Immigrationboards.com

Dear all,

Happy new year. I have been reading posts here for a while and found some good info for preparing my application for EEA family residence card. I have a basic question, do I need to apply for a EEA family permit or Residence Card ?
Your help would be much appreciated.

Here is our situation for your info:

I am Chinese, currently holding a tier 1 Post-study-work visa which expires on 27th Feb 2014. I am working in the UK on a permenant position but the employer won't be able to give me a sponsorship due to the nature of the job. I have been living in the UK for over 5 years now. I first came as an undergraduate International Student on a Tire 4 student visa in Sep 2008 and I carried on doing my MBA studies and I finished in June 2012. I switched my Tire 4 student visa to the Tier 1 PSW visa in Feb 2012 as the Tier 1 visa application was closing down. Now I have about 50 days left on my Tier 1 work visa.

My husband is Hungarian. We met in Uni in the UK as he was on the Erasmus student exchange scheme when I was a PG student in Jan 2011. He was here for one semester and he returned to Hungary to finish his Master too then he moved to the UK to live with me in Oct 2012. He started to work in the UK in Nov 2012 as an Environmental Engineer. But before we could live together we have been travelling to see each other a lot, me from the UK to Hungary and he came every two months to the UK.

We got married in the UK on 12 Nov 2013 (together for 2 years and 10 months)and I am planning to send out my appliation for the EEA residence card on 10 Jan 2014 when I return to the UK as we are now in Hungary for holiday.

I only want to stay in the UK as this is the only way we can be together. My husband won't move to China, he's not prepared yet as he doesn't speak the language and he loves his job in the UK. He loves his family in Hungary and he tries to persuade me to live in Hungary but I said no too as I only can imagine myself living in China or the UK now. My homecity in China is rich and big and I am one of the lucky ones who's got rich parents. But I love my husband and want to be together with him.

Peaceful world wrote: I have a basic question, do I need to apply for a EEA family permit or Residence Card ?
Your help would be much appreciated.
We got married in the UK on 12 Nov 2013 (together for 2 years and 10 months)and I am planning to send out my appliation for the EEA residence card on 10 Jan 2014 when I return to the UK as we are now in Hungary for holiday.

Since you are a visa national but returning back on 10th Janurary, 2014 with valid visa till February, 2014 then in that case you won't need EEA family permit. Moreover, on return with your EU national partner who is working means exercising his treaty rights then applying Residence card will be optional to you which is a mere confirmation of your residence right..

sheraz7 wrote:

Peaceful world wrote: I have a basic question, do I need to apply for a EEA family permit or Residence Card ?
Your help would be much appreciated.
We got married in the UK on 12 Nov 2013 (together for 2 years and 10 months)and I am planning to send out my appliation for the EEA residence card on 10 Jan 2014 when I return to the UK as we are now in Hungary for holiday.

Since you are a visa national but returning back on 10th Janurary, 2014 with valid visa till February, 2014 then in that case you won't need EEA family permit. Moreover, on return with your EU national partner who is working means exercising his treaty rights then applying Residence card will be optional to you which is a mere confirmation of your residence right..

Hi there,

Thank you for the reply. I entered UK without problems back from my holidays. Now I have sent my application for a residence card last Friday, 24th Jan 2014. I understand that as a married EEA family member I automatically have the right to live in the UK. However I want to apply for a new job and I think I will find it difficult to prove to the employer that I am legally qualified to work here as my PSW visa expires in Feb 2014.

I haven't received any confimation letter from the home office yet. I will see what happens and share the experience here.

Thanks again

Very soon you will receive the application's acknowledgement followed by COA (certificate of application) which should confirm your right of work and the same can use to satisfy the employers too. You can gather/share the application timeline at the following the thread:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... 52881.html

sheraz7 wrote:Very soon you will receive the application's acknowledgement followed by COA (certificate of application) which should confirm your right of work and the same can use to satisfy the employers too. You can gather/share the application timeline at the following the thread:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... 52881.html

Hi there,

I got a letter from Home office today. The letter is dated 27/01/2014.

The letter's main contents are as follow:

Home Office
PO Box 306
Liverpool
L2 0QN

Date: 27/01/2014

Our Reference Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Your Reference Number:[ Blank]
Regarding Applicant:
My Name, My address

Thank you for the application by the above-Named on Form EEA2
It will be now passed to a casework unit to await consideration.

If there is an issue with the fee you have paid, your application will be deemed to be invalid and returned to you as soon as possible by post. You will be advised on what action you need to take to make a vaild application.

Our advice to all applicants is not to make any non-urgent travel plans until we have decided the application and returned the passports or travel documents.

We would appreciate it if you did not enquire about the progress of the application before you hear from us. It is not possible to make enquiries in person about the progress of an application at any of our Public Enquiry Office.

Please note that our published service standard is to complete applications within 6 months. Some applications will be resolved much sooner, especiallly for EU nationals. All applications are considered in application date order unless there are any documented compelling or copassionate reaspns to proritise.

If you need documents urgently, please visit our website
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/about ... documents/. Please allow 10 working days for us to return your documents.

Home Office


I have a few questions regarding the red bit I highlighted.
1. They gave a their reference number but my reference number is blank, why?
2. Do they mean they are now passing my applicaiton to be considered by a caseworker?
3. They said EU nationals' applications will be solved much quicker. But the EEA2 application is for non-EU nationals right? So why will EU nationals use this form?
4. Is this letter a COA, I assume it is not, then how much longer should I expect the COA to come?


Thank you very much.

It is an application acknowledgment and soon after of that the coa is usually sent, you can check its current timescale from the thread called eea2 application timeline. Whichever reference number is written on it just note it down and its all writing is in standard format especially the one referring to EU national's application (EEA1) which is totally optional and is processed more quicker than eea2.