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Dear all,

I have a question about the citizenship application of my husband and hope somebody will be able to help.

My husband is planning to apply for British citizenship (he's a Peruvian citizen). He currently has an ILR (received at the beginning of this year) after spending 7 years in the UK, the last 5 on a unmarried partner visa of an EEA citizen (I'm French). We got married 4 years ago. That's why I assume his ILR is without restrictions at the moment.

Now it seems that he could apply because of his residency in the UK and because he is married to a British citizen. But what is the best route to go?

Thanks for all recommendations!

You would have to prove that his has PR in order to then qualify for naturalization. He does not have to apply for EEA4 but it will certainly make the process smoother.

Does he have PR (under EU directives) or ILR (under UK immigration laws)?

Well, I'm assuming the former, but without having asked for confirmation of this status in the form of a permanent residence card. But, yes, it would be good to know the truth.

I forgot to mention, I received the British citizenship two years ago and now have dual citizenship.

So he can apply but, as previously stated, he has to provide proof of his permanent residency, and without a PR card, this will require relevant paperwork showing that you (not him) were exercising treaty rights for any periods you, yourself, were not a permanent resident of the UK.

So do I understand this correctly, he will apply as spouse of a UK citizen and for the time before I received my British passport I need to prove that I was exercising treaty rights? For how many years?

Thanks a lot for your help so far!

londonimmigrant2012 wrote:So do I understand this correctly, he will apply as spouse of a UK citizen and for the time before I received my British passport I need to prove that I was exercising treaty rights? For how many years?

Thanks a lot for your help so far!

Not quite. Lucapooka's advice is based on a European-regulations application (EEA4). Under this your spouse is applying as the spouse of a French citizen (your UK citizenship would not be relevant to this application) and you would need to provide evidence of exercising Treaty Rights for a 5 year continuous period.

As you mentioned, you have a choice. Since you are a UK citizen as well, your spouse could also apply for Settlement under the UK immigration route. In that case you would not need to provide any evidence of EEA treaty rights. On the other hand, this is a paid application (European route applications are free) and a different set of evidence is required (http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas ... ettlement/).

In my opinion, applying for Settlement via the UK route would be the more straightforward option. In particular, since you've only been married 4 years, if you applied using EEA4, in addition to all of the treaty rights evidence you'd need to provide evidence again of unmarried co-habitation for the year before that, which is a bit of a pain. Since the period for Settlement is only 2 years, it would be covered by your marriage. Also with Settlement applications you can use the Settlement checking service, which makes things quicker and simpler. The only point against using Settlement, I think, is having to pay the fees, but you'd need to weigh that against the likelihood of being without your passports for 6 months if you use EEA4. You'd still have your UK passport, since you'd only have to submit your French one, but your spouse would be unable to travel.

The easiest thing to do is apply for PR using EEA4, and then use that to apply for citizenship. The only problem being that EEA4 applications take six months. Otherwise, apply for citizenship without a PR card, but expect an equally-long delay while they try to figure out if circumstances of applicant's EU partner have automatically conferred PR on the applicant, who is thus qualified for citizenship. Good luck.

If your main consideration is to find the quickest way to citizenship possible, then I would agree with Lucapooka. Applying for Settlement now would mean that you'd have to wait another year after that, whereas you can apply for BC via the European route after 6 years of treaty rights, regardless of whether or for how long you've had a PR sticker.

- Quickest way to citizenship
- Cost
- Time without passports
- Amount of evidence you need to provide

These are 4 key criteria you'll need to weigh up (though of course you may have factors that we don't know about)

your original post is not very clear.

You wrote "He currently has an ILR (received at the beginning of this year)". What application has he made to receive this ILR? Did he apply using form EEA4 or SET(O) ? What does the sticker in his passport say?

If he actually has a sticker in his passport following EEA4 or SET(O) application, then he can apply already now as a spouse of British citizen.

Apologies the post wasn't clear indeed. He does have an ILR, it says permanent residence card - no restrictions to the holders activity in the UK and expires in 10 years. He obtained in using the EEA4 application.

I hope this clarifies the situation.

Thank you!

So he can apply today if he meets the spouse requirements. He will also need to pass the "Life in the UK" test.

Thank you for your help!!