When to apply for PR (EU national spouse)

[pinco09]

Hi everyone,

Here is the situation:

1 holder of non EU passport; 1 holder of EU passport
-married in oct 2008
-non EU passport holder (previously on temporary extended visa, as asylum seeker) got 5 EU spouse visa in 2009, visa is expiring end of 2014

The question is, in order to apply for a PR I understand there is a need to proof 5 years of marriage - which is fine but can we apply oct 2013 which will be 5 years we are married or do we need to wait that the EU spouse visa expires (2014)?


thanks in advance!
pinko

[Jambo]

Under EEA regulations your status is obtained automatically. The residence documents from the HO are just confirmation of those rights.

PR is obtained after 5 years of residence in the UK as a family member of EEA national exercising treaty rights. It's not 5 years of marriage. Of course, if you got married in the UK (or moved to the UK shortly after the marriage), the 5 years of residence as a family member would actually be the 5 years of marriage. You don't need to wait for the RC to expire.

[pinco09]

thanks for the quick reply! The thing is that I read somewhere that it has to be 5 years of lawfully residing in uk. So just to confirm - the fact that one was an asylum seeker when contracted marriage (2008) and only got the RC in 2009 doesn't matter, and 2008 still counts towards the 5 years (2013)?

there is also another thing which i don't understand - to apply for the british citizenship you need to have resided in uk 5 yrs, so would that mean the same person can apply for both the permanent residence and citizenship at the same time ?

[Jambo]

the fact that one was an asylum seeker when contracted marriage (2008) and only got the RC in 2009 doesn't matter, and 2008 still counts towards the 5 years (2013)?

Correct. Once you get married, you become a family member of EEA national. If doesn't matter when the RC was issued (or if one was issued at all - as having RC is optional).

there is also another thing which i don't understand - to apply for the british citizenship you need to have resided in uk 5 yrs, so would that mean the same person can apply for both the permanent residence and citizenship at the same time ?

Unless married to British citizen, you are required to hold PR/ILR for one year before applying for naturalisation so this is effectively after 6 years (5 +1 ). However, for naturalisation only the 5 years before the application are the relevant years (with regards to meet the requirements such as absences, legal stay etc).

So in your case, you would obtain PR in 2013 and can apply for naturalisation in 2014. For naturalisation, the relevant years (to meet the naturalisation residence requirements) would be 2009-2014.