British Citizenship application for South African

[southafricahere]

Hello,
I'm a South African citizen living in UK for the past 13 years, and I've never been away from UK for more than 3 weeks since.

I came to UK with a student/working Visa which subsequently got extended for other 5 years and then I got married to my Italian husband and since then I had a "Residence Card of a Family member of a union citizen".
This will expire in 2021 and since I've settled and I call this country home (bought a house and had 2 kids), I guess the natural thing to do would be to apply for citizenship.

I was trying to document myself on what is the process to get there, and so far the only thing I know for sure is:
- pass the Life in the UK test
- provide documentation that certifies I can speak/write/understand english

The gov.uk website says:

You’ll also need to have one of the following:
- indefinite leave to remain
- settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
- a permanent residence document to confirm you have permanent residence status

Now, I don't understand if I do have a permanent residence document. I have that Residence Card but it expires in 2021, but I don't understand if it's permanent or not (as in, it's permanent but needs to be renewed every so often (2021 in my case) just to review the circumstances of the applicant).

Would the residence card I have qualify for any of the 3 criteria listed above? If not, what would I need to do as next step? Apply for ILR? Anything else? I'm super confused and would really appreciate directions

Thanks a lot in advance.

[CR001]

Your residence card would clearly state it is a Document Certifying Permanent Residence.

You only get PR after 5 years on the eea route, counted from date of marriage to your eu spouse if you got married in the uk.

You either need to apply for ILR under the UK immigration rules based on 10 years long residence if you meet all the requirements or wait 5 years on the eea route and apply for settled status or PR

[southafricahere]

Thanks a lot for the reply, really appreciated.

The Residence Card has the following footer:
Residence Card of a Family member of a union citizen
Type of permit: Family member - EU Residence
Remarks: Work permitted
and on the back, Remarks: EU Right to Reside

So I suppose the document does not certify Permanent Residency status, am I correct?

We got married in the UK in 2010, so it's well over 5 years. Would be the easiest option to apply for Settled Status or Permanent Residency?

Thanks again for the your kind attention.

[CR001]

Apply for settled status or PR.

Settled status you would have to wait a further 12 months. Settled status cannot be backdated.

Pr can be backdated provided your spouse was a qualifying person exercising treaty rights for the period claimed and can start from date of marriage.

[southafricahere]

Thanks again for the prompt reply, really appreciated.
Sounds like the PR is the way to go since we meet the requirements you mentioned.

Looking at the application on the gov website I'm confused about the way to apply. It says that if the UEE person apply then the application can be done online, and the family can be added in the application.
Otherwise there is a 85 pages application that needs to be posted (which is similar to what I did to get the 5 years residence card I currently hold).

Am I right thinking that the two ways are pretty much the same in terms of what I will get in the end? I guess the difference is that we will have to pay 2x fees (£130) if we apply via my husband and he will get a PR as well.

Am I seeing this correctly?

Thanks in advance

[southafricahere]

Sorry, bumping this question up. Any idea if the two options are equivalent or should I definitely go for a specific one with obvious benefits?

Thanks again