EEA spouse NOT working applying for British citizenship

[doctoralx]

Thank you in advance for all your help and comments.

My wife (EU national) has just been granted permanent residence card that says it is also backdated to October 2015. She is now thinking to apply for naturalisation straight away. My main questions are:

1) Does it matter she has not been employed for the last 3 years (home keeper)? She was a student until 2014.

2) Does it matter how long we have been married? (I am also an EU national at the moment)

3) What evidence does she need to support her citizenship application? Is it necessary to send again all that evidence as she did for her permanent residence card?

[Tea_Rocket]

1) Does it matter she has not been employed for the last 3 years (home keeper)? She was a student until 2014.

Naturalisation is governed by a different set of laws than immigration. She does not need to be currently employed or show evidence of maintenance funds in order to naturalise.

2) Does it matter how long we have been married? (I am also an EU national at the moment)

No. Even if you were a UK citizen and she were applying on the basis of being married to you, the length of your marriage would not matter. Since she will be applying as someone who has had settled status for a year, your marriage is irrelevant to the application (except for filling in the information on her marital status).

3) What evidence does she need to support her citizenship application? Is it necessary to send again all that evidence as she did for her permanent residence card?

She will need to show that she has met the residency requirement during the qualifying period, so yes, there probably will be an overlap with the evidence she used for her PR application.

For EU nationals, this generally means employment documents and letters from universities confirming employment/student enrolment. Since your wife hasn't been working for the last three years, she will need to get letters from places like the doctor's office at which she is registered confirming when she was registered there. My NCS also suggested letters from any organisations applicants have volunteered with, stating when they have been involved. I'm sure the other EU nationals on this forum can provide more examples of documents that are accepted by the Home Office (utility bills and bank statements apparently don't).

[doctoralx]

Thank you for your response. Are there any other fellow EU members of this forum with similar experience? It seems that when it comes to EU nationals, the Home Office staff are very poorly trained to provide answers. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

[thsths]

I agree that training for European rights is very poor, and my suspicion is that this is by design rather than by mistake. If you study the casework guidelines, you also find many cases where the guidelines are wrong, and then there also a number of instances of procedures being clearly illegal etc. The rights of European citizens in the UK have been eroded for the last two decades, and you have to be prepared to fight for them using complaints and appeals.

Luckily the European rights are structured in such a way that they favor the rights of the individual over the state, which means that appeals can be very effective. But when it comes to naturalisation, things can get a bit difficult. Let us know how your applications progresses.

[doctoralx]

Hi all. I still need help in relation to the support documents required for my wife's naturalisation (see original post above for her case description). Anyone who knows or with previous experience, please help.

[thsths]

Usually you would use bank statements to "prove" residency, but the NCS advised against using bank statements. They said either tax or benefit records, GP registration, or doctors attendances would be recommended. So we went with the later. We will see how that works. If in doubt, I would also submit bank statements, but it seems the consensus is that they are not sufficient.

[doctoralx]

Usually you would use bank statements to "prove" residency, but the NCS advised against using bank statements. They said either tax or benefit records, GP registration, or doctors attendances would be recommended. So we went with the later. We will see how that works. If in doubt, I would also submit bank statements, but it seems the consensus is that they are not sufficient.

Have you got any updates since you submitted your application? When you say GP letters, do you mean a letter confirming that you are registered with a specific a GP or something more than this? Please let me know as even the NCS are not sure what evidence is required for an EEA to prove residence if he/she is not in employment.