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Hi all

I have a complicated case and would love some advice. My husband (the EEA national) is an IT contractor and he is the sole employee of a limited liability company that he owns. It's not the same thing as being self employed - the company is registered with Company's House and everything else. The way it works is that his company contracts out his labour to recruitment agencies who then place him in IT roles within other companies, but he remains employed by only his company and draws a regular salary regardless of whether he's doing any contract work.

But because he is the only employee, his payslips aren't fancy looking and his own name is at the bottom of the letter from his employer. To further complicate things, his income is below the taxable threshold for NI, although he does pay income tax and his company pays corporation tax and makes national insurance contributions.

Has anyone had any experience applying as the sole employee of their own company? We sent in two applications last year as self-employed and were rejected both times on the grounds that we hadn't proved he was exercising treaty rights. Now, on the advice of a lawyer, we're applying with him as an employee. It's incredibly frustrating - we've been sending in mountains of evidence and he's working legally and paying tax, but we aren't ticking the boxes that the robots in the H.O. want us to.

Thanks!

If your company is ltd,then why not you take dividends from your company instead of salary.
Your company must be active in HMRC record.
Well nothing wrong in salary as well.
Fancy looking payslips not required,
Hand written payslips from employers acceptable.
Can you let us know which documents are you going to sent this time?

If you are doubtful but still an EEA national can be a qualified person by becoming self sufficient on the income being earned. But there is a need to buy medical insurance for all family members.

I think in community law, a worker is defined as someone who undertake effective and genuine activity, under the supervision of another, for which he or she receives re numeration.

Provided you partner meets this criteria. He is a worker under community law.

The UKBA website give a very long list of documents to support applications like this; totally over the top IMO.

I have my own company and gave them;

Copy of company corporation tax return
Copy of company P35 (PAYE annual return)
Letter on company letterhead confirming employment signed by company secretary (my father).

They accepted this without question and the EEA FP was issued swiftly

good luck

Mark

Thanks for the responses. I ended up sending in two completely packed binders full of information and I'm still nervous that I missed something. (The postage due sucked incidentally.)

In the binder explaining why my husband does in fact exercise treaty rights, I sent: a year's worth of pay slips, his personal bank statements showing money coming in from the company, a letter from himself confirming both the structure of the company and that he is an employee, a letter from the company's accountant confirming the structure of the company and that he is up to date with his taxes and everything else, the company's bank statements (showing invoices paid in, corporation tax paid out, VAT paid out, etc), a year's worth of contracts and invoices for the work he provided as an IT consultant, dividends vouchers for the last year, the company's certificate of incorporation, receipts for business expenses, annual reports for the last 2 years, the company's limited liability insurance, the company's profile on Company's House, and a share certificate. All documents highlighted in the right places, and sorted into individually labeled plastic pockets and then the whole thing divided into sections.

We didn't send in a P35 - I think he doesn't need to fill one out due to the structure of the company - but now I'm nervous that maybe we should have...

And then we also sent in another binder full of evidence that we are a real couple who spends almost all their time together, as well as a photo album.

I'm honestly at my wits ends. We went to an immigration lawyer to get advice (hence the massive stack of documents), and it's now been over a year that we've been married and being without a RC is hurting both my career progression and our ability to travel to see family. Grrr.

aphid, it seems the immigration lawyer did give you very wrong advice and as you describe it I think you sent at least a hundred times more than you should have (I'm serious here, no exaggeration).
If he really told you to send so much rubbish, you should report him for incompetence and gross professional misconduct!

I'm in a similar situation, though not exactly the same. I have a LTD company together with a friend; we are both 50% shareholder as well as employees of our own company. We are of course registered with Companies House as an actively trading company, and we are also VAT registered. Our payroll matters are handled by our accountant, so we do do have fancy payslips (as you call them). We pay ourselves a very low salary; most of our income is paid as dividends (as a result of our tax optimisation strategy).
However, all I ever sent to UKBA to support EEA applications of my wife was a single letter signed by the company secretary (the wife of my friend). Just a very short letter, something like:

I confirm that (mr X) has been employed by (company Y) in the role of director from (start date) until present, and is expected to continue to do so in the foreseeable future.

UKBA never questioned me about exercising treaty rights, and as I am worker no CSI is needed.
If UKBA has any doubts about the company, they can easily check with Companies House and HMRC themselves.