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Is that gonna help my non-EU husband if I become BC?

Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 5:59 pm
by ohojska
Just at the beginning I would like to apologise if our situation was described previously on the forum but I couldn't find the relevant topic.
Our history just to avoid questions about the timescale:

1. 27.11.2004 non-EU husband(not married at the time) came to UK as a student and successfully was extending his student visa till we got married.
2. 10.07.2008 Me- Polish citizen came to UK
3. 21.07.2008 I got employed and change job only once since that time. Currently still employed and didn't have even 1 day break in my employment form that day. On that time I registered as well under WRS(it was a requirement)
4. We got married on the 14.10.2009
5. 19.03.2010 my non-EU husband got resident card under the EEA2, which is valid until 19.03.2015
6. from the 21.07.2013 I believe I hold PR( Under European law you do not need to obtain documentation confirming your right of residence in the UK if you are a national of a country in the EEA.) on the basis that for a continuos 5 years I exercised treaty rights in UK as a employee( have the WRS certificate, p60's and other supporting documents to prove that). I decided not to apply for the PR under the EEA3
7. In 3 weeks time I'm due to have our son who I believe will be granted BC because before he is born I was granted PR

Now my question is: does it make any sense to apply in July 2014 for my BC-Poland allows to have a dual citizenship. I'm aware that my husband still needs to wait until 19.03.2015 till his current visa finish. I believe that after that date he can be granted PR automatically (You do not need to obtain documents confirming your right of residence in the UK if you are a family member of an EEA national.) I know as well that he meant to hold PR continuously for a min 1 year before he can apply for a BC. But at the same time HO webside says "You must be free from immigration time restrictions when you apply for naturalisation. Unless you are married to or the civil partner of a British citizen, you should have been free from immigration time restrictions during the last 12 months of the residential qualifying period". So what I was wondering if in 2014 I become BC, can he skip that 1 year waiting after his PR will be granted or you can't jump form the EU path to the British path once I got the citizenship?
I just wanted to finish this whole process as soon as possible since he is here already 9 years and we wanted to go to Poland for some time. If he applies for PR under EEA4 that will take probably another 6 moths + 1 year till he can apply for BC. That will mean as well once my maternity finish I will have to come back to work to support his EEA4 in the future to prove that I exercise treaty rights...
Thank you in advance for or suggestions

Re: Is that gonna help my non-EU husband if I become BC?

Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 6:39 pm
by jotter
ohojska wrote:Just at the beginning I would like to apologise if our situation was described previously on the forum but I couldn't find the relevant topic.
Our history just to avoid questions about the timescale:

1. 27.11.2004 non-EU husband(not married at the time) came to UK as a student and successfully was extending his student visa till we got married.
2. 10.07.2008 Me- Polish citizen came to UK
3. 21.07.2008 I got employed and change job only once since that time. Currently still employed and didn't have even 1 day break in my employment form that day. On that time I registered as well under WRS(it was a requirement)
4. We got married on the 14.10.2009
5. 19.03.2010 my non-EU husband got resident card under the EEA2, which is valid until 19.03.2015
6. from the 21.07.2013 I believe I hold PR( Under European law you do not need to obtain documentation confirming your right of residence in the UK if you are a national of a country in the EEA.) on the basis that for a continuos 5 years I exercised treaty rights in UK as a employee( have the WRS certificate, p60's and other supporting documents to prove that). I decided not to apply for the PR under the EEA3
7. In 3 weeks time I'm due to have our son who I believe will be granted BC because before he is born I was granted PR

