Immigrationboards.com

Hi everyone, and thank you for all the hard work and great advice and information in these boards. I've read pretty much all relevant threads in the board but I wanted to ask on a (perhaps obscure) scenario.

My partner is an EEA citizen with Settled Status (granted January 2019) and now considering applying for citizenship. I posted this question here because what I want to ask has to do with the definition and interpretation of lawful residence under the EEA regulations.(I am also an EEA citizen, moved here in August 2018 and having been under continuous employment and also with CSI, and have Pre-Settled Status.)

He first moved here for his LLM in September 2012 and finished it in July 2013. He then took up his PhD (September 2013) which he got this March 2020. He's never had CSI.

Meanwhile, he's been delivering lessons as fixed-term staff in various universities for each academic year since 2013. So he's been employed in:

• September 2013 - July 2014

• September 2014 - July 2015

• September 2015 - July 2016

• September 2016 - July 2017

• September 2017 - July 2018

• September 2018 - July 2019

• September 2019 - July 2020

for which he obviously has contracts and payslips.

I got wind of the CSI requirement for students under the EEA regulations, but could there be a way this will not apply as he might qualify as a worker instead? The income requirement should be met as NI contributions were paid on these contracts and the income was enough to cover basic needs.

However:

• The hours worked are not generally above 10-15 per week, however that doesn't include 'home assignments' like preparing, grading, research etc to meet the 'not marginal work' requirement - any experience on the hours worked requirement?

• Each year there is a 2-3 month period in the summer where he didn't have work, and for about half of that time (about 1 month each year) he was back in his EEA home country. However, for the last two years he has been delivering tutoring lessons (with contract) for 2-4 hours per week, most weeks, during the employment gaps. So I am unsure if he's a qualified person considering the Regulations. Is it true that you can only stay lawfully as a 'jobseeker' for a total of 90 days throughout the 5-year period? If yes, are copies of job applications or interview-related emails necessary?

• Even if he can be considered a worker (and possibly jobseeker for those employment gaps) could his first year in the UK as an LLM student without CSI be considered a breach of the good character requirement and be refused citizenship anyway?

I would be grateful for any advice, opinion or suggestion and sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum

romiep wrote: ↑

Wed May 27, 2020 4:03 pm

considering applying for citizenship

It's quite expensive application. My suggestion would be to contact an immigration lawyer. It's better to spend extra £100 on a qualified advice than risking big money relying on anonymous forum.

Thank you for your reply Alex, and I absolutely understand. I will probably do that, but I thought to ask for any opinion as I see lots of great and insightful contributions around and this must be a situation that has many EEA applicants worrying.

I have educated myself further on my partner's case and it looks like the only issue may be the 'Good Character' requirement, as his first year he had no CSI (and on a couple of occasions thereafter, after two fixed-term employment contracts) he wasn't exercising treaty rights and therefore did not have lawful residence. Those periods are outside his 5-year qualifying period.

The casework guidelines do not explicitly say when/if discretion is applied on Good Character for people who did not have CSI in the past, although it does say the following:

Discretion to waive immigration breaches

"Following the introduction of the EU
Settlement Scheme you may increasingly see applications from EEA or Swiss
nationals who have not fully complied with additional requirements under the EEA
regulations, such as having comprehensive sickness insurance where they needed
it, and who may therefore have been in breach of immigration law. When considering
such applications you should take into account all the facts surrounding such a breach and make a full assessment about whether discretion should be exercised in their favour."

And further below:

Examples of when you might exercise discretion include where:

[only relevant bullet below]
"- the breach was because the applicant did not meet an additional/implicit condition of stay, rather than illegal entry or overstaying, such as an EEA or Swiss national not having CSI and can provide sufficient evidence to justify discretion being exercised in their favour"

It is not specified what an applicant could provide or what kind of circumstances they should have to be considered for discretion. Certainly his university never mentioned having to have CSI but this cannot be a factor, as it can be argued that each person has responsibility to know their legal obligations.

Might the fact that he never had anything in his history (not even a parking ticket) or breach count in his favour? The phrase "additional/implicit condition of stay, rather than illegal entry or overstaying" could imply that this is not considered as serious a breach as illegal entry or overstaying and could therefore be treated more leniently, especially for an applicant who has no other history. I know these amendments to the guidelines are very recent, but any thoughts?

AlexBTS wrote: ↑

Wed May 27, 2020 4:46 pm

romiep wrote: ↑

Wed May 27, 2020 4:03 pm

considering applying for citizenship

It's quite expensive application. My suggestion would be to contact an immigration lawyer. It's better to spend extra £100 on a qualified advice than risking big money relying on anonymous forum.

In this day an age, an accredited immigration adviser who would receive you in a 1-2-1 basis on his office, would charge you around £150 to £200 just for an initial consultation. That types of consultations are just to hear a summary of your story, have a quick look of your documents, and tell you roughly what could be your options should you want to proceed forward.

An adviser I know charges £1800 for such applications. He does really nice representations and, most often than not, hit right. But it's not £100.

For £100, you can have some fly-by-night advisers who take a credit card over the phone and give you a quick advice which may or may not be helpful. A friend of mine tried that and he was very disappointed.

I am not against professional immigration advisers and in my life I used them already. But you need to be realistic about the pricing.