Application to Settled Status when the qualifying years are very long ago

[AlmostBritsh]

Dear forum members,

May I ask for your opinion on my case?

I have applied for Settled Status under the EU Settlement Scheme. My qualifying years of uninterrupted residence in the UK are from 1996 to 2001. I supplied evidence of this continued residence by means of including my HMRC records during that period, showing that I was working in the UK.

Following my application I received a request for more information, namely:

QUOTE

Additional evidence of residence in the UK and Islands to cover the following period:

July 2017 to March 2020
OR any other qualifying period you wish to rely on
This is because our automated checks did not confirm the continuous qualifying period of residence in the UK and Islands that you are relying on.

UNQUOTE

I rang the helpline and the agent who took my call told me that "the period of continuous residence that I was relying on was invalid because it was too long ago". She told me that if it had been 10 or maybe 12 years ago it would be accepted but this was too long ago.

I should mention that I was never absent from the UK for longer than a few months ever since my period of uninterrupted residence came to an end. I also supplied evidence of this in my application.

I asked the agent where in the regulations was there any mention of this rather "fuzzy" time limit she was talking about. She sent me a link to the guidance document that Home Office staff use to base their decisions on. I've studied that document and I can't find any mention of any limitation as to how long ago an EU citizen gained their right to permanent residence under the freedom of movement rules.

Can someone confirm that there's no limit? Any suggestion on how I should proceed?

Many thanks in advance for any help.

[CR001]

Where were you living between 2001 and 2021/22 then?

[AlmostBritsh]

In Germany. Does that matter?

[CR001]

If you have been absent from the uk since 2001, PR is lost. PR is lost when you are absent for 2 or more years.

[AlmostBritsh]

Thanks for your answers cr001. I think you missed this bit:

"I should mention that I was never absent from the UK for longer than a few months ever since my period of uninterrupted residence came to an end. I also supplied evidence of this in my application."

[alterhase58]

How were you resident in the UK if you lived in Germany?
Were you resident in the UK at 23:00 on 31 December 2020, the cut-off date?
The deadline for applications by EU citizens resident in the UK was 31 June 2021, with late applications needing justification.
Settled Status is under UK immigration regulations not EU Treaty Rights. Others with more insight on EUSS will comment further.

[AlmostBritsh]

Thank you everyone for your answers.

May I kindly ask that we stay on the topic (validity of qualifying residence when this happened 20 years ago)?

This is not a case of a late application, having left the UK for too long or not being present in the UK before the 31 December 2020.

[secret.simon]

It is an interesting question and one that depends on whether we are looking at the rules for PR under the EEA Regulations or those purely for Settled Status and if the latter, whether the latter implicitly incorporate the former.

A bit of historical background.

PR, and its automatic acquisition, did not exist before 2006 in the UK. It was only incorporated under the 2006 EEA Regulations into UK law.

Before 2nd October 2000, EEA citizens could get ILR status on demand by asking for it to be stamped into their passport. But few did, as they already had most rights to work and live in the UK.

Between 2000 and 2006, it was not possible for EEA citizens to acquire any status, either by request or automatically, in the UK at all.

From 1st May 2006 onwards, EEA citizens who had exercised treaty rights in the UK for five continuous years (including any years before 2006) would have acquired PR if they were resident in the UK.

The information above is from the Treaty Rights passport application guidance, which summarises which parents would have been considered "settled" for the purposes of British citizenship law.

My qualifying years of uninterrupted residence in the UK are from 1996 to 2001.

If these are their sole periods of uninterrupted residence in the UK, the OP may not have acquired PR under the EEA Regulations.

Regulation 15(1)(a) gives PR to "an EEA national who has resided in the United Kingdom in accordance with these Regulations for a continuous period of five years". The part of the Regulation that states "in accordance with these Regulations" suggests that at least a part of the residence would need to have been under the Regulations, which only commenced on 30th April 2006.

Can the OP prove that he had exercised treaty rights for another set of five years slightly later on, such as 2001-2006?

@Obie is quite learned on such matters. Could they opine on (a) whether the OP would have acquired PR under the EEA regulations and (b) the extent to which the EEA Regulations are incorporated into Appendix EU?

[vinny]

See also EU citizens' children's citizenship born prior to 2 Oct 2000

Capparrelli

Lassal.