Now my question is: does it make any sense to apply in July 2014 for my BC-Poland allows to have a dual citizenship. I'm aware that my husband still needs to wait until 19.03.2015 till his current visa finish. I believe that after that date he can be granted PR automatically (You do not need to obtain documents confirming your right of residence in the UK if you are a family member of an EEA national.) I know as well that he meant to hold PR continuously for a min 1 year before he can apply for a BC. But at the same time HO webside says "You must be free from immigration time restrictions when you apply for naturalisation. Unless you are married to or the civil partner of a British citizen, you should have been free from immigration time restrictions during the last 12 months of the residential qualifying period". So what I was wondering if in 2014 I become BC, can he skip that 1 year waiting after his PR will be granted or you can't jump form the EU path to the British path once I got the citizenship?
I just wanted to finish this whole process as soon as possible since he is here already 9 years and we wanted to go to Poland for some time. If he applies for PR under EEA4 that will take probably another 6 moths + 1 year till he can apply for BC. That will mean as well once my maternity finish I will have to come back to work to support his EEA4 in the future to prove that I exercise treaty rights...
Thank you in advance for or suggestions
Your husband's treaty rights period does not have to start from when he got his EEA2. It can actually start from the day you got married. So he should be eligible for PR in 14.10.2014 and could actually apply for BC on 14.10.2015 (though in that case he would need to submit five years worth of treaty rights evidence with the BC application). That's without you getting BC. You might be able to speed it up further if you get your BC in 2014. I'll let a UK-route expert confirm that.

Re: your son, yes he will be British from birth. Again, since you don't have a PR card (even though you do have PR) currently you would need to submit 5 years worth of treaty rights evidence if you wanted to get him a British passport straight after birth.

Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 11:21 pm
by Jambo
If you are BC, your husband doesn't need to wait 1 year after PR so he can apply for BC in Oct 2014 (5 years after your marriage).

If you are not BC, your husband will need to wait 1 year so can apply in Oct 2015.

Re: Is that gonna help my non-EU husband if I become BC?

Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 11:16 am
by ohojska
Thank you Jumbo and Jotter for you reply.
I just wanted to know based on what you made that conclusion. Is it just according to what I have read on the HO webside or sth else.Do you know any couples with the situation as us. I found as well some information that there were law changes in 2012 which I'm not sure if would affect our case (Under EC law the non-EEA national family members of an EEA national derive a right of residence in the UK through the EEA national provided that the EEA national has a right to reside under the 2006 Regulations.
Regulation 2(1) defines an EEA national as “a national of an EEA State who is not also a United Kingdom national”. This means that a person who is a UK national cannot be considered an EEA national under the Regulations, including where they also hold nationality of another EEA member state. This does not impact on the rights of family members of UK nationals under Regulation 9.For transitional arrangements see [insert reference]
As confirmation of this right of residence, non-EEA national family members may apply for a residence card, which if issued, will be valid for 5 years, or shall be valid for the envisaged period of residence in the UK of the EEA national (if this is a shorter period of time). This refers to regulation 17(6)(a) and (b) of the 2006 Regulations.)

How do I know as well that my husbands is entitled to PR 5 years after the marriage date not 5 years after his visa was issued?

I'm sorry for questioning your opinion. Just want to be sure before we decide to apply for anything to minimise our chance of refusal.

Re: Is that gonna help my non-EU husband if I become BC?

Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 3:37 pm
by jotter
ohojska wrote:Thank you Jumbo and Jotter for you reply.
I just wanted to know based on what you made that conclusion. Is it just according to what I have read on the HO webside or sth else.Do you know any couples with the situation as us. I found as well some information that there were law changes in 2012 which I'm not sure if would affect our case (Under EC law the non-EEA national family members of an EEA national derive a right of residence in the UK through the EEA national provided that the EEA national has a right to reside under the 2006 Regulations.
Regulation 2(1) defines an EEA national as “a national of an EEA State who is not also a United Kingdom national”. This means that a person who is a UK national cannot be considered an EEA national under the Regulations, including where they also hold nationality of another EEA member state. This does not impact on the rights of family members of UK nationals under Regulation 9.For transitional arrangements see [insert reference]
As confirmation of this right of residence, non-EEA national family members may apply for a residence card, which if issued, will be valid for 5 years, or shall be valid for the envisaged period of residence in the UK of the EEA national (if this is a shorter period of time). This refers to regulation 17(6)(a) and (b) of the 2006 Regulations.)

