Permanent Residence Permit - Health Insurance

[FSF]

I am a German national and want to apply for a permanent residence permit in order to acquire British citizenship. I have recently started filling in the online application, but stumbled over the question of health insurance. Before moving to the UK I did not take out a health insurance to cover me in the UK. I have lived for five consecutive years in the UK. During this period I was a student. Does that mean that because I did not hold comprehensive sickness insurance during this period, I am not eligible for a permanent residence permit? While living in the UK, I have also worked part-time, paying tax and national insurance for more than 3.5 years now. Does this mean that I do not need to meet the requirement of comprehensive sickness insurance for this period because I am insured via the NHS for this period? Any help with these two questions is much appreciated!

[NikiGio]

Have a look at:

eea-route-applications/eu-citizen-exerc ... e#p1691832

eea-route-applications/my-5-years-eea-f ... e#p1686517

Part-time work could count as exercising treaty rights, so long as it is not what the HO call "marginal or supplementary" work.

I have lived for five consecutive years in the UK. During this period I was a student. Does that mean that because I did not hold comprehensive sickness insurance during this period, I am not eligible for a permanent residence permit?

Do you have an EHIC card issued by Germany, and does it cover the whole of your student period? This is the equivalent of CSI. If you didn't have EHIC or CSI, unfortunately this means you can't apply for PR now (you would be able to apply either after 5 years of work or after 5 years of studying with CSI or EHIC), but you will be able to apply for Settled Status from March.

I am a German national and want to apply for a permanent residence permit in order to acquire British citizenship.

Note that, unless Germany change their rules (there's a debate this Friday), German nationals must naturalise as British before March in order to keep the German nationality. They also need permission from Germany (Beibehaltungsgenehmigung) before having the BC ceremony. There's a whole lot of discussion about this at the moment. There are a few threads on this on here - have a look at:

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

[FSF]

Thanks so much! This is really helpful. I guess all I can do is to wait for settled status, as you said.

[NikiGio]