Online EEA(PR) Application

[coarma]

My husband who is a Danish national and who has been living in the UK since 2001 is trying to apply for a permanent residence card using the online application.
He has been living and working in the UK for the whole time since he entered with some limited time off for self study at home and also some traveling.
When you get to the section on the online form that asks if 'Have you have had any absences from the UK since you entered' do you really have to enter details of all holidays, weekends away etc over a 15 year period ( as they are telling me I have to when I ring the Home Office help line)? This seems to be ridiculous and we cannot possibly hope to get that information accurate. Or does it mean have you had any absences from your residency? That is periods of living or working some where else?

I would appreciate some clarification on this issue especially since when we were traveling we entered and left countries fairly regularly without having any evidence of when specifically. For example we spent 2 months traveling through Central America fro top to bottom but I could not say when we entered and left each country.

[ohara]

To keep things simple, you can just use the last 5 years as his qualifying period. The absence details are only necessary to determine whether you may have broken continuity of residence and therefore lost PR after acquiring it.

I'm not familiar with how the online EEA(PR) application works as it's relatively new and I did mine on paper about a year ago. However, I've been in the UK for 25 years and obviously listing all of my absences would have been impossible.

If your husband has been working between 2010 and 2015 for example, just give evidence for that period and you only need to provide details of absences between 2010 and now.

[coarma]

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately the best 5 years to use would not be the most recent 5 years as that is when we did some traveling (in and out of several different countries). I am now hoping that I can focus on an earlier 5 year period where he was working full-time and just taking normal holidays.

It seems to be a bit of a lottery when for a Danish national who has lived here and worked here for so long it should be straight forward. It seems that as soon as you declare you were not working then you have to provide evidence of health care insurance which we did not have.

[ohara]

Yes, if you are self-sufficient, you must have CSI. However, if you have acquired PR in the past, there is no longer a need to continue exercising treaty rights, so you would not have required CSI even though you were not working.

How long were you out of the UK while you were on your travels?

Your best bet might probably be to just list everything and let UKVI work it out. If you can't remember exact dates, just put approximate dates and explain in the additional information box.

[noajthan]

It seems to be a bit of a lottery when for a Danish national who has lived here and worked here for so long it should be straight forward. It seems that as soon as you declare you were not working then you have to provide evidence of health care insurance which we did not have.

Just living in UK is not enough.
However, it's not a lottery, it is very clearly defined and prescriptive.

Simply exercise treaty rights continuously for 5 years (in one or more categories of qualified person) and you will have smashed it.
- back it all up with rock-solid documentary supporting evidence.

[coarma]

HI Noajthan
I really appreciate your reply. We are attempting to use the new online version of the form. It specifically asks for all absences since first entered the UK.(2001) If we concentrate all our evidence (bills, letter from employer, P60s etc on a specific 5 year period do you think we could then just give absences for that period only? Would that be accepted?

[noajthan]

HI Noajthan
I really appreciate your reply. We are attempting to use the new online version of the form. It specifically asks for all absences since first entered the UK.(2001) If we concentrate all our evidence (bills, letter from employer, P60s etc on a specific 5 year period do you think we could then just give absences for that period only? Would that be accepted?

If the period is in the past you need evidence from that period and up until the current date.
For example, if your qualifying period appears to be 2001-2006 you need further evidence relating to residence/evidence (but not treaty rights) from 2006 up to now.

This is to confirm to caseworker that subsequent absences (if any) have not broken continuity of residence and terminated the PR you believe you have acquired (through prolonged absence).

[coarma]

I have been reading through some of the other posts and questions and I came across talk of a EEA3 form. Is this an old version of the EEA(PR) form?
I managed to find one and I see that is a much simpler document all round and does not ask you to list every time you have been out of the country. If our application is just for one EEA national (Danish) can we use this old form to apply for PR? Or will it be rejected. I know that in theory you don't have to use a form at all so surely they cannot object to an old form if we inlcude the payment section from the new form.
The new online version of the form also asks you to give salary details of each job - surely they are not allowed to ask that? As they have your NI number they can surely see how many years you have been working?

[noajthan]

I have been reading through some of the other posts and questions and I came across talk of a EEA3 form. Is this an old version of the EEA(PR) form?
I managed to find one and I see that is a much simpler document all round and does not ask you to list every time you have been out of the country. If our application is just for one EEA national (Danish) can we use this old form to apply for PR? Or will it be rejected. I know that in theory you don't have to use a form at all so surely they cannot object to an old form if we inlcude the payment section from the new form.
The new online version of the form also asks you to give salary details of each job - surely they are not allowed to ask that? As they have your NI number they can surely see how many years you have been working?

There is no legal obligation to use latest monster form.
Any older (simpler) form, or no form, may be used.
Your call.

Obviously all your documentary supporting evidence needs to be rock-solid in any case.
And you still need to provide all information a caseworker wants to see or you risk refusal.

The current forms (paper/online) seem to go way beyond the requirements stipulated by EU law and the Directive;
for example there is no good character test for confirmation of PR.

[ohara]

I have been reading through some of the other posts and questions and I came across talk of a EEA3 form. Is this an old version of the EEA(PR) form?
I managed to find one and I see that is a much simpler document all round and does not ask you to list every time you have been out of the country. If our application is just for one EEA national (Danish) can we use this old form to apply for PR? Or will it be rejected. I know that in theory you don't have to use a form at all so surely they cannot object to an old form if we inlcude the payment section from the new form.
The new online version of the form also asks you to give salary details of each job - surely they are not allowed to ask that? As they have your NI number they can surely see how many years you have been working?

There's no old version of the EEA(PR) form. That form is in fact about 6 different forms rolled into one, in the hopes that it will simplify applications (when in fact it actually complicates it).

There is no requirement to use the EEA(PR) form (or in fact any form) to apply for EEA residence documentation. A simple letter is acceptable as long as it includes the required information and payment. Have a look at this recent thread for someone who is considering using the old forms. You'll find some useful information in there including what information is actually required.

It is possible to use the EEA(PR) form and simply ignore most sections, such as benefits etc. The problem is that the online application requires that you fill in everything, even if it is information you are not legally required to give. If I was doing this now, personally I would use the old paper form rather than doing it online.

Here is one example of a really old EEA3 form which is been modified by members of this forum to bring the information up to date. UKVI will accept this; we've had reported successes on the forum.