Please Help! re-submitting my second PR application

[moon_flower]

Dear forum members,

I would really appreciate any help or advice you could give me! Thank you very much in advance!

I am non-EEA national and been married to a Polish national since May 2006. My husband has been living in the UK for over 5 years and working as a self-employed. Shortly before my 5 years visa expired in October 2011 I've applied for Permanent Residence permit via EEA4 application. Unfortunately my application was returned by HO. In the enclosed letter the case worker states that this is NOT a refusal but should I decide to re-apply I need to provide more evidence of my husband exercising his treaty rights in the UK.

Please see the extract from the letter:

To establish a right of residence, and therefore eligibility for a Permanent Residence Card, the following additional evidence will be needed:-

Evidence of Exercising Treaty Rights in the UK for a minimum of 5 years (D):

Unfortunately, you did not provide sufficient evidence to show that the EEA national sponsor has been exercising Treaty rights for a continuous five year period.

Should a fresh application be made, it will need to include the following:
...
-For periods of self-employment: We required original evidence from HM Revenue and Customs that tax and National Insurance has been paid for each consecutive period. Evidence which shows income earned such as trading accounts, bank statements and original accountant's letters. Invoices and /or customer testemonials in respect of work donce and evidence of advertising/ business promotion materials (e.g. entries in relevant trade directories such as Yell.com and /or advertisements in local or national media).
...

Now I am in a process of re-applying for PR. I've collected the following documents to prove that he exercised his treaty rights:

1. The accountant letters for each year from 2006 to 2010 that states my husbands income and his self-employed status

2. Letters from HMRC for each year from 2006 to 2010 with the confirmation of all the Tax and NI Insurance paid.

3. All the receipts we could find for his business expenses, like materials, tools, etc for his work for the period of 2006-2010.

4. Bank Statements showing his income - mainly cash deposits.

To make sure that this time I've got all the supporting documents required, I had a consultation with an immigration lawyer, who told me that my chances are 50/50. He said we must also provide all the invoices for my husband's work and letters of reference from his clients for the last 5 years and also all the advertisements, promotions he did for his business. He said there has to be some kind of link between the tax/NI payments, receipts and bank cash deposits to prove that they all belong to the same person and the result of his self-employed work.

I don't know what to do, we didn't keep any of his invoices. Also, trying to chase all previous clients for the letters of reference sounds like a lot of leg work, did anyone else had to do that for EEA4 application? In regards to promoting his business, he earns not much and relies on word of mouth promotions. We never posted any adverts, other then notes of the local shop window.

I have the following questions:

1. What can I do about the missing invoices, is this really going to dramaticaly reduce my chances of getting the permit, even though we have letters from HMRC office and accountant?

2. We don't have a letter from HM Revenue for tax payment in 2011 because he didn't submit his tax for the last year yet. Is this going to be a problem? Should we wait till his accountant submits the documents for tax and get the confirmation before applying? Or I can just explain the situation in the covering letter or get the letter from the accountant explaining this?

3. Do you think it will be safer to apply with some help from a lawyer? They are so expensive though! The quotes I had were between £600 - £2000 for the EEA4 application, which is completely free if I do it myself. This is an enormous expense for us, almost all our savings, but if my situation is so hopeless do you think I have more chances when applying with some legal help? The whole situation is so stressful, we both just want this to be over and live in peace.

5. Lastly, slightly unrelated question. We've noticed that lots of our letters went missing from our current address. To be safe I'd prefer for my supporting documents and our passports to be returned to my sister's address as she doesn't have a common hall and all letters will go directly to her flat. Can I put her address as a return address for the application instead of our address? Or this is not a good idea?

Thank you so much!!!

[moon_flower]

Not sure why I am not getting any replies I am really desperate for some answers but I maybe my questions are not adding anything interesting to this forum? Then I am very sorry for wasting everyone's time, but could you please kindly point me to where I can get some advice on my questions. Please please please!!!!!

[nonspecifics]

Sorry I am not directly answering all your questions, but maybe this response might stimulate the discussion of your topic.


EEA4 form section 1.16 allows you to put a correspondence address which is different from your home address. ( I would include an explanation on a cover letter explaining why the correspondence address is different.)

If your EEA4 application is for five years from May 2006 then the evidence would need to cover the full five year period up to May 2011.

If the business was advertised in a shop window, you could ask the shop to put in another advert and to confirm you paid them to advertise the business in their shop window in the past too at various times.


On the EEA3 form it says as evidence of self-employment:

"For time spent in self-employment: this can include evidence to show you are self-employed, e.g. a lease on business premises, Inland Revenue self-assessment forms, business bank statements, invoices or receipts or National Insurance contributions."

Therefore, they want evidence that there is a business operating and there are various ways of proving that.

The housing rights website says:

"Proving self-employment

Proof of self-employment may be an issue. Documentation of self-employment may be provided by:

an application to HMRC to register for tax and NI payments as self-employed.


holding a Unique Tax Reference number that indicates self-employment
letters from HMRC (for example demands for payment of national insurance or tax, or to send in the annual self-assessment tax form)

a Construction Industry Scheme card (there are specific arrangements for self-employment in the construction industry and the card provides proof of self-employment and that the holder has passed the construction site safety requirements)

evidence that a business has been established (a lease on premises, purchase of equipment, publicity material).

The fact that someone may not have registered or attempted to register as self-employed does not mean that they are not self-employed, although registration is a legal requirement, and people should be advised of possible consequences if they do not register."