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Posted: **Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:39 pm**

My friend from a non EC country (he is from a CIS country) married a lady originally from Latvia in December 2010. She holds a British Passport as she was married once before to UK national.

He has been in the UK since 2004 and was a failed asylum seeker.

He has applied twice for the status to be able to live and work legally in the UK since his marriage. The Home Office lost all the original documentation after one year. On the second application in early 2012 it was turned down as there were no ID card submitted with the application.
His original passport was lost by the Home Office hence requiring an ID.

He has applied for a third time in early June 2012 along with an ID card from his country of birth but has not had a COA yet,

Questions

1. How long will it be before he gets a COA and what benefits does this provide?

2. When can he start chasing the COA up?

3. Is there anything he can do to be able to earn an income as not being able to contribute to household income is putting a huge strain on his marriage. i.e. does the COA provide any rights for him to work , even self-employed ?

Thank you for any advice you can give as my friend is desperate to work to support his family and I am afraid he will start to suffer severe depression with this entire long wait to be legally able to work

Posted: **Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:43 pm**

johnty123 wrote:My friend from a non EC country (he is from a CIS country) married a lady originally from Latvia in December 2010. She holds a British Passport as she was married once before to UK national.

He has been in the UK since 2004 and was a failed asylum seeker.

He has applied twice for the status to be able to live and work legally in the UK since his marriage. The Home Office lost all the original documentation after one year. On the second application in early 2012 it was turned down as there were no ID card submitted with the application.
His original passport was lost by the Home Office hence requiring an ID.

He has applied for a third time in early June 2012 along with an ID card from his country of birth but has not had a COA yet,

Questions

1. How long will it be before he gets a COA and what benefits does this provide? Immediately.

2. When can he start chasing the COA up? Right away.

3. Is there anything he can do to be able to earn an income as not being able to contribute to household income is putting a huge strain on his marriage. i.e. does the COA provide any rights for him to work , even self-employed ? COA will state employment allowed.

Thank you for any advice you can give as my friend is desperate to work to support his family and I am afraid he will start to suffer severe depression with this entire long wait to be legally able to work

While UKBA has recently barred British Citizens from using the EEA route, it should not apply to your friend as applications were made prior to the regulations being changed. That said answers above...

Posted: **Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:44 pm**

Latvia doesn't allow dual nationality so if his wife is now British, he can't make an application based on EEA regulations (unless his British wife worked in another EEA state and moved back to the UK).

Posted: **Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:58 pm**

Jambo wrote:Latvia doesn't allow dual nationality so if his wife is now British, he can't make an application based on EEA regulations (unless his British wife worked in another EEA state and moved back to the UK).

Interesting, the plot thickens...

Might be a good test case though as in the first instance, this will no doubt have applied

This Directive shall apply to all Union citizens who move to or reside in a Member State other than that of which they are a national...

Posted: **Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:26 pm**

You could also argue that even if she lost her nationality, the wife never lost her PR status (I assume she held one before applying for BC). I suspect the HO is not familiar with the Latvian nationality law, so if she still holds her old passport, no questions would be raised but I'm not convinced EEA regulations apply here anymore.

Posted: **Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:17 pm**

EU law will certainly apply. This will not be a McCarthy case, as the Latvian national has exercised treaty right by moving to UK and exercising treaty rights. The fact she became British Citizen does not result in her ceasing to become a Union Citizen.

She has a community right just like a singh case. It cannot be held against her that she has never lived and resided in any country in the EU other than Britain.

For a case not to be purely internal, there has to be a link between two countries, and in this case there are.

It will be wrong for McCarthy or the ammended EEA regulation to be applied in these type of cases.

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