Brc validity

I have uk issued eea family permit valid until October 2023.
My wife is french national with settled status in uk.
I am Indian national with pre settled status in uk.
We moved back to france in November 2020 and now we are planning to go back to uk in October or November 2021.
Q1) can I return to uk with eea family permit or do I need to have a brc with pre settled status.
Also, can I transfer my eea residence permit to brc with pre settled outside uk.

Many thanks,
Eshan

Eshan bajaj wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 24, 2021 1:26 pm

I have uk issued eea family permit valid until October 2023.

Be aware that, regardless of the printed date on the card, all EEA RCs are valid at most until June 30th 2021. See the wording at https://www.gov.uk/uk-residence-card :

If you already have a card, it will not be valid after 30 June 2021.

Then regarding your next question:

My wife is french national with settled status in uk.
I am Indian national with pre settled status in uk.
We moved back to france in November 2020 and now we are planning to go back to uk in October or November 2021.

Be aware that if you spend more than 6 months outside of the UK you will break your continuous residence. This will not be an issue for your wife, but it might be an issue for you. You will not lose your pre-Settled Status, but you will likely face struggles to stay in the UK past its expiration day, since you would no longer have a continuous residence period that started before December 31st 2020. Some argue this means you will not be able to get Settled Status. This might mean you will have to go through the family route, and not the Settlement Scheme.

It would be wise to come back before May 2021.

Q1) can I return to uk with eea family permit or do I need to have a brc with pre settled status.

You can, until June 30th 2021. After that, you will need to apply for a EUSS Family Permit to re-gain entry.

Also, can I transfer my eea residence permit to brc with pre settled outside uk.

No. This is a long-term residence permit, which assumes the applicant is in the UK, and therefore it is not available abroad.
If the applicant is stranded abroad for any reason, the standard process is to apply for a Family Permit to re-gain entry, and then apply inside the UK.

I just realised something.

If you do break your continuous residence (more than 6 months of absence), as the non-EU family member the doors might not necessarily be closed for you to apply through the EUSS on your return, since you could potentially apply as "joining family member".

Joining family members can present a continuous qualifying period that starts after December 2021 (again, this is because you are the non-EU party, if you were the primary EU sponsor and had broken your residence while on Pre-Settled Status then yes, the doors would have been definitively closed to the EUSS).

As a joining family member I believe you would need to apply for a EUSS Family Permit before your return instead of relying on your existing Pre-Settled Status (see the definition of Joining Family member, where it specifies that since their absence they have not lived in the UK, which means at the time of application you should not have returned to the UK), and this means your clock would restart to zero, and all accrued residence before your return would be wiped off, so still a big drawback.

Again, you can avoid all this by coming back to the UK before the end of May 2021 (or whichever date corresponds to less than 6 months of absence).

*Joining family members can present a continuous qualifying period that starts after December 2020

Dear all,

Please could someone advice me.

I have pre settled status since October 2020 and my wife has settled status since then.

In November we move to paris and since then we are living here, it's more than 6 months.

Now I am planning to move back to uk in October this year.

Q1 - can I enter uk alone as my wife will join me in November?

Q2 - I never changed my residence permit issued to eu settlement scheme. Is my old brc still valid as it shows the validity until july 2023.

Thanks,

Eshan

Topics merged!!