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Hello everyone,

I live in UK on family basis with my girlfriend. We have a 10-month old baby. She and the baby have Portuguese citizenship, I am Bulgarian. As you know, there are certain restrictions for Bulgarians and Romanians to access freely the UK labor market. But if I am considered as a Family Member of a EEC Treaty Worker, I would receive full access to the labor market without any application for Work Permit of any kind. So, here is the big question - am I Family member or not? If yes, what application form I must use, because of the special status of Bulgaria and Romania as newly accepted countries in EU?

Thanks in advance.
Martin

Martin, you are a family member of an EU-25 citizen. I assume you have been living together for quite a while if you have a 10-month old baby (congratulations by the way!).

Is your wife working?

What is your history in the UK? Did you come on a working visa? How long have you been in the UK?

We have arrived in UK about a month ago. I have applied for NI with the idea to start as self-employed, but I got a refusal. Before that, we used to live in Bulgaria and France.
I don't have working visa. And as Bulgaria is EU member state, I need only work permit to work as employee. Or to be acknowledged as family member. If we were married - I receive this right automatically, but in our case I was not sure if I am "family member"...

How long have you been living together?

If we were married - I receive this right automatically, but in our case I was not sure if I am "family member"...

Given the two of you are not married, you cannot possibly be within the definition of "family member". However you might possibly be within the definition of "extended family member", but in order for anyone to form an opinion as to whether you are within that definition, or not, you do need to say how long the two of you have been living together.

About 2 years. But the problem is that we don't have big documentation trail like common bank account, property rental contracts, utility bills etc. we were living in my own flat and in her parent's house. Due to frequent travel between Bulgaria and France, I didn't made address registration for her in Bulgaria and for me in France. The only "hard evidence" is the baby I am not sure if logs from Facebook or Skype would serve for the purpose of setting an initial point of our relationship.

A baby is generally pretty convincing evidence that you are an extended family member.

kaosbg wrote:I have applied for NI with the idea to start as self-employed, but I got a refusal. Before that, we used to live in Bulgaria and France.
I don't have working visa. And as Bulgaria is EU member state, I need only work permit to work as employee. Or to be acknowledged as family member. If we were married - I receive this right automatically, but in our case I was not sure if I am "family member"...

Why were you refused the NI number?
Do you need an NI number to be self employed?

Now yes. Before you had to register as Self-employed and then you apply for NI, but now it is reversed. The refusal explanation was "not enough evidences", although a friend of my with almost identical paper proof was given NI In general, NI for Bulgarians and Romanians is "National lottery"

kaosbg wrote:Now yes. Before you had to register as Self-employed and then you apply for NI, but now it is reversed. The refusal explanation was "not enough evidences", although a friend of my with almost identical paper proof was given NI :) In general, NI for Bulgarians and Romanians is "National lottery" :)

Please, what exactly was the reason for the refusal.

"Not enough evidences of self-employment."

kaosbg wrote:"Not enough evidences of self-employment."

So what did you say then? What evidence did they want to see?

This quote also suggests you do not need the NI card to be self employed

It is a frequently met refusal reason, given to Bulgarians and Romanians. I.e. officially we have the right to be self-employed, but the practice is different. About 75% of the applicants from these two countries receive
refusal with this reason. The lucky ones wait more than 3 months for NI. Or students waiting for Yellow card more than 8-9 months. These practices are used to discourage the immigration of Bulgarians and Romanians in UK.

So, my alternatives are LTD, new application, marriage or acknowledgement as Family member.