EEA Family Member's permanent residence card

[Nora23]

Hi

I am an EEA citizen and received my British passport a month ago. My husband is on a 5 year EEA Family Member visa expiring in February 2018 so he is about to apply for a permanent residence card. I have three questions:

1. Can he apply for permanent residence card or he needs to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain? I assume as he is applying through my EEA status, he can use the permanent residence card application but I am not 100% about it.

2. We got married in August 2011 but he received his EEA Family Member visa only in February 2013. Can we start counting the 5 years leaving together from 2011 or do we need to consider the start date of his visa? We got mixed information about it so we are not sure. It would make the documentation much easier for us if we could count the years from 2011 that's why it matters.

3. If he receives his permanent residence card, can he apply straight away for naturalization as we have been living together for 6 and a half years now?

Any help would be really appreciated!

[dan1988uk]

You became a British citizen so you can not use EEA routes anymore and you can not sponsor anymore your non EEA family member, it can be a problem now for the two of you, everyone suggests not to became British if you are in the UK sponsoring a non EEA family member.

[GMB]

I think you may have narrowly dodged a very nasty bullet on this. As dan1988 says above, generally speaking as soon as an EEA national becomes a UK citizen anything involving the EEA route is closed off for them. But there are two things that MAY save you/him:

1. Assuming that you were exercising treaty rights in the UK continually from your date of marriage onwards, and he was in the UK the whole time barring permitted absences, then he acquired Permanent Residence status in Aug 2016 (the clocks starts from your date of marriage as long as you were exercising treaty rights in the UK). Provided you were not a UK citizen in Aug 2016, then he's fine. He can apply for his PR card today. If, however, there are any problems with this (e.g., he was out of the country more than the allowed period of time) then you need to know about the second thing, which is:

2. The McCarthy Transitional Arrangement -- this rule says that anyone who had a right to reside in the UK on 16 Jul 2012 and on 16 Oct 2012 either a) had an EEA Residence Card (I hope that's what you mean by "EEA Family Member visa") or b) had made an application for an EEA RC, can continue to benefit from the EEA route even if their EEA sponsor later becomes a UK citizen. If he got his EEA RC in Feb 2013 then it's possible he submitted the application prior to the cutoff date of 16 Oct 2012, in which case he falls under the McCarthy TA and you becoming a UK citizen can't affect him regardless of whether or not he'd achieved PR yet.

And yes, once he receives his permanent residence card he can immediately apply for naturalization because he is married to a UK citizen, so he does not need to have settled status for one year.

[Nora23]

Hi

Thank you for your reply.

1. He was in the UK all the time (left only for few days for holidays and the same is true for me) and actually we wanted to apply back then in 2016 when a lawyer said we had to consider the date of his visa rather than the marriage date We could have saved so much trouble if we didn't listen to him.

2. To be honest, I am not sure when he submitted the application but if he had the right in 2016 then can we just ignore these past two years? Or do we need to fill up the application until now? I know I still need to include that I have received my British nationality but I got it only in November 2017.

Thank you again for your answer!

[GMB]

He can apply for PR using the five-year period from Aug 2011 to Aug 2016, or any other five-year period between Aug 2011 and the exact date you got your UK citizenship (the date of the ceremony). So if he's missing some documentation, for instance, from Aug/Sep 2011, he can just start his five years at Oct 2011 instead.

I looked over the EEA(PR) form, and I have to say I'm not totally sure how to fill in Section 2 in your/his case. When I applied my wife had not yet become a UK citizen, so identifying her current nationality (2.9) and other nationalities (2.10, 2.11) was straightforward for me. I am not 100% sure on this, but in your/his case I'd probably identify your current nationality as your EEA one (2.9) but then list British in other nationalities held (2.11). I would write a note right on the form pointing out that UK citizenship was acquired LONG AFTER the five-year period he is using for qualification purposes. Use a highlighter on it so they can't miss it. Might even want to include a letter referring to sections 2.9 and 2.11 and stating the same thing again. Don't ever underestimate their almost supernatural powers to overlook and/or misinterpret information.

[Nora23]

Hi

This is exactly what I was thinking too regarding Section 2 in the application. I will make sure they don't miss the point

Thank you again for your help, I really appreciate it.