive to process, flights that we would not take, VFS fees, postage fees, driving miles away to VFS centres and taking days off work.
Thanks in advance for everyone's contributions and thoughts.
- FAQ
- Login
- Register
- Call Workpermit.com for a paid service +44 (0)344-991-9222