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Hi, so I've been told I need to apply for a residence card before I apply for citizenship. I have resided in the UK for 20 years. Am I required to provide evidence since 1994 or is it for the past 5 years. I'm pretty sure it will be terribly difficult to track all my employment and ensure they get me relevant evidence.

Also, is it compulsory to show accurate dates because I don't have exact dates for when benefits starting and stopped as it was always for short periods.

Thanks in advance for your help!

The past 5 years.

aiatalama wrote:Hi, so I've been told I need to apply for a residence card before I apply for citizenship. I have resided in the UK for 20 years. Am I required to provide evidence since 1994 or is it for the past 5 years. I'm pretty sure it will be terribly difficult to track all my employment and ensure they get me relevant evidence.

Also, is it compulsory to show accurate dates because I don't have exact dates for when benefits starting and stopped as it was always for short periods.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Suggest choose the 'best' 5-year period for which you have the best supporting evidence of exercising treaty rights, continuously, as a qualified person.

In fact if you choose a period that started 6 or more years ago you won't have to hold your PR card a further 12 months before shooting for privilege of citizenship.

You can request a SAR from HMRC to help you recall employment dates.

And to best of my understanding, benefits information is not a legal requirement for confirmation of PR; HO just sneak those questions in on the form.

OK so let me see if I understand. Over the time I've been in England, I pick 5 years and provide evidence of my residency through employment payslips, etc. So it's 2 pieces of proof per year correct? The application form makes it seem like it's since you've entered the UK. Does anyone know a free service where they will go over it. I fear submitting and then they say it's incomplete and decline.

aiatalama wrote:OK so let me see if I understand. Over the time I've been in England, I pick 5 years and provide evidence of my residency through employment payslips, etc. So it's 2 pieces of proof per year correct? The application form makes it seem like it's since you've entered the UK. Does anyone know a free service where they will go over it. I fear submitting and then they say it's incomplete and decline.

If applying in your own right its more than just residency it's adequate proof of that plus proof of exercising treaty rights continuously for the 5 years (also proof of ID & etc).
All as per the PR guidance document (Gov UK website).

If it's not the last 5 years then make sure you make it clear in the application which is the relevant 5 years period you are basing your application on.
You can point it out using the 'additional/further info' section of the form.

This forum is the best free service I'm aware of.

noajthan wrote:This forum is the best free service I'm aware of.

Better than some paid services in fact

That's a fact.

Thank you everyone for your responses!!!

I called the Home Office and they told me that I can apply for the last 5 years however for number 9 on the form I have to provide activity for the last 20 years. So obviously as I was a minor, I can only provide student letters, this should be sufficient right?

Regardless of what the form says, you don't need to give information of anything before your chosen qualifying period as it is not relevant.

Well if that's correct, that would be fantastic as I'd have to pay for every form of evidence prior to 2010. Have you applied for this yourself?

Yes on 10th December. It would have been insane for me to list all of my absences since I arrived in the UK as I probably went abroad 10 times before I was 12 years old and there's no way I can remember the date of a 2 week holiday in 1993 for example

Oh perfect, so on number 9 did you state you came in 91 and then leave out the evidence? Or did you decide a starting point to provide evidence because I am thinking of providing from 11, secondary school age. There are gaps that I'm not sure what I was doing.

Yes, pretty much. I put down my date of arrival as 01/04/1991. I'm not sure if that was the exact date but it's impossible for me to find out the actual date now, after all it was 25 years ago. I did a lot of investigation and made the informed decision that it was somewhere around that point. I actually included a short covering letter explaining this, but I doubt they really care whether the date is dead accurate or not.

The qualifying period I used was between 2009 and 2014, during which I was continuously in full time work. At the time I did not know as much as I do now, and I did put in details of my education etc, but did not provide any evidence of it so it was basically immaterial.

If you read the caseworker guidance you will notice that much of the information that the form asks for is not legally required to obtain a DCPR under EEA regulations.

If your chosen qualifying period is solely a period of you in full time employment, you don't need to fill in anything about your education etc. The only relevance of the absences section is so UKVI can determine whether or not you have lost PR status due to being outside the UK for too long during or after your qualifying period. I listed my absences from 2009 onwards only.

Hi Ohara, Ive finally finished the application and have chosen the last 5 years I have 2 short periods that I was on benefits. Do I have to state that or can I just put my part time work and education? Thanks