Comprehensive Sickness Insurance- acceptable evidence?

[Mehow80]

Hi everyone, I want to apply for naturalisation as a BC and certain parts of the application are quite confusing.

I am 22 in my third year at university and I have lived in the UK since the age of 15. I will be at uni for another year but I was hoping to submit my application before the summer. I am considered a home student at university and my education is financed by the Student Finance NI.

During the process of checking the required evidence I came across two requirements I am not sure about:

1) The evidence covering the relevant 5 year period to prove my residence in the UK. I am planning to use an official letter from the college to prove that I have been attending the course over the past 3 years and letters from my secondary school to prove my residence in the time before that. Will that be sufficient?
I am confused here because the evidence page make it sound like it has to be a continuous period of 5 years at university level?

2) The comprehensive sickness insurance. I don't really understand this requirement. As I said I have been up to this point studying at secondary and university level up to this point. I have held part-time jobs during that time and I have a NI number. I have not however held a full time position for longer than 2 months (summer jobs). Do I need to get myself a private health insurance?

Finally I have noticed that Doctors are not in the list of acceptable references but I wanted to use my friends dad (who has known me for over 4,5 years) as one. He is one of the Chief Surgeons in our county. Will that be accepted or will I have to provide another reference?

I hope you'll be able to help me! Thank you for reading/answering this thread!

PS. I am Polish so I count as an A8 EEA citizen

[Jambo]

Are your parents living in the UK? Do they work? You can apply based on their activities and skip the whole sickness insurance (if they qualify).

[Mehow80]

Since this post I realised I could skip this by asking my parents to apply for the prove of permanent residency and attaching me to their form in Section 2. My whole family live here since 2006 and my Dad came to the UK in 2004 so there shouldn't be any problems with it. Am I correct to assume this?

It's just another step I wasn't aware of. Does anybody know how long it takes to process the application for the prove of residency? (EEA3?)

[Jambo]

Did your father apply for WRS (work authorisation) when he started working in 2004 (unless he was self employed)? Without it, you will have to wait to 2017.

EEA3 normally takes 2-3 months. You don't really need it but it will reduce the risk of applying directly for BC as the EEA3 application is free.

[Mehow80]

My dad applied for a WRS as soon as he got here so I should be sorted?

[Jambo]

Welldone dad

Assuming he worked continuously for 5 years without long gaps, then I would say it is a straight forward application and you can skip EEA3. If you wish, you can apply for EEA3 (as a family member of your father), if approved, apply for naturalisation. Unless you wait 1 year from the PR issue date, you will need in any case to submit the evidence again. The reason for that is that the PR Confirmation following EEA3 only confirms your status now (2013) and not when this was achieved. As you need to hold PR status for at least one year before applying for naturalisation, you will need to provide the evidence again to support that you had obtained PR before 2012 (but at least you know the is just a formality as the evidence was examined and accepted already for EEA3).

[Mehow80]

First of all thank you for replying and sharing your knowledge!

Ok, let me get this straight in my head. Are you advising me to skip the EEA3 all together and just apply for naturalisation straight away?

Let me give you some extra details: My dad arrived in Northern Ireland in late 2004 (November?) and applied for a work permit. We later joined him in January 2006. I went to Secondary School from 2006 until mid 2010 and then moved to London to study at university. I am still here.
My dad worked continuously from 2004-2007 then he opened his own company between mid 2007-2009 and worked part time after that until now. My mum also holds the WRS since 2008(9?)

If I was to skip the EEA3 would the letter from college and secondary school suffice? What should I present as the evidence of health insurance? What kind of evidence do they usually expect from students?

[Jambo]

See Q5 in Citizenship FAQs - Common Questions - Read before posting.

If you are in a rush to apply for BC, you can skip the EEA3 application but you will still need to provide together with the BC application evidence of your father's work (basically the same evidence which is required for EEA3).

If you are not in a rush, I would make a EEA3 application as a test application to make sure the evidence you have is enough. i would base it on evidence ending before 2012. If PR is granted, I will use the same evidence (which you know is OK) and apply for naturalisation.

You are basically making the EEA3 application just to make sure your BC application won't get rejected because of insufficient evidence.

[Mehow80]

Ok, thank you.

So the safe way would be for me to ask my dad to submit the EEA3 and then attach the PR certificate together with his P60s (employment) and National Insurance Contribiutions (self-employment) as evidence that I have been a PR for 5+1 years.

Now if I wanted to not involve my dad and simply prove my PR status as a student in the application I would have to present evidence of being a student within the past 5+1 years and have private health insurance? Am I understanding this correctly?

I'm sorry if I seem a bit daft. This is a bit over my head and I appreciate your help very much.

[Jambo]

Your understanding is correct. The insurance requirement probably means you need to apply based on your father activities and not your own.


Strictly speaking, your father doesn't need to apply for EEA3. You can apply for it but you will need his documents (passport, p60 etc) although if you already apply, for him to apply for it would basically just mean adding 2 photos and signing the form.

[Mehow80]

Ok, so I looked over the EEA3 for and from what I understand I can Fill in Section 1 with my details, include my dad in Section 3 as a family member who has been exercising the Treaty Rights but is not applying for the evidence of the PR status and use his details in the rest of the form as the family member exercising the treaty rights. All the evidence supporting the form would be my dad's as well but the document would be in my name. Later I would just have to prove in my BC application that I have been a PR for 5+1 years.