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Hi. I'm a danish citizen who married a girl from the US last year in Denmark. We moved to London in the beginning of January, and she got a 6 month visa at the airport.

We are about to send in her EEA2 application, as soon as we get our health insurance running.

I understand that the processing times are 4-6 months. Her visa expires in about 4 months. Is she allowed to stay for the duration of the application, or do we need to leave the country if it isn't done before her current visa expires?

Also... is she allowed to work at any point before the EEA2 is granted, or do we have to wait for that and then get her an appointment at the JobCentre?

Thank you.

Applying for EEA2 is just a mere confirmation of residence right means optional as long as non-eea national is living with its partner and eea national is excercising its treaty rights such as worker, self employed, self sufficient and student etc. Let the 6 months EEA family permit to expire and once you submit the application you will receive COA (certificate of application) that most often confirm the right of work and the same can be sufficient for employment purpose too.

I suggest you read - EEA FAQs - Common Questions - Read before posting - Residence Card.

When your wife entered the UK, did she enter as US tourist or as a wife of a EEA national? It doesn't matter with regards to her rights but would matter if she has a stamp in her passport to prove her rights to potential employers.

Well we were married when she entered, but we didn't have our marriage certificate with us, so getting through was a big hassle, but they finally let us into the country, and stamped her passport and wrote "Six months" and then "NAE" and a 2-digit number and a 3-digit number. I can't read what the stamp says though. We have our marriage certificate now.

So I'm wondering if we can just book an appointment for her at JobCentre and get her a NiNo number, or if the situation when we came here has created a more complicated situation?

She doesn't need to leave the UK even f the 6 months pass.

Best course of action would be to apply for a Residence Card (EEA2). She will the get a Certificate of Application which is just an acknowledgement of the application but that would state she is entitled to work and can be used to get NI number. The CoA should take 2-4 weeks to arrive.

Jambo wrote:She doesn't need to leave the UK even f the 6 months pass.

Best course of action would be to apply for a Residence Card (EEA2). She will the get a Certificate of Application which is just an acknowledgement of the application but that would state she is entitled to work and can be used to get NI number. The CoA should take 2-4 weeks to arrive.

Wow that sounds fantastic. Are you 100% sure about that? Sorry for asking that, but we have been burned pretty bad before while in Denmark.

All above mentioned is correct and very well relevant to your case. Moreover, If during the processing time of your application you need your passport back then you can simply contact them to get back passport and it won't affect your application.

sheraz7 wrote:All above mentioned is correct and very well relevant to your case. Moreover, If during the processing time of your application you need your passport back then you can simply contact them to get back passport and it won't affect your application.

Thank you! And I know we will need our passports back

We went to JobCentre Plus today. They told her that she couldn't get a NiNo until she "got her passport updated at Home Office". Does that mean that they can give her a new stamp/visa if we contact them (she got the 6-month stamp because we didn't bring our marriage certificate upon entry into the UK), or does she need to apply for a residence card (EEA2-form) first?

fromdenmark wrote:We went to JobCentre Plus today. They told her that she couldn't get a NiNo until she "got her passport updated at Home Office". Does that mean that they can give her a new stamp/visa if we contact them (she got the 6-month stamp because we didn't bring our marriage certificate upon entry into the UK), or does she need to apply for a residence card (EEA2-form) first?

The job-centre is not correct on this point. In general, if an EU citizen is living in the UK in accordance with the regulations, their family members are entitled to be with them. The family members can work.

EUsmileWEallsmile wrote:The job-centre is not correct on this point. In general, if an EU citizen is living in the UK in accordance with the regulations, their family members are entitled to be with them. The family members can work.

I think it's because she got that stamp in her passport. Any idea how to "update it" or how to convince them that it's good enough?

You could take through a copy of directive 2004/38/EC. You should formally complain. This is a government branch not complying with the directive.

I can assure you that you are in the right, it is simply a matter of convincing them that you are. Should you suffer any hardship as a result, keep a record of that.

EUsmileWEallsmile wrote:You could take through a copy of directive 2004/38/EC. You should formally complain. This is a government branch not complying with the directive.

I can assure you that you are in the right, it is simply a matter of convincing them that you are. Should you suffer any hardship as a result, keep a record of that.

Okay. Thank you very much

Even with a NI number, she will find it difficult to find employment without proper documentation. I suggest you follow my advice:

Jambo wrote:Best course of action would be to apply for a Residence Card (EEA2). She will the get a Certificate of Application which is just an acknowledgement of the application but that would state she is entitled to work and can be used to get NI number. The CoA should take 2-4 weeks to arrive.

