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Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 8:36 pm
by metalqueen
Hello,

I need some advice regarding an EEA permanent residency card for an Italian citizen. My partner has been living in the UK for 5 years now and is entitled to apply for permanent residency. After reading through the application form I am a bit concerned regarding one of the requirements. In section 5.3 of the application it states:

Have you (or has your sponsor, if applicable) had any absences from the UK since you/they
entered? And if yes to provide details of where and how long for.

She has been out of the country and the only reason is to travel to Italy to visit her family. Over this 5yr period but she hasn't kept a record of all the dates and her passport hasn't been stamped etc. Her visits can last from 2-14 days depending on annual leave/bank holidays and weekends.

Therefore do absences for holiday have to be included on the form? Or are they are longer time periods out of the country i.e. 4 months.
If however she is unable to provide a full record as she cannot remember every date she was away will this affect her application for permanent residency and citizenship?

Is there anything she can do instead?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I cannot find a clear answer anywhere.

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 9:05 pm
by LilyLalilu
Yes, all absences need to be included (even short holidays). I understand that it is really hard to remember, if I hadn't written down all my absences over the last years, I wouldn't remember them...
Best thing may be to make a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office/UKBA (costs £10) to see if they have your entry and exit data on file. I'm not sure if they save this data for EU nationals, but I guess it's worth a try.
If they have the data saved, you can go by these dates - otherwise just use plane tickets/email booking confirmations (if you still have them) as help so that you can complete the absence section to the best of your knowledge.
As long as you have not been absent for more than 6 months at once (for PR) or 450 days in 5yrs&90 days in year 5 (for citizenship), it technically does not really matter (although the dates given should of course be as accurate as possible...)

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 9:10 pm
by sheraz7
Usually bank statements/utility bills/tenancy agreement can serve the purpose regarding absence.

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 9:59 pm
by metalqueen
Thank you for the replies :)

I guess she will have to try to estimate as best she can when she was away, especially the 1st two years of being in the UK.
I'm assuming when you say supply bank statements etc they will look at these instead over the days she provides for holiday?

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 10:48 pm
by LilyLalilu
Yes, bank statements/utility bills will also need to be supplied as they serve to prove your residence during the past 5 years (as EU passports do not get stamped). However, a list of absences is still needed in addition to that.

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 11:36 pm
by sagareva
first you cannot make a FOI request about your personal information, previous poster must have meant SAR

second, it will not contain data on an EU citizen's travel so why bother. E-borders did not even record travel that started and finished within EU.

thirdly, this should NOT matter much for right to PR arising under EEA regulations.

but it does matter for citizenship, because citizenship requires you to show how many days you have been absent in the preceding five years

i suggest looking at travel booking records. 2010 is not 19th century, most of us have been using the same email and booked travel using it

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 6:54 am
by metalqueen
Ok thanks for the help!

I'll get her to check her emails and hope she hasn't deleted them.

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 8:46 pm
by kpatel
kpatel wrote:
kpatel wrote:How accurately Case Worker count absent in the UK!!

I was looking for information how case worker find absence in UK for applicant which has following situation.

Under Long_Residence_Guidance _Page 15 of 54 version 13.0 Published for Home Office staff on 8 May 2015
Calculating absence from the UK

You must check carefully:
• information on the application form
• any UK exit and entry stamps in the passports
• the landing cards section on warehouse to confirm when the applicant entered the UK


• information on the application form
If applicant forgot very old trip

• any UK exit and entry stamps in the passports
If applicant lost the old passport which contain exit and entry stamps and also do not have travel ticket booking information for starting period of travelling.

• the landing cards section on warehouse to confirm when the applicant entered the UK
From SAR only landing card at the time of each entry clearance and some visa sticker on old passport recovered.
Another specific request of SAR for landing cards/entry/exit data but no any information available with UKBA.

This lead to raise the question where all landing card goes. I search on google and found someone raised this question to UKBA under The Freedom of Information (FoI) ACT. UKBA response that landing cards disposed after 31days and no personal information captured.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/cy/reque ... ing-543934

So my question to all seniors how Caseworker can find the absence in the UK?

Kpatel

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 8:32 am
by Gomjaba
sagareva wrote:first you cannot make a FOI request about your personal information, previous poster must have meant SAR

second, it will not contain data on an EU citizen's travel so why bother. E-borders did not even record travel that started and finished within EU.

thirdly, this should NOT matter much for right to PR arising under EEA regulations.

but it does matter for citizenship, because citizenship requires you to show how many days you have been absent in the preceding five years

i suggest looking at travel booking records. 2010 is not 19th century, most of us have been using the same email and booked travel using it
Sorry, not true .. I was in the same situation. I am German and I had a hard time to remember when I travelled back to see my parents. I asked the Home Office via email if it makes sense, here the answer
Dear Sir,

Please be advised that we do not hold all data electronically for entries/exits to/from the United Kingdom. Although you may have seen reference to the Home Office’s e-Borders system, you should be aware that this, so far, only covers a percentage of passenger movements in and out of the United Kingdom. A journey may therefore have been undertaken which is not covered by e-Borders.

All requests for e-Borders data must include the subject’s passport number.

Kind regards

Samantha Lodge
Subject Access Request Unit
Customer Service / Correspondence Team
Because I am European - I thought there aren't any records held .. Now guess what - I received 5 Pages of data !!

From what I can see - I have flown out of London City Airport and Stansted but none of the pages include flights from Heathrow (and those were the ones I wasn't sure about).

Good thing: I forgot I travelled to certain countries for work - so that is nice
Bad thing: I am still none the wiser about certain visits.

