Applying for PR - are we missing anything?

[dontcallmesammy]

Hello everyone,

This board is so helpful, I've learned so much by looking through the posts! I would really appreciate any advice on my sister in law's situation.

My partner's brother (a UK citizen) moved to Greece in 2000/2001. A few years later he met an Albanian national, got married and had a child. They eventually decided to move to the UK and his wife entered the country using the Surinder-Singh route in 2012, and she has had an EEA Family Member Residence Card since 2013. They have since had two more children, and all three are UK citizens.

This summer her husband will have been working for 5 years straight and they have not left the country for anywhere near the limit allowed during that time, so she wants to submit an application for permanent residency and hopefully after that go for citizenship.

However there are a few of issues that we're worried may cause problems:

1. Her residence card expires in early 2018. As the wait for a PR application would be very long, we're worried her card may expire while it's ongoing. Would renewing it affect her PR application? If so, can she attempt to renew it now or would it be best to wait until before it expires, renew it and *then* apply for PR?

2. Due to the cost of the area they live in, they claim a small amount of housing benefit and council tax reduction. Would this affect their application in any way?

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I'd be very grateful if anyone could help us out.

[dontcallmesammy]

Ok so I've been up all night reading stuff and it seems they'd missed a lot, but it would be a great help if someone could let me know if I'm going off track.

So it seems that having gone the SS route, there's no need for my BIL to be a 'qualified person'; so her qualifying period would have started on her arrival to the UK. So she will automatically qualify for PR(and be able to apply for a PR card) in February this year, instead of waiting till August. Which means the worry about her RC expiring is unnecessary and it also doesn't matter that they were in receipt of benefits for a period.

And if spouses of British citizens don't need the extra 12 months of being free from immigration time restrictions, she could just apply for citizenship the day after she gets her PR card provided everything else (tests etc) are in order.

Am pretty sleep-addled so don't know if I'm still getting it wrong...

[noajthan]

RC is optional that's for sure. So expiry of RC is immaterial.

The complication is the SS-related changes brought into EEA Regs last November. Especially as they seem to apply retrospectively.
They seem to have de-recognised Eind and endorsed the need for BC to be a qualified person in UK.

See http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... 19308.html

Under pre-November Regs, yes the applicant will have acquired PR in early 2017 simply by residing in UK.
It remains to be seen how such a case is now treated, with November changes in place.
But dates of RCs are still immaterial.

Yes, spouse of BC may apply to naturalise under section 6(2) of BNA, immediately after becoming settled; those on EU route now need DCPR/PRC too.

[dontcallmesammy]

Thank you, that's really helpful. So in an odd way is SS the best of both worlds, as it both circumvents the earnings stipulation, *and* does away with the need for those on an EEA Family Permit to have 12 months residence being free from immigration time restrictions before naturalisation?

Lucky for her that there's only a few months between the date of her arrival and the date he became a QP. She doesn't really have money to burn on an unsuccessful application so may just wait until August and then apply for naturalisation. That should be ok?

I'm a bit worried as through my job I read a lot of asylum refusal letters that make no sense and seem to contradict both the law and the HO's own guidelines. Many are thrown out at appeal and often it feels like HO caseworkers are making arguments they know won't hold up in court just to make things more difficult.

[noajthan]

Its nothing to do with SS
No financial requirement for anyone fortunate enough to be on EU migration adventure.
Pity the poor Brits who for various reaaons cannot avail.

Section 6(2) of BNA has been there since 1981.

You may now face complications as HO is clearly gunning for SS.
Others have reported on recent requests for evidence of activity in UK.

Your scenario has nothing to do with asylum as you have the power and weight of EU law behind you.

[dontcallmesammy]

Ah I see, thank you for the clarification.

The husband will have 5 years straight of being a worker in August and can evidence that in detail, and they both have extensive proof of working/being settled/having a child in Greece beforehand. It was also the first EEA country she resided in.

So side from including all their evidence from Greece, of his employment status over the past 5 years, and of her being legally resident in the UK for the past 5 years in which he was working, is there anything else they can include to minimise complications? Or is it just down to the luck of the caseworker draw, and they need to prepare themselves for the possibility of appeals/reconsiderations etc?

[noajthan]

It seems you have it covered as best you can.

Caseworkers don't operate as rogue elephants careering around in the bowels of HO HQ;
you can see the multi-staged evaluation process in the linked qp document.

[dontcallmesammy]

That's a really funny mental image, and sort of how I'd imagined them. Rather unfairly it seems.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read through and advise, it's been very helpful and is much appreciated.

[noajthan]

Related case, note the post-November changes followup:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... r#p1434118