US married to EU living in UK - need advice

[CALIBAN71]

I am a US citizen living in the UK under a work permit scheme. I am in my third year of a 5 year permit, and am still working with the company that attained my permit.

I was married in 2010; my wife is a French citizen. We have two daughters together and are all living here in the UK.

I want to establish my right to reside in the UK, and/or establish my right to live/work in France/EEA. The main reason is that I am in the process of starting my own company, and my current work permit does not allow me to work for any company other than the one that got me the permit.

At the moment I intend to continue working for my current employer while I build up my own company. But I also have a significant amount of consulting work lined up (both here and back in the States) that does not fit into my current company’s business model. I also want the opportunity to shop my skill set around to other companies that might have more attractive remuneration options.

I know that marriage to an EEA citizen opens up some options for me, but I’m not sure what the best path is for me to take: do I wait out the 5 years on my current work permit and then just apply for indefinite leave to remain? Not my favourite option as I would like to move forward with my other business. Do I apply for a residence permit based on my marriage? If so, does my wife need to formalize her residence in the UK? Currently we have not registered her formally, as the UKBA site says this is not a requirement for her.

Any advice, including reference to third parties that might be able to provide assistance, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

NEWINFO: I spoke to the Home Office and they suggested that I apply using the EEA2 form. However it seemed like there may be a down side to this - they seemed almost hesitant to recommend it. Any ideas why this might be? Is it just that my 5 year timeframe resets itself?

[fysicus]

Actually you have already acquired the rights as a family member of an EU citizen automatically by virtue of your marriage. This means there are no longer any restrictions on your activities in the UK.
The Residence Card which you would receive after a successful EEA2 application is merely a confirmation of your status as such. If I were you, I would definitely apply.

If you wish, you can get a registration certificate for your wife as well; just add a form EEA1 and submit it together with your EEA2 form. Not really necessary in the UK, but it may be handy if you later would move to another EU country.

However, is your wife currently employed or exercising treaty rights by other means? That is an important question to answer.

[CALIBAN71]

My wife is a stay-at-home mother caring for our kids, but she is part-time employed, working from home doing some data entry for my employer. However she'll likely stop even that over the next year and just care for the kids and practice her anglais. But short answer is she's currently working, has an NI Number, as do I. How is it relevant? Good or bad?[/i]

[fysicus]

It looks fine for me. It's only the current situation that counts, not your plans for the future (as you can always change your mind later).

If I were you, I would now apply for both a registration certificate (form EEA1) for your wife and a residence card (form EEA2) for yourself. If your kids have French nationality, add them on the EEA1 form as well.
Ask your employer to provide a formal statement that your wife is working for them and for how long already (just that; don't mention about part-time working at home and don't send in any payslips).

Also make sure that your wife will be employed (or self-employed) until at least five years after your marriage. That can save you a lot of trouble when you then will apply for Permanent Residence.

[mcovet]

My immediate Q is: do you eventually want a European passport? If this is so, you should stick with your work permit as you are only 2 years away from obtaining ILR (mind you, the rules may change). This does not stop you from also taking the advantage of the EU route and apply for a residence card as a family member of an EEA citizen. I do not know if this could cancel out your other status under the immigration rules, but this would allow you to have freedom to accept employment elsewhere if a better opportunity should arise.


So, once you switch jobs and stop meeting the work permit criteria you won't be able to rely on that route, but until then, keep your options open as you have already done 2 years of 5 on your way to permanent residence. The EU route is automatic, so if you lived in The uk with your wife (her exercising treaty rights) fir 5 years, you'd get PR, nothing To do with your work permit (which by then would have been either turned into ILR or just abandoned).

I am just concerned about the fact that if u did remain with your employer for the remaining 3 years, wheb u send your passport containing both the work permit and the eea Residence Card to the HO for ILR (or its equivalent under new law) what the reaction Of the caseworker could be wheb he sees both?

Could a person residing under eu law be still subject to immigration rules under the internal route?

I am a US citizen living in the UK under a work permit scheme. I am in my third year of a 5 year permit, and am still working with the company that attained my permit.

I was married in 2010; my wife is a French citizen. We have two daughters together and are all living here in the UK.

I want to establish my right to reside in the UK, and/or establish my right to live/work in France/EEA. The main reason is that I am in the process of starting my own company, and my current work permit does not allow me to work for any company other than the one that got me the permit.

