I am an EU citizen, has lived here in the UK lawfully since July 2013. I have been self-employed continuously since then and have filed tax returns for 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 (recent tax year that ended 5 April 2018).
My wife, non EU, and I married in September 2013. She got an EEA family permit in Nov 2013 and granted a temporary residence card in March 2014.
As far as I know, she'll be eligible for a permanent residency card from September 2013 and I'll be eligible from July 2013.
We would like to stay here, of course, and we were wondering what is the best next step.
The home office of course claims we should wait to the new 'settled status' scheme to open for applications, but I am unsure if we should actually wait, for two main reasons:
1. My wife is a non-EU, here residence card expires in mid March 2019, around 2 weeks before the UK leaves the EU. I know she can still live here lawfully, but I do not want any issues. She doesn't have a biometric card, so either way I think the settled status for her will require providing fingerprint etc so isn't it better just apply for a residence card?
2. We would like to become British citizens next year (lawfully I'm pretty sure we'll be able to do it in September 2019). Will we be able to do it with a mere settled person document or would a permanent residence card be better?
Many thanks in advance!
