In the past few months or let's say since Brexit, the misleading term ‘Comprehensive Sickness Insurance’ (CSI) has suddenly become a hot topic among EU citizens in the UK. For many of them, as well as their British relatives and friends, this was the first time they have ever heard about CSI.
The chilling discovery was that for many years now the CSI has been a requirement for all EU citizens studying in the UK or residing here as self-sufficient persons. Without it, they cannot exercise their treaty rights and acquire permanent residency, which would normally be automatically granted after spending a continuous period of five years in the UK.
At the moment, without a valid CSI the years spent in the UK do not count towards PR. Ominously, the current rules – some of which were introduced as recently as February 2017 – seem to give the Home Office the power to deport EU nationals who are not exercising treaty rights.
However although your family has been living in the UK in breach of Article 7 of the Citizen Directive 2004/38/EC during your study time; you still can acquire private medical insurance for your family. That being said your clock for PR will start again from the moment you have a CSI or lived in the UK in compliance with Article 7.
My partner too had been living for 1.5 years in the UK without a CSI whilst he has been self-sufficient despite the fact that he can show that he has been in the UK with sufficient funds. We only found out about CSI after Brexit. So we basically wasted 1.5 years that will not count towards PR because he did not have a CSI.
Your appeal will fail if your application is submitted to contest the decision of the HO with regards to the requirement to have a CSI in place during your study time.
The British media scrambled to publish curious assurances that the rules on deportation will not be acted on, and if they were, only selectively. The Independent went as far as quoting an immigration barrister saying that he does not think that “the Home Office is going to enforce this against say, the French wife of a British citizen.
I think they’re using it against people they don’t like, like Polish rough sleepers.” While these speculative news reports were not particularly reassuring, they highlighted a passive acceptance of the arbitrary and demeaning use of regulations.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 02191.html
Comprehensive sickness insurance for family members of EEA students.
Registration certificates and residence cards – applications received on or after 22nd June 2015
Applications for registration certificates or residence cards received on or after 22nd June will be decided in line with the amended Regulations. This means that evidence of CSI must be provided to cover the EEA national and any family member also residing in the UK with them. Where there is no evidence of CSI for the EEA national or their family member(s), the application will be refused in line with regulation 4. For more information of what is sufficient evidence of CSI please see.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ed-persons
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... udents.pdf
