Does it make sense to apply EU settlement scheme while waiting for RC?

[osa12345]

Hi,

I am a Turkish national married to an Norwegian citizen. We moved to the UK
under EEA family permit and my wife started working here in the UK. We made
an EEA QP application and submitted all required documents to prove our
residence in the UK (tenancy agreement, bills, NHS letters, council tax)
our marriage (marriage certificate) and my wife's employment (employer
declaration, signed employment contract)

However, we did not submit any payslip as my wife did not receive her first
salary by the time we applied for EEA QP. Would it be a problem and would
the Home office reject our application just because we could not submit a
payslip?

Can someone help me with my question

Best

[osa12345]

Hi everyone,

I am a non-EEA citizen married to an EEA citizen. We moved to the UK 2 weeks ago and my wife started working in the UK a week ago. We applied for a residence card using EEA QP application. We submitted all required documents except the payslip(s) as my wife did not receive her first payslip yet...

We enrolled our application on March 6th 2020

We are worried that Home office could reject our application as we did not submit any payslip. On the other hand, we submitted employer's declaration and employment contract to prove that my wife is exercising her treaty rights in the UK

We are thinking to apply to EU settlement scheme as well just to make sure that I will have right to live and work in the UK before my EEA family permit expires and it expires June 30 2020

Any advice or help would be much appreciated

Thanks

[kamoe]

We are worried that Home office could reject our application as we did not submit any payslip. On the other hand, we submitted employer's declaration and employment contract to prove that my wife is exercising her treaty rights in the UK

As indicated in the suporting documents checklist (page 96), to proove her employment, you need to submit:

Proof of employment (sections 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 17) – e.g. employer’s declaration (section
12B) or letter, plus wage slips or bank statements showing receipt of wages

So including an employers' declaration is OK, but it is not sufficient. You also need either a pasylip or banks statements showing the receipt of salary.

Not sure what to say here. To cover all your bases, you should have read the guideline first and have applied when she had actually received her first salary. It can go either way for you, I think, depending on how flexible the caseworker is.

We are thinking to apply to EU settlement scheme as well just to make sure that I will have right to live and work in the UK before my EEA family permit expires and it expires June 30 2020

If you apply now for the Settlement Scheme before receiving your EEA BRC then you'll need to enroll and pay for biometrics again (to be fair, if your current EEA RC application gets refused, you'll also need to do it again).

But if your application is successful and you wait for your EEA Residence Card to come through first, you will be able to later apply using the smartphone app and won't need to enroll biometrics again. When the time comes (whenever your EA RC expires, likely in 2021) you will need to apply to convert your EEA card ot a EUSS card, and enroll bioemtric again, but the cost of biometrics will be free.

[osa12345]

We are worried that Home office could reject our application as we did not submit any payslip. On the other hand, we submitted employer's declaration and employment contract to prove that my wife is exercising her treaty rights in the UK

As indicated in the suporting documents checklist (page 96), to proove her employment, you need to submit:

Proof of employment (sections 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 17) – e.g. employer’s declaration (section
12B) or letter, plus wage slips or bank statements showing receipt of wages

So including an employers' declaration is OK, but it is not sufficient. You also need either a pasylip or banks statements showing the receipt of salary.

Not sure what to say here. To cover all your bases, you should have read the guideline first and have applied when she had actually received her first salary. It can go either way for you, I think, depending on how flexible the caseworker is.

We are thinking to apply to EU settlement scheme as well just to make sure that I will have right to live and work in the UK before my EEA family permit expires and it expires June 30 2020

If you apply now for the Settlement Scheme before receiving your EEA BRC then you'll need to enroll and pay for biometrics again (to be fair, if your current EEA RC application gets refused, you'll also need to do it again).

But if your application is successful and you wait for your EEA Residence Card to come through first, you will be able to later apply using the smartphone app and won't need to enroll biometrics again. When the time comes (whenever your EA RC expires, likely in 2021) you will need to apply to convert your EEA card ot a EU Settlement Scheme card, and enroll bioemtric again, but the cost of biometrics will be free.

Thank you for your information! I was guided by an immigration advisor and he did not tell me that we needed to provide payslips as well. When I read online, I realized that it is needed... To be on the safe side, do you think that I need to apply for EU settlement scheme once my wife has her first payslip?

[kamoe]

I was guided by an immigration advisor and he did not tell me that we needed to provide payslips as well.

I am not an immigration advisor myself, so I can only speak from my own experience. From a personal point of view, I have always stuck to the policy of really supplying all documents requested on checklists. But it might be, just might, that for this particular case an employer declaration is enough and your immigration advisor might know this from experience, so I would not panic just yet.

To be on the safe side, do you think that I need to apply for EU settlement scheme once my wife has her first payslip?

OK, you are mixing up two separate issues here, and I believe is important it's clear:

1) You both have to apply to the Settlement Scheme before December 2020, come what may. It is not a question of if but of when.
2) If your EEA Residence Card is not successful on account of missing documentaiton, you have two options:

• Apply again for a EEA RC, making sure you send a payslip

• Do not bother applying again, and instead apply to the EUSS direclty. You do not need to have a valid EEA RC to apply, but it makes the application easier since you can apply using the phone app. But that is not necessary, you can just skip the EEA RC. Also, for the EUSS, provided your wife has a National Insurance record (if her employer has paid contributions) this will be detected automatically, so no need to send payslips or employer declaration, or anything of the like

[osa12345]

I was guided by an immigration advisor and he did not tell me that we needed to provide payslips as well.

I am not an immigration advisor myself, so I can only speak from my own experience. From a personal point of view, I have always stuck to the policy of really supplying all documents requested on checklists. But it might be, just might, that for this particular case an employer declaration is enough and your immigration advisor might know this from experience, so I would not panic just yet.

To be on the safe side, do you think that I need to apply for EU settlement scheme once my wife has her first payslip?

OK, you are mixing up two separate issues here, and I believe is important it's clear:

1) You both have to apply to the Settlement Scheme before December 2020, come what may. It is not a question of if but of when.
2) If your EEA Residence Card is not successful on account of missing documentaiton, you have two options:

• Apply again for a EEA RC, making sure you send a payslip

• Do not bother applying again, and instead apply to the EU Settlement Scheme direclty. You do not need to have a valid EEA RC to apply, but it makes the application easier since you can apply using the phone app. But that is not necessary, you can just skip the EEA RC. Also, for the EU Settlement Scheme, provided your wife has a National Insurance record (if her employer has paid contributions) this will be detected automatically, so no need to send payslips or employer declaration, or anything of the like

Thank you understood! one last question: my eea family permit expires on June 30 2020. What if EEA RC does not come through lets say before June and it gets rejected. I then may not have sufficient time to apply to the EU settlement scheme.. Will be deported automatically? I have a 9 month old baby and my wife really needs me thats why I am panicking a bit and asking these questions

[Richard W]

Thank you understood! one last question: my eea family permit expires on June 30 2020. What if EEA RC does not come through lets say before June and it gets rejected. I then may not have sufficient time to apply to the EU settlement scheme.. Will be deported automatically? I have a 9 month old baby and my wife really needs me thats why I am panicking a bit and asking these questions

No. As the spouse of a Norwegian worker, you do not need a residence card or leave to remain in the UK until 1st January 2021, and I think in practice not until 1st July 2021.

[hrak1978]

@Richard W is absolutely correct.

And your question makes sense 100%

I'll give you my example my last Upper tribunal appeal was refused on 5th July 2019 but on 5th June 2019 i applied for EU settlement scheme for settled status application and on 12th July 2019 I got my settled status so it does make sense while your RC is pending apply for pre settle status straight away.