Naturalisation application (EEA) refused Sep 2016

[redsioux]

Hello and thanks in advance for your help

I'm an EEA individual living and working countinuosly in UK since February 2008.
Applied for naturalisation in June 2016, after being issued a PR card on 11 02 2016.
Reading the forums and checking the regulation, it's clear that I have acquire PR status after 5 years in the UK, so in February 2013.
Hence I believed I was in the right to apply successfully, given that the condition of 1 year passed since acquiring the PR status was fulfilled.

I called HO before applying to be sure my interpretation was correct. A HO worker reassured me to go ahead.
Yesterday I received the HO letter of unsuccessful application:

" you are not settled in the United Kingdom until 11/02/2016, when you were granted permanent residence and although you were deemed settled on 01/11/2015, you not meet the requirement at paragraph 3(d) of the leaflet.the application is therefore refused.
If you still wish to become a British citizen, you will need to make a fresh application. It is open to you to apply at any time, but you may wish to note that an application received before 01/11/2016 is unlikely to be successful ."

Can I please ask your advice, would you recommend:
1.reconsideration route with 278 pounds fees, explaining the above. but I fear they might have recorded a wrong PR date in the database, and deny the appeal.
2. Try to call HO or go through my local MP.
3. see a solicitor and pursue other routes.

If I had to apply again after November I'm quite sure my application would go fine, but I don't want to pay another 1.2k pounds in fees, when I do believe I was in the right.

Thanks

[redsioux]

I forgot to mention that I provided both in the PR and AN applications, proofs of working and living in UK since 2008 (P60, employer letters etc), for every year until 2016. Also the days abroad were listed since 2008.

[noajthan]

What is significance of Nov 2015 ?
Is that simply when you applied for PRC?

A SAR from UKVI may prove informative.

How were you exercising treaty rights from 2008-2013?
Did you submit evidence for that period to get your PR card?
Do you still have such evidence?

If so this appears to be a gross error by a poorly trained if not incompetent caseworker.

You were not 'granted PR' by the issue of the card and date of application/date of issue have no relevance to freedom from immigration time restrictions.

A carefully worded letter to caseworker, with copy to MP, may do the trick.

[Ana1986]

Have you checked when you accuired the PR status? If it was 2013 according to your work history, you are right to apply for reconsideration.
It happened to me as well. I applied for British citizenship in January after my PR card was issued in December 2015. In Feb I received the letter and info my application was not granted.
I accuired PR status in Jan 2013. Sent the reconsideration in July... still waiting... Home office made an error mixed PR status with the issuance of the PR card.
Please don't tell me that a letter from home office I meant the caseworker who was doing the application was a woman? Her initials are S.B? If yes that would be a second refused application from the same person....

[noajthan]

I forgot to mention that I provided both in the PR and AN applications, proofs of working and living in UK since 2008 (P60, employer letters etc), for every year until 2016. Also the days abroad were listed since 2008.

Perhaps hard-pressed, overworked caseworker simply took the date from the last P60 instead of from the first five.

[redsioux]

Nov 2015 is when I submitted the PR
Yes I did submitted plenty of evidence for every year since 2008 - they sent it back so I still have it.
Caseworker woman, C.S.

Ana, can I ask you what did you sent for reconsideration?
I guess you explained the situation as I did here and sent all the evIdence again?

Thanks all

[redsioux]

And to your question Ana, no I didn't check the date the PR was registered in the HO system as granted...because there is no easy way to check it.
But I suspect they registered as Nov 2015, given they are telling me I need to wait until Nov 2016 to apply.
Tomorrow I'll call HO and see if they can tell me the date

[Ana1986]

You need to check with SAR first!

[Ana1986]

You need to check with SAR first! It will take another few weeks...
I sent my reconsideration in July and still waiting for reply. I have been living and working in the uk since 2008 with no breaks so I sent all my documents again... hope my application will be successful this time! Can't believe that they messed up my PR status with the issuance of the PR card. Maybe they are just overworked....
Don't call HO infoline it's waste of your time. They don't have the access to that kind of things like when you became a PR so they won't tell you exact date of your PR.

[redsioux]

So I managed to get the PR settlement sate on my records, which indeed is the 01/11/2015.
This is clearly a mistake done at the time of my EEA pr certification Reques, so the caseworker denied my AN application based on that date recorded in the systems.
It's a mistake because I provided evidence of treaty rights since 2008-2016, so my PR settlement date should have been recorded as 02/02/2013 not the 01/11/2015.

Looking at the newly issued EEA PR booklet updated on 21 sept 2016, they now ask people to provide evidence of treaty rights only until the last year they want to get considered for settlement, so in theory I should have sent evidence from 2008-2013, to get the right date recorded. Sending evidence until present seems detrimental, I suspect the caseworkers start to look from the most recent one, back for five years.
But they can't hold it against me, at the time the booklet was only saying to send at least 5 years of evidence, which I did!

Now, I tied to call the EEA PR home office team and asked for amending the PR date, but they asked me to go through reconsideration.
My fear is that if I do that, another caseworker in charge of reassessing the issue, will simply use the fact of the PR DATE recorded in the system to deny again the application.
I would attach again all the evidence and state clearly what I think it's the issue, but I'm very dubious of the outcome.

I'm very frustrated about all this...and I fear I'm going to risk another 272 pounds for nothing.

