Should my wife apply for a permanent residence card now?

[barbapapa]

Hi,

As the "brexit" withdrawal agreement is taking shape and the UK decided to put in place a way for current resident to apply for permanent residence, I wonder if my wife should wait when such system is in place (March 2019) or should she apply for the permanent residence card now to facilitate the application in March 2019.

What do you think?

Note : I am British/French dual citizen and my wife is an Indian citizen. She is considered an EEA family member though because of the 2012 transition scheme. She also has a residence card to prove it.

[barbapapa]

Anybody in the same situation?

[NikiGio]

When does her current residence card expire?

[NikiGio]

When and where did you get married?
How long have you and her been in UK?
What do you do?
What does she do?
Do you have DCPR?
Do you intend to apply for British citizenship or not?
Do you have children? If so - when/where were they born?

Questions are relevant to answer your question. In case you have privacy concerns, just answer in a general way without giving precise answers.

[CR001]

When and where did you get married?
How long have you and her been in UK?
What do you do?
What does she do?
Do you have DCPR?
Do you intend to apply for British citizenship or not?
Do you have children? If so - when/where were they born?

Questions are relevant to answer your question. In case you have privacy concerns, just answer in a general way without giving precise answers.

Read the OPs post about citizenship again.

Dual British/French!!

Indian wife RC applied for in 2016.

eea-route-applications/residence-card-a ... 14781.html

[NikiGio]

Dual British/French!!

CR001 - will leave it to you to answer OP's question.

Given OP is dual British-EU citizen - not knowledgeable on British immigration path, so can't comment further. I understand Lounes case would protect their FoM rights, but only if EU citizen naturalised after arrival in UK.

[barbapapa]

Hi thanks for the comments.

To clarify, my wife entered the UK first time in 2010 as a EEA family member. She applied and got a residence card (forgot the dates) but we left the UK on August 2012 (so thanks to the transition scheme she is still considered EEA family member even though I am dual british/french ).
We then came back in June/July 2013. She applied for a new card in March 2016 and got it in September 2016.
The card is still valid but we were thinking to apply for permanent residence card since it has been more 5 continuous years she lived in the UK with me.

But since they are starting to put in place a new scheme (post brexit) (that if I understand correctly she will have to apply anyway), I was thinking she could wait instead of making a permanent residence card application now and having to wait for the result, potentially delaying everything. And then apply for the brexit scheme for settlement.

But maybe applying now for a permanent residence card will make things easier later ?

Since a permanent residence card has no real value. it just acknowledge the status. Could we just waste our time applying for it ?

[barbapapa]

Is there nobody in the same situation that wonder whether we should apply for a permanent residence card now or wait for brexit to finalize and apply for whatever settlement scheme they will put in place?

Part of me knows that the permanent residence card does not give right in itself and is only facilitating the process of using these rights, part of me also wonders if it will make it easier for post-brexit if my wife had already a Permanent residence card in hand.

Since all of these application take time and energy, I would like to know the best way forward.

Thanks

[NikiGio]

Have you done a bit of research on the forum? There are quite a few threads with cases similar to yours. For example:

eea-route-applications/do-dual-eu-uk-ci ... 28292.html

eea-route-applications/non-eea-spouse-a ... 64872.html

eea-route-applications/eea-person-is-ac ... l#p1523618

If your wife already has a Residence Card, then she's already on the EEA immigration path - so unless it expires before Settled Status comes into place, I'd wait for Settled Status.

At the moment, people are generally being told to wait to apply for Settled Status as the application serms to be much easier than the PR application - unless the applicant's existing papers expire soon or unless the applicant needs to obtain British citizenship quickly for some reason (eg. they're German).

Hope that helps.

[barbapapa]

Thanks for the reply.

As mentioned I know my wife's rights and she is definitely entitled to the permanent residence card if desired but wanted to get opinion simply in regard to the process and if it is better to wait brexit to finalize or not before wasting time and energy for the paper work.

You answered me and we will thus wait for the brexit situation to settle, before applying to the new settlement scheme. Her residence card is still valid for quite few years, so as you said, this should make it easier.

One thing that changed in the past year though is that I am become self-employed and got tax credits for a year while the business was starting up. Could it affect the decision ? (I guess that's another thread)

Thanks again

[NikiGio]

No, I don't think that changes anything.

[NikiGio]

Out of my own interest - given I want to know whether gaining British citizenship would affect my EU family members - through which route was your wife able to gain the Residence Card if you're British (& French)? Did you gain UK citizenship at birth or more recently?

Can you direct me to a link to read up about the 2012 Transition Scheme? I've never heard of it.

Currently reading up on McCarthy/Lounes and trying to understand implications.

[CR001]

Out of my own interest - given I want to know whether gaining British citizenship would affect my EU family members - through which route was your wife able to gain the Residence Card if you're British (& French)? Did you gain UK citizenship at birth or more recently?

Can you direct me to a link to read up about the 2012 Transition Scheme? I've never heard of it.

Currently reading up on McCarthy/Lounes and trying to understand implications.

See link below, which contains additional links.

eea-route-applications/advice-sought-ee ... l#p1350942

[NikiGio]

Smashing, thanks CR001.

[barbapapa]

Out of my own interest - given I want to know whether gaining British citizenship would affect my EU family members - through which route was your wife able to gain the Residence Card if you're British (& French)? Did you gain UK citizenship at birth or more recently?

Can you direct me to a link to read up about the 2012 Transition Scheme? I've never heard of it.

Currently reading up on McCarthy/Lounes and trying to understand implications.

I am British by birth but did not know that until later. My wife came to the UK in 2010 via a family permit (through my French nationality, not knowing I was even British too). We then left the UK in august 2012. We did not even know of the new regulation and the transitional agreement. We have just been lucky

[NikiGio]

Ah got it, mistery solved - couldn't understand how you'd been able to go via the EEA route if you were British, but from what I understand you didn't know you were British, you applied for your wife's papers via your French nationality, and the HO approved it. Good for you