EEA4: Jobseeker or self-sufficient?

[jotter]

Hi all! Grateful already for the information out there on this site.

I am looking forward towards an EEA4 application. It's still a couple of years away, but I want to make sure we've covered ourselves.

My wife (the EU citizen) has been employed from Feb 2006 to late March 2007 and then June 2007 through to now, but there was a period of just over 2 months in between where she finished one job and was looking for another. During this time she didn't register with Jobseeker Plus as she found it more productive to go through private sector agencies.

Now we have noticed that it seems that to be classed as a Jobseeker (i.e. to continue to be classed as a 'worker' while looking for work) it seems that registration with the government jobseeking agency is required. Could anyone confirm this? My wife works temp roles so is likely to be in and out of work in the future as well. Do we need to show in every case that for the entire period 'between jobs' she was registered with the government jobseeking agency?

If we can't use this status, then we probably have to go with 'economically self-sufficient', but again we only had NHS cover at the time, so would be exposed to that same issue that has had a fair amount of coverage recently in this forum. I'm hoping like hell that someone is going to have some luck with the HO getting an EEA4 case through using NHS cover.

Thanks heaps in advance for any feedback.

[thsths]

Now we have noticed that it seems that to be classed as a Jobseeker (i.e. to continue to be classed as a 'worker' while looking for work) it seems that registration with the government jobseeking agency is required. Could anyone confirm this?

I have no idea how the UKBA handles these cases, but the law does not require a certain way to seek jobs. And she did find a job, so I think it is perfectly fine to argue she was seeking a new job (successfully).

[jotter]

Thanks for that. My concern was based on this line in DIRECTIVE 2004/38/EC:

3. For the purposes of paragraph 1(a), a Union citizen who is no longer a worker or self-employed
person shall retain the status of worker or self-employed person in the following circumstances:

(b) he/she is in duly recorded involuntary unemployment after having been employed for more
than one year and has registered as a job-seeker with the relevant employment office;

I have a bad feeling that the HO is going to read that has having to be registered with JobCentre Plus.

[thsths]

I have a bad feeling that the HO is going to read that has having to be registered with JobCentre Plus.

True, but does that also apply for short periods of unemployment?

In any case the option "self sufficient" is also possible. NHS coverage is sufficient for that according to case law.

[vinny]

See also AG and others (EEA-jobseeker-self-sufficient person-proof) Germany [2007] UKAIT 00075.

[jotter]

Thanks Vinny!

Actually this ruling raises a point that really concerns me. If we try to claim that my wife was 'economically self-sufficient' at the time, they could argue that she wasn't because she was relying on my income during the period that she wasn't working, and this ruling seems to say that self-sufficiency cannot be derived from the non-EEA citizen.

I doubt if she could claim treaty right as a jobseeker, because she wasn't registered with JobCentre Plus at the time, nor did she retain copies of the applications she made and any rejection letters. The one thing in our favour was that she did in fact find a job after 2 months. Is that enough on its own? I'm not sure.

Any thoughts anyone?