HOWEVER, I just guessed the dates based on conversations with my parents. Let's face it - if there aren't any records (officially anyway) about those trips, then how would they argue :p

But saying it will not contain data on an EU citizen's travel is just wrong ..

Importantly, when applying for the SAR - make sure you mention that you request your e-Border data. I mentioned that I require this for naturlisation and specified the years I require them from. I also specified my passport numbers from these years (renewed my German passport but still got the old one).

I'd go for it - It did take a while though - Almost 40 days precisely ...

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 10:11 pm
by pains
HI .....

Anyone would help me on this i want make sure if UKBA have my records on their data base due I've got no stamps on my passport...

http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... l#p1261872

Any help would be greatly appreciated ...

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 10:28 pm
by pains
where is the moderators to help me on it?....

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 5:28 pm
by Obie
pains wrote:where is the moderators to help me on it?....
I think moderators have family and loved ones, and on some occasion bills to pay, and need to work to pay then, otherwise they will have no money to pay for Internet or electricity or mobile phone rental to reply to your messages.

Did it not occur to you, that this may be the reason why you never heard from them, apart from the fact that they are under no obligation to reply to you.

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 11:18 pm
by pains
Obie wrote:
pains wrote:where is the moderators to help me on it?....
I think moderators have family and loved ones, and on some occasion bills to pay, and need to work to pay then, otherwise they will have no money to pay for Internet or electricity or mobile phone rental to reply to your messages.

Did it not occur to you, that this may be the reason why you never heard from them, apart from the fact that they are under no obligation to reply to you.

Hi Obie...

Very very disappointed to be reading such stupid answer from some like you
that was so RUDE. The time u spend writing that bad stuff u should answer
the question instead or simply no even say a word ...
if u not happy to be here doing it give up simple... people come here cos they need it right...
everyone know you've family u got bills to pay same as all of us
Never Mind
Thank you any way.....

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 11:41 pm
by pains
Please any moderator can reply regarding on my question pls?

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 12:06 am
by LilyLalilu
@pains: Just make a Subject Access Request to see what information they hold on you :)

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 2:50 pm
by has1989
Gomjaba wrote:
sagareva wrote:first you cannot make a FOI request about your personal information, previous poster must have meant SAR

second, it will not contain data on an EU citizen's travel so why bother. E-borders did not even record travel that started and finished within EU.

thirdly, this should NOT matter much for right to PR arising under EEA regulations.

but it does matter for citizenship, because citizenship requires you to show how many days you have been absent in the preceding five years

i suggest looking at travel booking records. 2010 is not 19th century, most of us have been using the same email and booked travel using it
Sorry, not true .. I was in the same situation. I am German and I had a hard time to remember when I travelled back to see my parents. I asked the Home Office via email if it makes sense, here the answer
Dear Sir,

Please be advised that we do not hold all data electronically for entries/exits to/from the United Kingdom. Although you may have seen reference to the Home Office’s e-Borders system, you should be aware that this, so far, only covers a percentage of passenger movements in and out of the United Kingdom. A journey may therefore have been undertaken which is not covered by e-Borders.

All requests for e-Borders data must include the subject’s passport number.

Kind regards

Samantha Lodge
Subject Access Request Unit
Customer Service / Correspondence Team
Because I am European - I thought there aren't any records held .. Now guess what - I received 5 Pages of data !!

From what I can see - I have flown out of London City Airport and Stansted but none of the pages include flights from Heathrow (and those were the ones I wasn't sure about).

Good thing: I forgot I travelled to certain countries for work - so that is nice
Bad thing: I am still none the wiser about certain visits.

HOWEVER, I just guessed the dates based on conversations with my parents. Let's face it - if there aren't any records (officially anyway) about those trips, then how would they argue :p

But saying it will not contain data on an EU citizen's travel is just wrong ..

Importantly, when applying for the SAR - make sure you mention that you request your e-Border data. I mentioned that I require this for naturlisation and specified the years I require them from. I also specified my passport numbers from these years (renewed my German passport but still got the old one).

I'd go for it - It did take a while though - Almost 40 days precisely ...
Hi,

Can you please give me the email address you used to access all this information?

Thanks

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 9:42 pm
by ecogle1976
Hi,
don't worry too much about absences, fill as much you can , if its not exceed 6 months then you will be alright, Always remember, application is just an formality its not mandatory as per EU law. When submitted the application for MIL, we have skipped the benefits what we are getting, but they never asked anything about it in their reply, again its my experience, but Gurus here can give better advice.
All the best

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 12:10 am
by secret.simon
has1989 wrote:Hi,Can you please give me the email address you used to access all this information?Thanks
It isn't an email. There is a form to fill in, with a £10 fee.

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 6:57 pm
by alex78
Because all absences need to be included (even short holidays) in the application. It is worth to check what information the Home Office has on you.
I used the service of xxxxxx: name and weblink removed by moderator to support me and they have been able to provide me with my list of absences from the UK in the right format after liaising with the Home Office on my behalf. I did not have to worry about the residence requirement part of the application.
I highly recommend their service.

Re: Holiday absences on permanent residency application

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 7:05 pm
by CR001
alex78 wrote:Because all absences need to be included (even short holidays) in the application. It is worth to check what information the Home Office has on you.
I used the service of xxxxxx: name and weblink removed by moderator to support me and they have been able to provide me with my list of absences from the UK in the right format after liaising with the Home Office on my behalf. I did not have to worry about the residence requirement part of the application.
I highly recommend their service.
Kindly refrain from posting company names and weblinks of third party companies. This is not permitted on the forum.