At the moment I intend to continue working for my current employer while I build up my own company. But I also have a significant amount of consulting work lined up (both here and back in the States) that does not fit into my current company’s business model. I also want the opportunity to shop my skill set around to other companies that might have more attractive remuneration options.

I know that marriage to an EEA citizen opens up some options for me, but I’m not sure what the best path is for me to take: do I wait out the 5 years on my current work permit and then just apply for indefinite leave to remain? Not my favourite option as I would like to move forward with my other business. Do I apply for a residence permit based on my marriage? If so, does my wife need to formalize her residence in the UK? Currently we have not registered her formally, as the UKBA site says this is not a requirement for her.

Any advice, including reference to third parties that might be able to provide assistance, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

NEWINFO: I spoke to the Home Office and they suggested that I apply using the EEA2 form. However it seemed like there may be a down side to this - they seemed almost hesitant to recommend it. Any ideas why this might be? Is it just that my 5 year timeframe resets itself?

[CALIBAN71]

"Also make sure that your wife will be employed (or self-employed) until at least five years after your marriage. That can save you a lot of trouble when you then will apply for Permanent Residence."


My wife may not be employed for too long, actually. However I do earn sufficiently to care for the family. Can you tell me what sort of trouble I would avoid? Or rather, what trouble it can get me/us in if she does not continue her employment? I think we'd both rather have her quit her job to focus on the kids going forward.

"My immediate Q is: do you eventually want a European passport?"

This isn't crucial to me, really, but I suppose I would eventually want one, yes - might make life easier (ha!).

I do not know if this could cancel out your other status under the immigration rules, but this would allow you to have freedom to accept employment elsewhere if a better opportunity should arise.

I am just concerned about the fact that if u did remain with your employer for the remaining 3 years, wheb u send your passport containing both the work permit and the eea Residence Card to the HO for ILR (or its equivalent under new law) what the reaction Of the caseworker could be wheb he sees both?

Could a person residing under eu law be still subject to immigration rules under the internal route?

This is something I'm concerned about as well. I'm not trying to 'get one over' on anyone here, just trying to use the most practical route. Given the fact that I'd like to start this business, I think I have to go the EEA route with my wife. Do I then contact the HO and let them know to cancel my work permit? Or do I stick with the work permit and the EEA residence permit active and wait it out - see what happens?

I don't want to get 'flagged' in 2 years time as trying to take advantage of anything.

Maybe this is the question: If I get EEA permission to remain, is ILR even relevant for me at that point? I already have residence permission, what's the difference between that and ILR?[/i]

[mastermind]

Can you tell me what sort of trouble I would avoid? Or rather, what trouble it can get me/us in if she does not continue her employment?

If I'm not mistaken there shouldn't be any trouble as being a "worker" is not necessary for an EU citizen to be considered as "exercising treaty rights". Your wife can exercise her rights by being "self-sufficient" (meaning financially supported by you in your case).

Check out the European Commission's guide on the matter: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/ci ... _ec_en.pdf

[fysicus]

Can you tell me what sort of trouble I would avoid? Or rather, what trouble it can get me/us in if she does not continue her employment?

If I'm not mistaken there shouldn't be any trouble as being a "worker" is not necessary for an EU citizen to be considered as "exercising treaty rights". Your wife can exercise her rights by being "self-sufficient" (meaning financially supported by you in your case).

It is true that being self-sufficient is a valid way of exercising treaty rights, as mastermind points out. The trouble I had in mind, is that in this case UKBA requires that you have private health insurance (based on an in my opinion wrong interpretation of the EU directive) and they might reject applications for PR if at any point during the five year qualification period you didn't have it. They do not require this insurance when you are a worker or self-employed. Hence my advice to CALIBAN71 to keep his wife in employment (it can be extremely part-time, may be only two hours per week or so)

[fysicus]

Given the fact that I'd like to start this business, I think I have to go the EEA route with my wife. Do I then contact the HO and let them know to cancel my work permit? Or do I stick with the work permit and the EEA residence permit active and wait it out - see what happens?

I would not worry about this at all. You have already acquired the rights under the EU directive, as this happens automatically by virtue of your marriage. There is nothing wrong with asking for confirmation of these rights by applying for a Residence Card (the EEA2 form).

I don't see any need to ask for the existing work permit to be cancelled.

If you really want to avoid all possibilities of eyebrows being raised, you can have the Residence Card issued as a standalone Immigration Status Document; this will happen if you request your passport back after you have received the Certificate of Application.