[Ana1986]

No worries just go for reconsideration route. A case worker just took the date of PR card as your PR status. You won't find on the card when you acciquired pr status. Pr status in this case is historical one, deemed in 2013. We are on the same boat. In ho website says clearly that you don't need to wait another year if you lived in the U.K. more than 6 years. You can apply immediately after you receive your PR card.
They do confuse people as PR cards contains only the issuance of it not the exact date of PR status.
I sent all papers, documents along with my reconsideration application. Carefully explained the issue.. hope it will help!

[noajthan]

And apply for a SAR too, that may reflect what you had submitted as well as your timeline as seen, understood and noted by caseworker.

[redsioux]

No worries just go for reconsideration route. A case worker just took the date of PR card as your PR status. You won't find on the card when you acciquired pr status. Pr status in this case is historical one, deemed in 2013. We are on the same boat

Thanks Ana
They actually didn't take the issue date, that was February 2016. So they took 01/11/2015, which I can only think was derived by the fact my last employment started on the 01/11/2010, and for whatever reason they took that date as the starting date to count the 5 years before settlement.
And they recorded that date in the system as the PR settlement.
PR acquired on 01/11/2015, PR issued Feb 2016.
So the caseworker that denied AN wasn't wrong herself, but the people in the PR team which recorded that 01/11/2015 date as my settlement date...

[redsioux]

And apply for a SAR too, that may reflect what you had submitted as well as your timeline as seen, understood and noted by caseworker.

Thanks
Does the SAR show the entry date and what i submitted?
I thought it would only show PR acquisition date and Issue date, with the former being wrong unfortunately... That's why I thought it would be pointless to attach that.

[Ana1986]

Sorry but in this case they're right you will need to apply in November again... sorry looks like you have lost your money

[noajthan]

And apply for a SAR too, that may reflect what you had submitted as well as your timeline as seen, understood and noted by caseworker.

Thanks
Does the SAR show the entry date and what i submitted?
I thought it would only show PR acquisition date and Issue date, with the former being wrong unfortunately... That's why I thought it would be pointless to attach that.

You won't know what it shows on you until you get it.

You don't need to attach it as HO will have access to their own systems.

it will just inform you if caseworker noted down they had seen your evidence from 200-whenever etc etc.
(Just as other members have reported has been noted about their cases in their files).

If they noted that it will back your case that you had submitted evidence from an earlier qualifying period.
It will help you to argue the date was noted down incorrectly in the HO CID system.

Example SAR posted by member ohara:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... r#p1378711
Notice the notes that summarise what was submitted to back the member's application.

[Ana1986]

Shame they didn't count they years from 2008. In this case looks like also you came to U.K. in 2010 not in 2008... which it isn't fair as you paid the tax since 2008 working legally...

[noajthan]

Shame they didn't count they years from 2008. In this case looks like also you came to U.K. in 2010 not in 2008... which it isn't fair as you paid the tax since 2008 working legally...

Unclear what you mean.

OP is very clear

'm an EEA individual living and working countinuosly in UK since February 2008.

It is also clear a poorly-trained and/or misinformed caseworker has erred, big-time.
A decision has been made that is not compliant with various Regulations.

[Ana1986]

I just said that it not fair... they didn't count the years from 2008 and they did count only from 2010.. looks like he came to uk in 2010 not in 2008. According to ho he became PR in 2015 not in 2013.. they missed 2 years of his employment.

[redsioux]

You won't know what it shows on you until you get it.

You don't need to attach it as HO will have access to their own systems.

it will just inform you if caseworker noted down they had seen your evidence from 200-whenever etc etc.
(Just as other members have reported has been noted about their cases in their files).

If they noted that it will back your case that you had submitted evidence from an earlier qualifying period.
It will help you to argue the date was noted down incorrectly in the HO CID system.

Example SAR posted by member ohara:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... r#p1378711
Notice the notes that summarise what was submitted to back the member's application.

Thanks I will request it.
Although, whatever the outcome, I believe it needs to lead to reconsideration:
1. If they counted correctly from 2008, and PR date is on 2013, it will lead to an easier win I guess.
2. If they counted from 2010, as it seems the case, it might be more difficult on technical terms, but again it's not my fault, so I think I have grounds for appeal, and HO said there is no other way to correct this if it was a mistake, other than reconsideration.

So I think it might better to act soon with the reconsideration, without having delays?

When I received my PR card, a letter was attached, and it was noting the documents returned to me. I have not kept the letter, but I remember it was stating x5 original P60 (x9 P60 were submitted).
This makes me believe again, (as implied in the new AN Booklet Guide of 21st Sept), that the caseworkers processing PRs take in consideration the 5 most recent years of evidence of residence submitted, not really caring about the entry date and all the years accrued from then, even with enough evidence.

AN Booklet page 10:
"When you apply for a permanent residence document the evidence that you supply for your EEA(PR) application must be for a 5 year period that ended at least a year before you want to apply for citizenship.
For example:
If you apply for Permanent Residence on 1st December 2015 and want to apply for Citizenship once that application is decided, you should send evidence that shows you were exercising Treaty rights as a qualified person or family member from 1 December 2009 to 1 December 2014"


To me this constitutes a violation of the rights: I want the UK HO acknowledge that I am a permanent resident from 2008 and not after, evidence was submitted, if not enough it should have been liased in some way with myself.
Also, the booklet provided at the time of the application did not contain the above instruction.

[redsioux]

finally an update on the ordeal:

on the 30th of August I received a letter from HO saying that my application was successful (no mention of the reconsideration process, so I guess the reconsideration fees are gone).

So the waiting time for reconsideration was almost 1 Year.
Thank you all for your help and suggestion

Regards

[silviu20]

redsioux, would you please clarify when (dd:mm:yyyy) did you apply for the reconsideration and when did you receive the processed answer?