EEA Application - Irish passport sponsoring - Malaysian

[regularblue]

Hi Everyone,

I am struggling to understand the requirements to be classified as a 'qualified' person to sponsor my long term partner (currently unmarried).

Details as follows:

Relationship:

- 7 year relationship, lived together for multiple years, she is currently residing in Malaysia due to not being able to work in the UK currently.

Non married partner:

- Malaysian passport
- Employed full time in Malaysia.
- Previously graduated from a UK based university, whilst on a Tier 4 student visa.

Myself:

- Irish passport
- Lived in UK majority of my life, and completed GCSE, A level & BA degree.
- Left UK to work in Malaysia from October 2013 until August 2016 - I was making a living from playing online poker or the first couple of years (Tax on earnings did not need to be paid for this period of time). I obtained an official working Visa in Malaysia in 2015 where I worked for a MNC for just short of 1 year before returning to the UK in August 2016.
- Currently employed full time in England since March 2017. (Passed probationary period in June 2017)

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Help need on - Section 10 (page 9) Link to EEA guidance document:

(Section 10: Sponsor has permanent residence)

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... -04_KP.pdf

The Problem:

I do not have a permanent residency card, and I have only been working full time & paying tax in the UK since March 2017. I am unsure if i need to prove that I have worked for 5 years in the UK (which is not possible, as I haven't).

What route should I take? I am very confused as to what documents I need to prove that I am capable of sponsoring my partner.

Any advice on the above would be greatly appreciated! (understatement)

Cheers!

[Richard W]

Myself:

- Irish passport
- Lived in UK majority of my life, and completed GCSE, A level & BA degree.
- Left UK to work in Malaysia from October 2013 until August 2016 - I was making a living from playing online poker or the first couple of years (Tax on earnings did not need to be paid for this period of time). I obtained an official working Visa in Malaysia in 2015 where I worked for a MNC for just short of 1 year before returning to the UK in August 2016.

You probably had permanent residence through parents working for 5 consecutive years while you were a child. However, you lost it in October 2015 through 2 years absence from the UK.

Currently employed full time in England since March 2017. (Passed probationary period in June 2017)

You are therefore a qualified person, as a worker. You don't need to be a permanent resident to bring your durable partner over on an EEA route.

For the UK immigration route, you are settled in the UK, as you are ordinarily resident and an Irish citizen. (Strictly, you need to have last entered the UK from the Republic, but I haven't heard of entry from elsewhere being held against someone.) I presume you are trying to avoid following this route, as it will take a long time to establish that your income is high enough.

The rest of my reply assumes you are following the EEA route.

What route should I take? I am very confused as to what documents I need to prove that I am capable of sponsoring my partner.

You should just need evidence that you are in genuine and effective full-time work, are an Irish citizen, and possibly some evidence that you are not a British citizen. For the work to be genuine (as opposed to being incidental), 11 hours a week suffices, and for effectiveness, it suffices to be earning enough to be paying national insurance. You don't have to be earning enough to support her!

I'm not sure how you go about showing that you are not British. You might get away with evidence that you were born outside the UK, for which your passport might do. A birth certificate showing that you were born in the Republic might also help on nationality. For good but perhaps excessive measure, you might include your parents' birth certificates; the onus would then be on the ECO to show that you are British.

[Richard W]

Retraction

What route should I take? I am very confused as to what documents I need to prove that I am capable of sponsoring my partner.

You should just need evidence that you are in genuine and effective full-time work, are an Irish citizen, and possibly some evidence that you are not a British citizen. For the work to be genuine (as opposed to being incidental), 11 hours a week suffices, and for effectiveness, it suffices to be earning enough to be paying national insurance. You don't have to be earning enough to support her!

It appears that I am wrong. What I wrote would be true if the lady were your wife. As she is merely a durable partner (and you period of separation worries me on that score), the ECO may consider the issue of accommodation and maintenance - EUN 2.7. Unless there is some judgement to the contrary that I'm unaware of...