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Hi, everyone
I and my wife have been married for 10 years now. I am UK citizen and my wife is finnish which EEA National. She has been living in UK with me since 2002 and we also have two kids who were borned in UK. Now she would like to become a British citisen.

The question I have is : Does she need to apply for Permanent Resident (PR) before she can apply for British Passport. Otherwise what documents does she need for her British Passport application.

Can anyone give me an answer please ? thanks

Only British citizens can apply for a British passport. She will first need to apply for naturalisation as BC.

I suggest you check the British citizenship section of the forum and also read Citizenship FAQs - Common Questions - Read before posting.

I presume she didn't have a visa as a spouse of British citizen (as Finland is part of the EU). This means that she will need to meet the EEA regulations for Permanent Residence. For EEA national, PR documentation is optional as this status is obtained automatically after 5 continuous years of exercising treaty rights (work/study).

What did your wife do in the UK since 2002? Did she work or study?

khuduke wrote:Hi, everyone
I and my wife have been married for 10 years now. I am UK citizen and my wife is finnish which EEA National. She has been living in UK with me since 2002 and we also have two kids who were borned in UK. Now she would like to become a British citisen.

The question I have is : Does she need to apply for Permanent Resident (PR) before she can apply for British Passport. Otherwise what documents does she need for her British Passport application.

Can anyone give me an answer please ? thanks

I am moving this to the British Citizenship forum where you can continue.

Jambo wrote:Only British citizens can apply for a British passport. She will first need to apply for naturalisation as BC.

I suggest you check the British citizenship section of the forum and also read Citizenship FAQs - Common Questions - Read before posting.

I presume she didn't have a visa as a spouse of British citizen (as Finland is part of the EU). This means that she will need to meet the EEA regulations for Permanent Residence. For EEA national, PR documentation is optional as this status is obtained automatically after 5 continuous years of exercising treaty rights (work/study).

What did your wife do in the UK since 2002? Did she work or study?

First, thank you for your reply. I and my wife were married in UK register office and she also does not need a visa to stay here. During those time my wife was studying English. Now she has completed her Sfl functional ESOL level 3.

In order for time in the UK to be considered under the EEA regulations, the home office requires EEA nationals to have private health insurance for periods they are not working (this has nothing to do with eligibility to NHS).

Did she had such insurance (for example a cover from your workplace?). Without it, the HO would not consider her time as under the regulations which means she will not have obtained a Permanent Residence status in the UK which is required before applying for British citizenship.