Definition of EEA national qualified person

[dcroxx]

Hello.
I want to apply for a EEA-PR card for my wife. The situation is as follows.
I am British.
She has Spanish nationality.
We have been married for 13 years (we met in Spain).
We have lived in the UK for 8 and a half years.
She has only worked in the UK for a few months (since March 2016).
I have been the only worker in the family, she was not looking for work in the first 8 years or so that she was here.

The application guidance notes indicate that a EEA national qualified person is either a worker, self-employed, self-sufficient, student or jobseeker. She isn't really in any of those categories. Another possibility of eligibility is "as a family member or extended family member of an EEA national qualified person or permanent resident", but I understand that this does not refer to British citizens, ie for the purposes of completing an EEA-PR application, that they are referring to non-British EEA persons.
So the way II understand it, she could apply successfully for the EEA-PR card as a family member if I was Spanish, but as I am British she can not! This doesn't make any sense to me. I am confused. Can someone help please?!

[noajthan]

Your understanding is correct, you cannot sponsor wife as you are not EU (in this context).

Wife needs to apply in her own right.
if wife has CSI cover in place she may fall into the selfsufficient category of qualified person and so be able to apply for DCPR.

If not suggest get CSI (for wife) and apply for at least a RC to help regularise her position in UK.
This is more important now that Brexit is looming.

Note if you have private health insurance cover, for example from work, that may extend to cover wife and be accepted as CSI.

[vinny]

That's correct. She may also be a qualified person, if she is self-sufficient with CSIC.

[Richard W]

She has Spanish nationality.
We have been married for 13 years (we met in Spain).
We have lived in the UK for 8 and a half years.
She has only worked in the UK for a few months (since March 2016).
<snip>
So the way II understand it, she could apply successfully for the EEA-PR card as a family member if I was Spanish, but as I am British she can not! This doesn't make any sense to me. I am confused. Can someone help please?!

Where were you two living and you working before you two came to the UK? If you were working in Spain for a few years and then came to the UK together, she should qualify under Surinder Singh. That's Regulation 9 of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016, which should be relaxed to accord with EU law. Regulation 9 appears to already be alleged law, in the form of Schedule 5. (At least, I didn't spot any difference.)