EEA PR - comprehensive health insurance + self-employment

[franseb]

Hello everyone

(This is my first post so I hope it's in the right place)

I am an EEA national (French+Italian)
I've been living in the UK continuously since 09/2010.
From 09/2010 to 09/2011 I was a full-time student.
From 09/2011 to 09/2015 I was employed (part-time 0.8 FTE then full time)
Since 09/2015, I am a full-time student again, undertaking a PhD which is fully-funded by the UK AHRC (fees + stipend).
In 08/2015 I also registered for self-employment, I have a UTR number since then, and I have used it to claim one-off extra payments here and there over the past year. Nevertheless, the amounts are quite small, and my main income is my stipend from my PhD scholarship.

My daughter was born in the UK in 2013. I no longer live with the mother and we were never married.

I am preparing an application for a certificate of Permanent Residence (EEA), with a view to enable my daughter to request the British citizenship – as well as to make sure I'll be able to stay in the UK myself, given the Brexit climate...

Here are my questions. I would be very grateful for your help.

1) I noticed that, for the periods during which I was a student, I must provide "evidence of comprehensive health insurance", beyond NHS entitlement. I don't think I had that during my first year in the UK as a full-time student. I never had a health problem that required care in the UK at the time.
Also, currently, as a fully-funded student since 09/2015, I am not subscribed to a "comprehensive health insurance" scheme.
. Is my application likely to be rejected because I cannot provide evidence of this "comprehensive health insurance" during the periods I was/am a student?
. Does anyone know if it is possible to subscribe to a comprehensive health insurance scheme now and obtain from them a letter of "retroactive cover"? Going back, say, to 09/2015, so that my current year as a student would be covered entirely? If so, any recommendation of a provider of "comprehensive health insurance" that will be considered valid by the UK Immigration authorities?

2) Another route I that I have in mind is: not to include the periods during which I was/am a student, and instead base my application only on status of employed / self-employed. If so:
. I assume that I won't be able to include my first year in the UK in the count of five continuous years, and therefore will only be able to send my application after 01/09/2016 (given that my first contract of employment started on 01/09/2015). Is this correct?
. In which case, should I still mention in my application that I was a full-time student in the UK between 09/2010 and 09/2011, even though I cannot prove I had comprehensive health insurance? Or should I not mention it, and start the summary of my "Relevant EEA national's activity" in section 8.A of the application, in 09/2011, hence as an employed person directly?

. With regards to the period from 09/2015 to the present: similarly, should I not mention that I am a student right now in the summary of my "Relevant EEA national's activity", and instead only mention that I am self-employed since 09/2015?
. In which case, what kind of evidence will be needed? My self-employed payment claims over the past year must be for a total under £2,000. And as it is my first year, I have not yet filled my first tax return.


To summarise, I am in the UK essentially as an academic, and my "qualification" to stay is also demonstrated by the fact that the UK Research Council gave me a 3-year full scholarship to undertake my research (2015-2018). So it would seem counter-intuitive not to mention my status as a student. Yet I am concerned that the issue of the lack of evidence of comprehensive health insurance could get my application rejected.

Any advice or tip would be much appreciated.
Thank you in advance,
F

[salmintin]

Students must have CSI. You can't get it retroactively.

[noajthan]

Don't hide or Spammy Spammer the information.
Just fill in you activities for the various time periods.
Obviously you do need one period to stand out during which you exercised treaty rights for a 5 year period.

1) CSI is insurance so can't be applied to the past.

With no CSI your only hope is if you had a foreign EHIC or else a RC issued to you as a student in/before 2011.

2) To be classed as a worker you need to show work was genuine and effective rather than supplementary and marginal.
The UK somewhat controversially applies its PET/MET tests on top of the requirements from EU law.

Note to register a foreign-born minor as a citizen the question of custody/parental responsibility will come up and need to be addressed.

[franseb]

Thank you noajthan for your response.
If I may ask for further clarifications:

2) To be classed as a worker you need to show work was genuine and effective rather than supplementary and marginal.
The UK somewhat controversially applies its PET/MET tests on top of the requirements from EU law.

What are the PET/MET tests?
Could you by any chance point me to a document/website where the criteria to qualify as a self-empolyed worker are detailed?

Also, in my case, it is a formal condition of my scholarship that I DO NOT work more than 6 hours a week.
I guess I can flag this up in my application.

In your opinion, if my application shows 4 years of continuous employment during which I paid ample NI contributions, then one year as a fully-funded student (therefore technically unable to work enough to pay NI contributions) with no comprehensive health insurance for part of the first year, but a late subscription (from now on), could these last few months of gap of a comprehensive health insurance cover be a ground to reject my application?

Note to register a foreign-born minor as a citizen the question of custody/parental responsibility will come up and need to be addressed.

Thanks for flagging this up. My daughter was born in the UK though. But yes, we'll need to officialise her custody/parental responsibility status.

[noajthan]

Thank you noajthan for your response.
If I may ask for further clarifications:

2) To be classed as a worker you need to show work was genuine and effective rather than supplementary and marginal.
The UK somewhat controversially applies its PET/MET tests on top of the requirements from EU law.

What are the PET/MET tests?
Could you by any chance point me to a document/website where the criteria to qualify as a self-empolyed worker are detailed?

Also, in my case, it is a formal condition of my scholarship that I DO NOT work more than 6 hours a week.
I guess I can flag this up in my application.

In your opinion, if my application shows 4 years of continuous employment during which I paid ample NI contributions, then one year as a fully-funded student (therefore technically unable to work enough to pay NI contributions) with no comprehensive health insurance for part of the first year, but a late subscription (from now on), could these last few months of gap of a comprehensive health insurance cover be a ground to reject my application?

Note to register a foreign-born minor as a citizen the question of custody/parental responsibility will come up and need to be addressed.

Thanks for flagging this up. My daughter was born in the UK though. But yes, we'll need to officialise her custody/parental responsibility status.

PET/MET, read and weep:
https://www.freemovement.org.uk/using-m ... ne-worker/

Get into the head of caseworker weighing up and assessing your case as self-emplloyed:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _clean.pdf

Yes, unfortunately, lack of CSI will stop your PR clock. Dead. And reset it back to zero.
CSI cannot be applied retrospectively (its a form of insurance).

Your only remaining hope for utilising that period is if you had a foreign EHIC or a RC issued to you as a student in/before 2011.
Now for the longshots...
Were you were covered by a parent's foreign insurance that extended to you in UK?
Or could you have been sponsored by another EEA citizen in UK and exercising treaty rights?

For a UK-born child, once one parent becomes settled (eg with PR) then they are entitled to be registered as a citizen under section 1(3) of BNA. Custody is not such a factor for such a case.