Immigrationboards.com

Hi all,

According to this post, you will not break continuous residency if you are away for 6 months or less in any given year. And a year apparently is defined as anyone of the 5 years that a Residence Card gives you, from the first day it is valid.

http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... 94-40.html

So if you got you RC on June 1 2010:
• year 1 is: June 1 2010 to May 31 2011
• year 2 is: June 1 2011 to May 31 2012
• etc...

My question is, what happens if I am out of the UK for more than 6 months, for example, at the end of 5 years, I was out of the country for 9 months in year 3.

What happens then.?
Do I need to stay an extra 9 months to make a total of 5 years.?
Or will the time BEFORE the 9 month pause will not count, meaning I have to stay a few more years to have 5 years of CONTINUOUS residency.?

Thanks

The latter.

Your statement regarding the start of the 5 years is not correct. The date on the RC is (in almost all cases) irrelevant to the start of the count.

Was your break a continuous 9 months? What was the reason for the break? Study, work, other reason?

The 9 month break would be for contract work abroad (Gibraltar to be more precise). Mostly continuous but with a few trips back to England in between.

And yes, you're right, I misread the statement from UKBA in the link above. They look at the 5 years from the qualifying period, not necessarily from the start of the RC.

So does that mean that I can choose the qualifying period.?
I could be decide when my 5-year qualifying period started to make sure my 9-month absence was split between 2 years.?

Was the EU national also abroad?

I would argue you can split the 9months into 2 years.

Yes the EU National was with me for maybe 7 of the 9 months.

Does that impact my status and RC in some ways.?

Your status is based on the EEA national activities. They will need to exercise treaty rights while in the UK and are subject to the same break in residence rules.