Irish living in UK able to apply for spouse visa?

[Begrand]

Hi there,

I've been having a hard time trying to find an answer to this, so any help would be appreciated. I am originally from Ireland and have lived in the UK since September 2013.

I know that Irish citizens do not need to apply for settled status/permanent residency at the moment. However, is it possible for an Irish citizen living in UK to act as the sponsor for their partner coming over on a fiance/spouse visa? I am thinking that I will need to apply officially for permanent residency once I have been here for 5 years before we are able to put our application in? I just do not want to have to pay even more money for something I might not need...

Again, any help would be great!

[New on forum]

Hi there,

I've been having a hard time trying to find an answer to this, so any help would be appreciated. I am originally from Ireland and have lived in the UK since September 2013.

I know that Irish citizens do not need to apply for settled status/permanent residency at the moment. However, is it possible for an Irish citizen living in UK to act as the sponsor for their partner coming over on a fiance/spouse visa? I am thinking that I will need to apply officially for permanent residency once I have been here for 5 years before we are able to put our application in? I just do not want to have to pay even more money for something I might not need...

Again, any help would be great!

You can sponsor same as any British citizen can.
As an Irish citizen you have settled status upon arrival.
If you choose to sponsor under uk immigration rules you will need to satisfy financial requirements.
You can also sponsor under eu regulations and for that you don’t have to have PR.
If you working or self employed then that’s sufficient to meet the requirements for a family permit under EU rules.

[Richard W]

The EEA Regulations don't permit the sponsoring of fiancées, only of spouses and durable partners. Technically, if OP and fiancée flew direct to the UK from her home country, her visa would be invalid because the OP would lose settled status as an Irish person (to be precise, his 'qualifying CTA entitlement') by entering the UK from outside the Common Travel Area. I haven’t heard of this rule being applied.