Immigrationboards.com

Me: Italian/British citizen
My wife: US citizen

July 2005: my wife applies for EEA Family Permit and moves with me to the UK
August 2005: she applies for a "Residence Card"
November 2005: she receives a 5-year Residence Card valid until November 2010.

When is the earliest she can apply for permanent residence by submitting form EEA4?

Your wife will automatically get PR status on the 5th anniversary of her starting to live with you in the UK ... sometime in July 2010.

So she does not need to apply on form EEA4. However it is a good idea to do so, because otherwise how will she prove that she has PR status? But the sticker issued from the EEA4 application is only confirmatory ..... it does not actually gives any more rights .... it merely confirms that she does have those rights.

When to apply? If I were you I would apply soon, but appreciate that the PR sticker will certainly not be issued before the 5th anniversary of her coming to the UK. Indeed it could take longer than that.

Your wife intends to apply for Naturalisation as British? If so she can do that once the 5 years are up ... and she has passed the Life in the UK Citizenship test.

Or is she already an Italian citizen? And thus not bothered to become British as well?

Thanks for your reply - we want to submit the EEA4 form otherwise she may have trouble getting back into the country without having a stamp in her passport. Can we already apply now, if I understand it correctly, or do we have to wait until July when she has been here for five years?

She doesn't want to apply for naturalisation as yet, but it's something she may do later on.

I would say ... apply soon ... no need to wait until July.