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Restrictions on Irish person moving to UK?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:41 pm
by Directive/2004/38/EC
Normal EU free movement law requires that an EU who wants to move to the UK must (after 90 days) work.

Lets say that a Irish person wants to move to the UK, but they are and will remain unable to work for medical reasons.

Is there any restriction on how long they can remain in the UK? Are they required to be "exercising treaty rights" in any way?

Lets say that person then wants to bring their non-EU family member to the UK. On what basis can they do it?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 1:03 pm
by Jambo
Irish enjoy from a special status in the UK and are consider "settled" from the first day in the UK.

This means that they can either use the EEA route or the UK domestic immigration rules (for BC and settled persons).

However as the HO just announced changes to the UK immigration rules for family member, they will need to check if they meet the new requirements.

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 1:24 pm
by Directive/2004/38/EC
So they do not need to work to remain in the UK? And if they do not work, are they deemed to have chosen the non-EU route?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:45 pm
by Jambo
They don't need to work and are entitled to benefits (as BC are).

They don't need to choose. They can meet both routes in parallel (well, the settled route doesn't require any thing apart from residence. The EEA route is the standard treaty rights).

In practice, for the EEA national there is no difference which route they are on. It does matter for the family member as they need to choose which application to make. Whatever the spouse applies to, the Irish man can still meet the other route as well.

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 7:18 pm
by EUsmileWEallsmile
Irish are not considered to be "aliens" by the UK.

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 11:06 pm
by Directive/2004/38/EC
Ok, so the next stage of the question.

The Irish citizen has now been in the UK for more than 3 months and is not working. They are considered "settled" by the UK. If they have a child in the UK, then it will be instantly British, as far as I understand.

Can they apply for a PR card in their Irish passport? I would guess the application would be refused because they do not meet the written requirements.

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 11:16 pm
by EUsmileWEallsmile
Directive/2004/38/EC wrote:Ok, so the next stage of the question.

The Irish citizen has now been in the UK for more than 3 months and is not working. They are considered "settled" by the UK. If they have a child in the UK, then it will be instantly British, as far as I understand.

Can they apply for a PR card in their Irish passport? I would guess the application would be refused because they do not meet the written requirements.
In general, they could not rely on EU law to apply for PR as they would not have met the conditions.

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 11:18 pm
by Jambo
They are considered settled under the UK immigration rules.

To be able to obtain PR, they will need to reside 5 years under the EEA regulations.

So this is a weird case where you can hold effectively ILR for 5 years before be able to obtain PR.