NON EEA PERMANENT RESIDENCE APPLICATION...HELP!

[JL10]

Hello forum members,

I am very much new to this and would be very much appreciative if anyone could be off assistance.

My backstory:
I am a non EEA national (African) and I have been to married my Hungarian wife since June 2012 and we both currently reside in the UK. I had my 5 year residence permit (vignette) stamped on my passport in October 2012 and this expired in October this year (Please note that I have been been gainfully employed for since our marriage and to-date). My wife has also been exercising her treaty rights for the last 5 years and we have both now decided to submit a joint application for a residence card either this month or in January 2018.

My dilemma:
1. My international passport expired in September 2017 - a month before my 5 year residence permit expired- and because of the backlogs with my country's embassy in London I wont be able to get a new passport until February 2018. Although I have been given my expired passport (which has the residence permit stamped in it) back by my country's embassy whilst they are processing the new one I am wondering if my wife and I can still proceed to submitting our joint application for Permanent residence? Or will the Home Office reject it because the passport itself has expired? (I have been made to understand that Non EEA applicants now get a credit card like permanent resident cards instead of an endorsement on the passport?)

2. As it will be a joint application which we plan to submit online what documentations should my wife provide and what documentations should I provide to ensure our application is not rejected. We both have our wage slips, tenancy agreements, and utility bills for the last 5 years? How many of each document for each year?


Once again, any valuable information based on personal experience would be extremely helpful as my wife and I would like to avoid paying exorbitant fees to lawyers for consultations if we can avoid it. Thank you ever so much in advance!