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Hello,

I have been living in the UK for 6.5 years, since 2008. From 2008 to 2013 I was studying in the university and was covered by the Estonian health insurance valid throughout Europe. Since 2013 till today I am in full time employment paying NHS contributions.

It feels like I completely meet the eligibility criteria, although there is one single point I remain unsure about.

The Home Office website state that I must have held the EEAPR (Permanent Residency for EEA nationals) for at least 12 months prior to the naturalisation application. I gave a call to Home Office today and five(!) advisors told me that this should not be a problem as long as I would be eligible if I had applied one year ago. To put it simply, if I apply for the naturalisation on the 1st of June 2015 then I should have been eligible to the permanent residency one year before, in June 2014.

This seems reasonable to me as I've been exercising EU treaty rights for 6.5 years, and this is longer than a required minimum. Even though Home Office advisors told me so, I could not find any information about this on the net.

I've been thinking of getting the legal advice but seems that most of those law firms charge for being able to write and read in English, i.e. filling in the application form for the client.

I really want to avoid applying for permanent residency card and waiting the whole year till I can apply for the Britsh passport. Could anyone please confirm if what Home Office advisors told me is true? Please consider the fact that Estonia is A8 category country and therefore some limitations do apply (like no automatic PR after 5 years in the UK).

Thanks,
Vlad

You need to apply for Naturalisation (Form AN) before you can apply for a passport.

Advisors are correct. You obtain Permanent Residency automatically after exercising Treaty rights continuously for 5 years so you should be fine. Although, it's safest to apply for PR first and have your status confirmed which costs £55 when naturalisation fee is £1005 which you'll be risking to lose if you hadn't obtained Permanent Residency for some reason.

How long did it take for you to start working after graduation?

Thank you very much for the reply. I sure need to apply for naturalisation, I was just under the impression that applying for the passport and naturalisation are essentially the same thing. Sorry for the confusion.

The problem with PR is that I need to have held it for 12 month prior to the naturalisation application. Therefore, I am loosing the whole year if I decide to do this safely and apply for PR first. At the same time £1005 is a lot of money and I do not want to waste it, so I am trying to make sure I am eligible.

I graduated in January 2013 and got the job in Match 2013.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... r_2015.pdf
It says in the guidelines:

Only when an A8 national has completed the necessary 12 months employment under
the WRS will they be considered to be in the UK and exercising their treaty rights.
However, time spent as a registered worker on the Workers Registration Scheme will
count towards the five year qualifying period for permanent residence.
A8 nationals who are here in another capacity, e.g. student / self-sufficient / self-employed,
have a right of residence here without registering under the Scheme.

This does seem as if I had automatic PR after 5 years then?

Yours seems straightforward enough in terms of essentially studies followed by employment. You've been under PR for the last 1.5 years, despite not having applied for it.

I would go ahead and apply but explain it all very clearly so that no mistakes can be made in terms of how you qualified for the 5 years and what evidence goes with it.