British Citizenship for EEA

[Woj81]

Hi there,
I would be very grateful if someone here could give me accurate details when I can apply for British citizenship.

I am a Polish citizen.
I came to UK on 18 June 2008.
I started working on 01 August 2008.
I applied for Document certifying permanent residence on 16 October 2013.
I received PR document(blue card)with issue date 15 November 2013.

When can I apply for British citizenship?
Can I do it now after 5 years living in UK or like it says on Home office website ,,you need to hold PR for 1 years before you apply for BC?
I also read that for EEA nationals it is 6 years before they can apply for BC.
I am confused because according to Home office website I need to hold PR for 1 year before I apply for BC.

So it would be around 6.5 years.
Shouldn't I be ready to apply for BC exactly 6 years since I cam to UK which is 18 June 2014?
How home office count these days?
From the moment you came to UK or from the moment of issue date of GETTING PERMANENT RESIDENCE?

According to the law I did not even have to apply for PR.So how could I know when I can apply?How can I know when I officially acquire Permanent residence to I can start counting this 1 year before I apply for BC.

Regards

[jotter]

Hi there,
I would be very grateful if someone here could give me accurate details when I can apply for British citizenship.

I am a Polish citizen.
I came to UK on 18 June 2008.
I started working on 01 August 2008.
I applied for Document certifying permanent residence on 16 October 2013.
I received PR document(blue card)with issue date 15 November 2013.

When can I apply for British citizenship?
Can I do it now after 5 years living in UK or like it says on Home office website ,,you need to hold PR for 1 years before you apply for BC?
I also read that for EEA nationals it is 6 years before they can apply for BC.
I am confused because according to Home office website I need to hold PR for 1 year before I apply for BC.

So it would be around 6.5 years.
Shouldn't I be ready to apply for BC exactly 6 years since I cam to UK which is 18 June 2014?
How home office count these days?
From the moment you came to UK or from the moment of issue date of GETTING PERMANENT RESIDENCE?

According to the law I did not even have to apply for PR.So how could I know when I can apply?How can I know when I officially acquire Permanent residence to I can start counting this 1 year before I apply for BC.

Regards

Hi Woj81,

If you are applying on the basis of treaty rights then the earliest you could apply would be June 18, 2014. You would need to be able to provide treaty rights evidence from the day you arrived. For many this is a little tricky so it might be more straightforward to wait until August 1st, 2014 (6 years after you started work).

Any time up until 15 November 2014 you would need to re-submit all of your treaty rights evidence (same as what you submitted for the EEA3) although you don't need to submit any new evidence for after Nov 15 2013 apart from the PR vignette.

From November 15 2014 you won't need to submit any treaty rights evidence at all - just your PR vignette more than 12 months old.

If you are not in a rush, I'd suggest to wait until November 15 2014 since it's all much simpler then. If you really need to get it as quickly as possible, then see if you've got the evidence to apply on June 18th. Just make sure your application does not reach the HO earlier than this date.

[Woj81]

Thanx for quick reply.Just last clarification.

I read that when I came to UK I had a right up to 3 months to exercise treaty rights without any obligations like work.After that I had to either work or be self-sufficient.Up to 3 months no restrictions!

I got job on 1 August 2008 so it was in 1.5 month.Do I need to really provide any evidence before that?I thought that for the first 3 months I was fine.Anyway I got job before this 3 months lapsed.

So if I would apply for BC on 18 June 2014 do I need to show evidence of exercising the treaty rights for the full 5 years again?You mean up to 18 June 2013 and just attached my blue card so it covers 18 June 2013-18June 2014 even if issued on 15 November 2013?

Can't I just show that I started to work on 01 August 2008 with evidence like contract of employment,payslips and P60?

If I have PR now it means the last 5 years I had to exercise those treaty rights.It brings me to November 2008 and from that I can go back further to 18 June 2008?

Regards

[sokrates99]

You will need to submit your WRS as well. If you had registered within the first month of working then you count 6 years from the day you started working but if you had registered late then you count from the date of your WRS certificate. If you go down that road then you are applying as if you never had a PR card and you are providing evidence for the whole 6 years (that is what i did and i was succesful). I am pretty sure that the time before you found a job does not count.
I don't know how it works if you wait till one year after PR card was issued as i have never applied for one.

