http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/while ... igibility/
The exemption here could be said to apply.
For all those wishing to remarry post divorce with an EEA national AND who have retained the right of residence, there must not be any need to apply for the COA again! Since, those of you are on equal footing with the ones still married/dependent on the EEA nationals.
There could be an inaccurate argument that this only applies to those DEPENDENT family members (kids under 21/granparents etc.), as once you cease to be a spouse you are no longer a family member and can't automatically qualify for the exemption.
The point I'm trying to make is that, quite apart from being an illegal requirement breaching the Human Rights of the citizens (although justified on the basis of public interest?!) the rationale behind this COA is to prevent bogus marriages of people with limited rights to remain in the country, thus those not under immigration control aren't required to apply for permission.
Thus, those non-EEAs who have RETAINED the right of residence, are NOT subject to immigration control in the first place (just as when they were still married to the EEAs), therefore the need to control them falls away, those retaining the right of residence don't have any need to circumvent the immigration laws.
And in any case, section 4.1 of the application form http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... _form1.pdf
suggests that this only applies to those people who have been GRANTED leave to remain in the UK- the EEA route is an automatic right, and to reiterate my point, the UK has no say whatsoever if the criteria for the retention of rights has been met. Thus, you cannot tick the first box and say that you have more than 3 months left as this is not applicable, you haven't been "granted" leave, but acquired it AUTOMATICALLY.
Further, the box "other" is a negative connotation box for those people who have either less than 3 months left, or are illegal altogether. It is NOT for the non-EEA nationals who retained right of residence. Therefore, the COA form is NOT designed for those on the EEA route already.
I rest my case
P.S. Although this is more or less a closed topic http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... oa-changes
but if anyone wishes to marry before then...
then again, who knows what "early 2011" means... they still have to make time for it and have people press for its abolition. It is clear that since they're not making any more money from it, there's no point in having extra man hours wasted on processing these free applications.