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I am a Polish national. I have resided in the UK since August 2010. From September 2010 to June 2014 I was a full-time university student at the University of Dundee in Scotland. After I graduated from the university in June 2014, I have worked continuously, with a short break of a few weeks between jobs (end of December 2014 – beginning of February 2015) when I was unemployed. I automatically acquired the right of permanent residence in August 2015, five years after I entered the UK. I never applied for a permanent residence certificate because I did not need to. Due to the current political situation, I have recently applied for a permanent residence card. ]

My question is would I be able to apply for naturalisation as a British citizen as soon as I receive the permanent residence card because I have had permanent residence since August 2015, which satisfies the 12 months residence requirement?

Many thanks for your help.

Did you hold Comprehensive Sickness Insurance (CSI) or have an EHIC card from your home country during the time as a student?

blackcat1 wrote:I am a Polish national. I have resided in the UK since August 2010. From September 2010 to June 2014 I was a full-time university student at the University of Dundee in Scotland. After I graduated from the university in June 2014, I have worked continuously, with a short break of a few weeks between jobs (end of December 2014 – beginning of February 2015) when I was unemployed. I automatically acquired the right of permanent residence in August 2015, five years after I entered the UK. I never applied for a permanent residence certificate because I did not need to. Due to the current political situation, I have recently applied for a permanent residence card. ]

My question is would I be able to apply for naturalisation as a British citizen as soon as I receive the permanent residence card because I have had permanent residence since August 2015, which satisfies the 12 months residence requirement?

Many thanks for your help.

Yes, assuming the DCPR is granted 12 months (or more) since you actually acquired PR.

Although it appears your PR clock probably started in September 2010 (as a student), not in August;
that is unless you were a qualified person immediately on entering UK, ie from August (?).

And also assuming you meet all other requirement for the privilege of citizenship, ie:
LITUK, proof of English, residency/absences, proof of physical presence 5 years before date of application, good character, sound mind, referees & etc.

Did you have the foresight to have CSI (or suitable alternative) in place during your carefree student years?

I neither had a Comprehensive Sickness Insurance (CSI) nor an EHIC card from my home country when I was a student. I was not aware that I needed one. As a Polish national I am entitled to rely on the Polish equivalent of the National Health Service in Poland, which is not insurance based but provides free health care at the point of need.

blackcat1 wrote:I neither had a Comprehensive Sickness Insurance (CSI) nor an EHIC card from my home country when I was a student. I was not aware that I needed one. As a Polish national I am entitled to rely on the Polish equivalent of the National Health Service in Poland, which is not insurance based but provides free health care at the point of need.

In order to rely on that you were required to hold a Polish EHIC card throughout your student years if you didn't have CSI.

I've been in employment since I started uni. Would it make any difference?

If working during student years then in order to fall into the category of a worker qualified person (instead of student) work will have to have been genuine and effective rather than marginal and supplementary.

You can dig into the subleties and nuances of this vital question here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _clean.pdf

HO also applies its PET/MET tests to assess if someone is a worker. This is above and beyond the cleaner, purer EU law.
Ref: https://www.freemovement.org.uk/using-m ... ne-worker/

As an A8 national were you fully and properly registered for WRS if working before May 2011 (when WRS was terminated) ?

Yes, I started working in October/November 2010 part-time and I registered with WRS in December 2010.

According to the polish law from 2010 I was not allowed to have both UK and Polish EHIC cards at the same time.

blackcat1 wrote:Yes, I started working in October/November 2010 part-time and I registered with WRS in December 2010.

According to the polish law from 2010 I was not allowed to have both UK and Polish EHIC cards at the same time.

So that's a start, the work was legal. Now its all about showing it was genuine and effective work and passing the PET/MET test if HO chooses to apply it to you from then.