EEA2 application for pre-2014 EEA FP

[frustratedbrit]

I am a British citizen and my spouse and stepson have qualified for EEA Family Permits under Surinder Singh since we have lived together elsewhere in the EU. We first qualified at the end of 2013 having lived in the Netherlands, before the Home Office introduced the "centre of life" test, and we lived in the UK together for a few months before we moved to live/work in Germany. We obtained family permits again to visit the UK when the old ones expired, and again to return back to live in the UK in 2015. I am now looking to get residency cards for my spouse and stepson, rather than continue to renew family permits. I understand that I do not need to fill out the overly long EEA(FM) application form, and that it is sufficient to send off:
- passports
- evidence of qualifying of Surinder Singh
- biometric application form
- passport-sized photos
- the 65 GBP fee per person
- a covering letter

My question is: how much evidence is required, given that we obtained family permits before they tightened the rules? According to the Home Office document published on 29th Sept 2015 giving guidance for Home Office staff assessing EEA cases, pages 43/44 about Transitional Arrangements for Surinder Singh cases state that if the family member held an EEA Family Permit on 1st Jan 2014 and that the permit did not expire before entering the UK (as was the case with us, because we entered the UK for a few months Dec 2013 - Feb 2014), then the centre-of-life test is not necessary. But what happens in my case is not spelt out explicitly.

This is not so important in my case in particular, because I have plenty of evidence that our centre of life did shift to Germany (although the examples in the staff guidance document worry me "Their children were born in France and are educated in a French school where the British citizen sits on the school council. In this example it is more than likely that the British citizen has moved the centre of their life to France."). However, in principle the question is important: if someone qualified for Surinder Singh prior to 1st Jan 2014, entered to live in the UK for a few months, but then did not get residency cards and left the country and are now returning, do they have to pass the centre-of-life test?

[Obie]

I have no difficulty in answering the question posed by your post in the affirmative . That you will need to show that your centre of life was moved.

As I have said many times before, that test has no basis is EU law and clearly unlawful.

However going by the letter of the Regulation, the amendments and the transitional provision. There appears to be no link whatsoever.

Yes you applied for EEA family permit before 1 January 2014. However you left the UK and made a new application.

Your application for EEA family permit did not lead to a subsequent application for Residence card upon entry , and therefore the new aplication falls under the new rules.

If your views are correct, then anyone who applied for EEA family permit , no matter how long ago , could make a claim to qualifications under the transitional provision

There is no wording in the transitional provision that offers any support to such interpretation .

[frustratedbrit]

Thanks for the speedy clarification, Obie.

[frustratedbrit]

(note that the title of this topic should have been "EEA2 application for pre-2014 EEA FP" - not 2004!)

Actually on closer inspection of the guidance notes and the EEA(FM) application forms (both 137-page April 2015 form and the 91-page July 2015 form), it really is ambiguous about whether an EEA Family Permit issued before Jan 2014 with subsequent entry into the UK is sufficient (i.e. regardless of whether the applicant later left the UK and has now returned without satisfying the stronger centre-of-life test). If anything, to me the natural interpretation is that it *is* sufficient.

On the July 2015 form, the relevant questions are in Section 9:
"9.14 If you were issued with an EEA family permit only, did you enter the UK before that
document expired?"
"9.15 Please confirm the date you entered the UK with your EEA family permit."
"9.16 Has the document mentioned above since been revoked or cancelled? Note: only tick ‘yes’ if you have received a formal notice from the Home Office saying that the document has been revoked, or if it was cancelled at the UK border by a Border Force (immigration) officer."

Answers of Yes to 9.14, and No to 9.16 means that section C and D can be skipped. These sections appear to be for the centre-of-life test.

This shouldn't make a difference for my case, but there may be some people out there for whom it makes a crucial difference.