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British citizenship for Non-EU spouse of a EU national

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 10:44 am
by Andrew123
I have been researching this topic for a while now with no success, but with the recent results on Brexit this became quite urgent.

Here is the breakdown:
I am a EU national who lived in the UK for a long time now - I have a permanent residence card and can apply for naturalisation any time now.
My spouse is a Non-EU national who lived in the UK for over 3 years.
We got married here in the UK 2 years ago.
She has live and work permit as a spouse of a EU national - this is allowed due to EU law.

She wants to get a permanent residence cards and, eventually, a UK passport. Now, with uncertainties due to UK leaving EU sometime in the future, we would want to know what options do we have to achieve this.

Option 1:
According to rules that I am aware of - she has to live in the UK as a family member of the EU national for 5 years to get a permanent residence card - meaning that she still has about 3 years to go. Then, after another year with the permit, she can apply for naturalisation.

Option 2:
This is where I will need to get some advise.
If I become a British citizen, will it make it easier for her to get a permanent residence/ British passport ?

Currently, she can live and work here because of the EU law that allows her to do it. However, if I become a British citizen she might loose this right - am I correct in thinking that?
However, my home country allows dual citizenship, and UK allows dual citizenship. This can mean that me having a British passport, but still being a citizen of EU country, will still allow her to stay in the UK under EU law... This is just speculation and I have no proof to think this is correct.

So this is pretty much the situation - keeping all of the above in mind, how can my spouse get British permanent residence/ passport as soon as possible? Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Thank you very much.

Re: British citizenship for Non-EU spouse of a EU national

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 10:55 am
by noajthan
Andrew123 wrote:Option 2:
This is where I will need to get some advise.
If I become a British citizen, will it make it easier for her to get a permanent residence/ British passport ?

Currently, she can live and work here because of the EU law that allows her to do it. However, if I become a British citizen she might loose this right - am I correct in thinking that?
However, my home country allows dual citizenship, and UK allows dual citizenship. This can mean that me having a British passport, but still being a citizen of EU country, will still allow her to stay in the UK under EU law... This is just speculation and I have no proof to think this is correct.

So this is pretty much the situation - keeping all of the above in mind, how can my spouse get British permanent residence/ passport as soon as possible? Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Thank you very much.
Even before Brexit anyone naturalising as a BC lost the ability to sponsor family members under EU route even if they are a dual/EEA national; (that is except for certain complex exceptions).

Takeaway:
Don't naturalise until your spouse has PR confirmed :!: