Does spouse have to be included in my EEA3 form?

[Marritza]

On the advice of board members I'm applying for PR via the EEA3 route before I apply for BC.

I'm a dual national (USA and a A2 country) and my spouse is a dual national (a recent British Citizen and that of another EEA country - not A8 or A2). When I started work in the UK in late 2007 I did not need an accession card because I was married to my spouse who was an EEA citizen exercising treaty rights (i.e. working) in the UK (my spouse only became BC in 2012).

So - do I have to apply as "the family member of an EEA national who is exercising Treaty rights in UK but who is not applying for a document certifying permanent residence at this time" (i.e. tick the top box on the top of the EEA3 form and include my spouse in the relevant sections)? I'm thinking I cannot do that since my spouse is no longer exercising treaty rights (i.e. is a BC).

However, I am relying on my spouse having exercised treaty rights at the time when I started work (2007) so that I can prove I did not need an accession card to start work myself. Therefore, I do need to include my spouse in the application somehow (providing a marriage certificate, the spouse's EEA passport, etc.), so how do I do that?

Thank you!

[Jambo]

Did your wife apply for PR Confirmation using EEA3 or did she apply directly for BC?

You have 2 options here:

1. Rely on your wife status (as she has PR) and apply as a family member. The fact that she is now BC doesn't matter. She should have needed to exercise treaty rights for 5 years (and obtain PR) before. In this case, you only need to prove 5 years of residence for yourself.

2. Rely on your own time exercising treaty rights. In this case, you just need to show you are a family member of EEA national exercising treaty rights (to be exempt from work authorisation) and prove treaty rights and residence for yourself for 5 years.

In both cases, you will need to provide your wife's passport/ID card and proof of treaty rights (either a PR Confirmation or P60's to either cover 2007 or 5 years).

I would say option (1) is the simplest.

[Marritza]

Thanks Jambo, that's helpful.

To answer your question - she applied directly for BC and got it without any problems.

Sorry, just saw your revised post...

Yes, option 1 seems easiest. Just to confirm, if I only need to prove residency (option 1), I can submit:

- wife's EEA (and also UK?) passport
- wife's P60 for 2007 (easiest, since she changed employers a couple of times after that)
- my passport (A2 and US or just A2?)
- my letter from employer covering last 5 years (easy as only 1 employer) - do i need to submit any P60s in addition? I can print them out from the company intranet but it says "copies" - is that valid?
- our marriage certificate (the original, I assume)

Do I need anything else to prove residency? I'm not sure I've been included in our tenancy agreements as far back as 2007 and I haven't received my bank statements regularly (some were sent by post and some are electronic).

[Jambo]

Option 1 requires 5 years of treaty rights from your wife (whatever she used for the BC application) + 5 years of residence from you.

Option 2 requires evidence of your wife's treaty rights in 2007 + 5 years of treaty rights of from you + 5 years of residence from you.

A letter from employer can serve for both purposes but make sure the employer confirm your address on it and state that during those years you have not been absent from the office more than the XX number of days for annual leave. This is not a requirement to have that but would make it clear that it is used as evidence of residence and not just employment (otherwise the case worker might decide there is no evidence of residence and reject the application).

[Marritza]

Thanks Jambo. Option 1 does seem easier...

I guess I will try to prove residence in some other way, just to be sure.

A couple of clarification questions re: the form:

- Do i need to state I'm an A2 AND a USA citizen (and provide both passports) - I was told in my BC thread that I definitely need to do so for the BC application but not sure in this case

- Do I need to send my wife's EEA and UK passports?

- In section 7, if I pursue option 1, then I only need to list how my wife (not me) exercised her treaty rights (i.e. regurgitate most of the evidence already given when she applied for BC), is this right?

In general, I'm a bit confused as to why they would need proof of my wife's having exercised treaty rights in 2007 when she just got her BC, for which she would have provided all this evidence... oh well!

[Jambo]

- Do i need to state I'm an A2 AND a USA citizen (and provide both passports) - I was told in my BC thread that I definitely need to do so for the BC application but not sure in this case

I don't think the form asks for your nationalities and in any case you don't need to send the US passport.

- Do I need to send my wife's EEA and UK passports?

Just the EEA passport/ID card. No need for a British passport.

- In section 7, if I pursue option 1, then I only need to list how my wife (not me) exercised her treaty rights (i.e. regurgitate most of the evidence already given when she applied for BC), is this right?

correct. It should also not be older than 2 years (i.e 2007-2012 is good. 2004-2009 will require evidence your wife didn't leave the country since 2009).

In general, I'm a bit confused as to why they would need proof of my wife's having exercised treaty rights in 2007 when she just got her BC, for which she would have provided all this evidence... oh well!

You can use this argument for almost every application. They should have it all in their computers. Why do we actually need to fill in a form. They know all of our details. This is just how it works.

[Marritza]

Excellent! We can then provide basically the same info for my wife as she did when applying for BC (+ additional payslips for the last few months after she got her BC, just to be sure - she got BC in early 2012)).

Yeah, I thought it would be easy for them to verify she has BC and when she got it, but I guess I'll just re-send everything.

Thanks a lot!