Self employment, NI and small earnings for EEA4

[Fennicus]

Firstly I must say am so happy about this forum and all the help and answers I have been able to find so far. Thank you all for your support!

We are applying for EEA4 as I am EU citizen(finnish) and my hubby is non EU here on a EU family permit since May 2007. We got married in Apr 2007. His permit expires Oct 2012.

My background is the following:
I was in full time employment for nearly 8 years (in UK) but was made redundant Sep 2009.
From Oct 2009-present, I have been doing temp jobs (different jobs lasting from few days to 7 months at a time) and being self employed.
Because of low takings from self employed business I applied for small earnings certificate(and got it) and so havent paid any NI for tax year 10-11 and 11-12.
I have however paid NI via being an employee during my temp jobs (which I have P60s).
I am little confused how to present my case to the HO..

Question is : Should I tell them about the small earnings certificate? And more importantly how do I present my situation to them without confusing them about my status/rights to be here?

I have proof for being self employed (invoices, bank statements, qualifications, website hosting invoices, marketing costs&material, member of professional assocation, liability insurance)

My non EU husband is also self employed but has been in full time employment(working for a company) since June 2007 and has accountant records for all his work.
I used an accountant for year 10-11 but am trying to file my own tax return for 11-12.
My concern is that they see I have not been in a full time job since the redundancy and will refuse the application because of the small amounts I am earning.
My self employed takings vary between 300-700 per month.

I would appreciate any advice/tips on how to present this case?

[Jambo]

Under EEA regulations, after 5 years of exercising treaty rights you obtain automatically Permanent Residence status. Once PR is obtained, there is no need to exercise treaty rights for residence. You only lose PR status if you leave the UK for more than 2 years.

If you want to make the application simpler(?), send 5 years of P60 from 2004-2009 (for the period you have been in employment). This would prove that you had PR status in 2009. You will also need to send proof of residence during that period and proof that you didn't leave the UK for more than 2 years since 2009 (a single evidence from each year is more than enough).

Your husband employment is not relevant for EEA4 application. What he needs to show is residence in the UK during the last 5 years.

If you do send evidence from 2004-2009, please make it clear in a cover letter so the Case Worker would understand that you are proving that PR has been obtained already in 2009 (if not earlier).

[Fennicus]

Thanks so much Jambo, it makes sense to do that instead. And that way the application should be a whole lot simpler