How do I know as well that my husbands is entitled to PR 5 years after the marriage date not 5 years after his visa was issued?

I'm sorry for questioning your opinion. Just want to be sure before we decide to apply for anything to minimise our chance of refusal.
Hi Ohojska,

Yes, as far as I understand, the regulation 2(1) that you mentioned would effect your husband if you became a British citizen before he got permanent residence as a non-EEA family member. It wouldn't immediately because he has his EEA2 but it could if he wanted to either renew the EEA2 or apply for EEA4. It might be wise (and certainly cheaper) if you wait until your husband acquires his permanent residence in Oct 2014 before you go for your BC. Once he has his permanent residency his status is no longer dependent upon yours.

Re: your last question, if you look at the criteria for acquiring permanent residence on the UKBA website, there is no mention of a requirement to have EEA2. EEA family members get the EEA2 because it makes their life easier in terms of leaving, entering and working in the UK, but when it comes to doing an EEA4, whether he has an EEA2 is irrelevant. What matters is that he can prove that he has been the spouse of an EEA national for at least 5 years (marriage certificate) and that the EEA national has been continuously exercising treaty rights throughout that time (proof of your employment and residence in the UK).

Re: Is that gonna help my non-EU husband if I become BC?

Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 3:48 pm
by ohojska
So if I understand correctly from 14.10.2014(our 5th wedding anniversary) my husband would be eligible to have his automatic PR. Literally the day after I could apply for my BC which should be a quick process because my case is very straight forward. Once I obtain my BC he could apply the next day for his BC without staying 1 year under PR. Please correct me if I misunderstand sth.

Re: Is that gonna help my non-EU husband if I become BC?

Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 4:02 pm
by jotter
ohojska wrote:So if I understand correctly from 14.10.2014(our 5th wedding anniversary) my husband would be eligible to have his automatic PR.
True
ohojska wrote:Literally the day after I could apply for my BC which should be a quick process because my case is very straight forward.
If this is just about doing things asap then you don't even need to wait that long, you can already apply in July. The point of waiting until your husband's PR is if he wanted to live as a permanent resident under the EEA regulations. If you were to naturalise sooner then it could cause issues if he wanted to go for an EEA4. This doesn't necessarily have any bearing in the case that he wanted to switch to the UK route or move straight on to BC himself.
ohojska wrote:Once I obtain my BC he could apply the next day for his BC without staying 1 year under PR. Please correct me if I misunderstand sth.
On that point I'd like to hear the comments of someone who is more familiar with UK regulations, since if your husband applied immediately after your BC - rather than waiting a full 12 months of PR - then he would not have met the requirements for citizenship as the family member of an EEA national (which is 5 years of treaty rights + 1 year of PR), so the question is whether he would have met the requirements as the spouse of a British citizen. My comments in the previous post did not take into consideration your husband wanting to apply for BC so quickly after obtaining PR.

Re: Is that gonna help my non-EU husband if I become BC?

Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 8:11 pm
by Jambo
ohojska wrote:So if I understand correctly from 14.10.2014(our 5th wedding anniversary) my husband would be eligible to have his automatic PR. Literally the day after I could apply for my BC which should be a quick process because my case is very straight forward. Once I obtain my BC he could apply the next day for his BC without staying 1 year under PR. Please correct me if I misunderstand sth.
You don't need to wait until he obtain PR in order for you to apply for BC. The changes to regulation (2) don't affect your case. It is only for new applications.

The day he obtain PR, he can apply for BC (assuming you are BC by then).

Re: Is that gonna help my non-EU husband if I become BC?

Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 8:51 pm
by ohojska
Thank you both for your opinion. Hopefully those rules won't change till next year and we will be able to apply successfully.