I agree with the advice Jambo posted. That said, the NI application should not have been refused.

Jambo wrote:Even with a NI number, she will find it difficult to find employment without proper documentation. I suggest you follow my advice:

Jambo wrote:Best course of action would be to apply for a Residence Card (EEA2). She will the get a Certificate of Application which is just an acknowledgement of the application but that would state she is entitled to work and can be used to get NI number. The CoA should take 2-4 weeks to arrive.

Yeah that's what we're planning on doing. I just wanted to see if there were any other options since we can't apply for it before I get back from Denmark in late March, and then I was supposed to go to Denmark again in late April, but we probably wont have the passports back by then.

Thanks again

EUsmileWEallsmile wrote:I agree with the advice Jambo posted. That said, the NI application should not have been refused.

Yeah. I guess it's an uncommon situation they didn't fully understand or something.

fromdenmark wrote:

Jambo wrote:Even with a NI number, she will find it difficult to find employment without proper documentation. I suggest you follow my advice:

Jambo wrote:Best course of action would be to apply for a Residence Card (EEA2). She will the get a Certificate of Application which is just an acknowledgement of the application but that would state she is entitled to work and can be used to get NI number. The CoA should take 2-4 weeks to arrive.

Yeah that's what we're planning on doing. I just wanted to see if there were any other options since we can't apply for it before I get back from Denmark in late March, and then I was supposed to go to Denmark again in late April, but we probably wont have the passports back by then.

Thanks again

Anytime you wish you can apply EEA2 RC for your non-EEA partner because its just merely the confirmation of residence right. If job center staff does not know the European law then you can even take the print out of the following page on which the visa issuing authority in uk (UKBA) itself confirm that EEA2 is just a mere confirmation and its not mandatory.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucit ... ts-family/

sheraz7 wrote:

fromdenmark wrote:

Jambo wrote:Even with a NI number, she will find it difficult to find employment without proper documentation. I suggest you follow my advice:

Jambo wrote:Best course of action would be to apply for a Residence Card (EEA2). She will the get a Certificate of Application which is just an acknowledgement of the application but that would state she is entitled to work and can be used to get NI number. The CoA should take 2-4 weeks to arrive.

Yeah that's what we're planning on doing. I just wanted to see if there were any other options since we can't apply for it before I get back from Denmark in late March, and then I was supposed to go to Denmark again in late April, but we probably wont have the passports back by then.

Thanks again

Anytime you wish you can apply EEA2 RC for your non-EEA partner because its just merely the confirmation of residence right. If job center staff does not know the European law then you can even take the print out of the following page on which the visa issuing authority in uk (UKBA) itself confirm that EEA2 is just a mere confirmation and its not mandatory.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucit ... ts-family/

Good idea. I think we will just send in the EEA2, and then bring that a print-out of that page when we go to the jobcentre again.

We have signed up for a health insurance with AXA, and it starts on 31st March. Can we send the application before that without changing the date, or does it need to be active on the day that we send the application? Just trying to save a bit of money where we can

fromdenmark wrote:We have signed up for a health insurance with AXA, and it starts on 31st March. Can we send the application before that without changing the date, or does it need to be active on the day that we send the application? Just trying to save a bit of money where we can

Normally for eea2 application the treaty rights being excercised by EEA national at the time of application is needed. So based on this sense the health plan must have been started at the time of making application for making case more stronger.

fromdenmark wrote:We have signed up for a health insurance with AXA, and it starts on 31st March. Can we send the application before that without changing the date, or does it need to be active on the day that we send the application? Just trying to save a bit of money where we can :)

fromdenmark wrote:We moved to London in the beginning of January.

You have three months before you need to be exercising treaty rights. So if you moved say on 1st Jan, 31st March is fine.

fromdenmark wrote: We moved to London in the beginning of January.

If you and EEA partner are moved to UK in January then as EUsmileweAllsmile said is correct that you can start your health insurance plan on 31st March because 1st three months an EEA national is exempted to exercise any treaty. Otherwise plan must have been started at the time of making application.

It might also be useful to point this out in a covering letter in case it is overlooked by the caseworker.

Thank you all. We can't send in our case before I get back from Denmark with my passport anyway, so I think we'll just wait to send it until 31st March, that way the insurance was active when we sent the application