[Woj81]

I applied for WRS after 5 months because I did not know I need to do it.Employer signed a contract with me so I thought everything is OK.
After someone told me to apply so I did it.
They sent me this WRS card and certificate and they put on it the date when I started working on 01/08/2008 but issue date was January 2009.

So they accepted even if I sent after 1 month.Otherwise they should have refused if I applied to late.

Home office never mentioned I am too late or something.They just wrote I am working for authorized employer.

So can I apply for BC on 1 August 2014?

[sokrates99]

So can I apply for BC on 1 August 2014?

Im not an expert and only sharing my own experience but take a look at the thread below (especially the 3rd post) you can see what one of the gurus of this forum thinks. According to that you should wait till January 2015.
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=139719

[Jambo]

You got lucky your PR was approved even though you didn't apply for WRS in time.

If you want to play safe, wait until November. If you like to add some risk, apply anytime between June and November.

[Woj81]

Thanx,
It says on Home office website that after holding PR for 1 year I can apply for BC.Does it mean that I do not have to show any documents before my PR was issued?I got PR on 15 Nov 2013 so On 15 Nov 2014 I can just attach my PR card to the application right?And all my treaty rights before PR was issued are irrelevant because I already got my PR and it means I had to prove those rights already?
I wanted to apply exactly after 6 years In June 2014 but after your comments I am a bit worried.I can wait 5 more months actually so be safe.

Why lucky I did not apply for WRS on time?What difference does it make?WRS was a test for Home Office so they could trace how many new EEA citizens came and start to work.It was done for only this purpose.And I applied it so they did their job and have statistics correct.If I hadn't applied this would be different thing I guess.Otherwise why would they issue me authorization?

So I applied after 1 month it means my work is not valid?It does no make sense for me.So because I applied too late I should have quite that job and find a new one and apply in 1 month then?Someone could work hypothetically for 10 years after registration his job after 1 month and be refused?This is something wrong here.
What for this hassle of changing jobs?Home Office did not tell me I applied to late.I got documents from Home office that I am fine and registered.

[jotter]

Thanx,
It says on Home office website that after holding PR for 1 year I can apply for BC.Does it mean that I do not have to show any documents before my PR was issued?I got PR on 15 Nov 2013 so On 15 Nov 2014 I can just attach my PR card to the application right?And all my treaty rights before PR was issued are irrelevant because I already got my PR and it means I had to prove those rights already?
I wanted to apply exactly after 6 years In June 2014 but after your comments I am a bit worried.I can wait 5 more months actually so be safe.

I'll leave your WRS questions for an expert on that topic, but with regards to the PR, yes once your PR card is more than 12 months old you just need to include this and no other treaty rights evidence is needed. No other documents and you also don't need to fill in the section on the form related to treaty rights. If, however, you apply when your PR card is less than 12 months old, then the PR card would not be sufficient evidence to prove that you've met the standard requirements and you would need to resubmit all of your treaty rights evidence that you provided for your EEA3. The HO would be rechecking all of this and looking out for any irregularities that could have been missed by the caseworker who validated your PR. This is why we are counselling you to wait until November 15th 2014 unless you have a particular need to get it sooner.

[Jambo]

Why lucky I did not apply for WRS on time?What difference does it make?WRS was a test for Home Office so they could trace how many new EEA citizens came and start to work.It was done for only this purpose.And I applied it so they did their job and have statistics correct.If I hadn't applied this would be different thing I guess.Otherwise why would they issue me authorization?

The reasoning behind WRS is irrelevant. Those were the rules at the time and you didn't follow them

So I applied after 1 month it means my work is not valid?It does no make sense for me.So because I applied too late I should have quite that job and find a new one and apply in 1 month then?Someone could work hypothetically for 10 years after registration his job after 1 month and be refused?This is something wrong here.
What for this hassle of changing jobs?Home Office did not tell me I applied to late.I got documents from Home office that I am fine and registered.

If you applied late, it just means that you can't count time before registration to obtain PR. You didn't have to quit your job. The HO set the rules. You can have your own opinion but as long as it is them setting the rules, you will need to follow. I for example think that paying taxes doesn't make sense. It doesn't give me permission not to pay them.