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I'm an EU national applying for my PR card and have a slightly complicated situation. I've been in the UK since I came here as a child in the mid 90s. I can prove the date I arrived but spent the first 6 years at school and I don't know how I can prove I was in the UK. I have a few bank statements from a savings account but my school no longer exists and I've hit a brick wall with the county council who was running the school. If I could prove I was at school would the Home Office accept this as a qualifying period?

Alternatively I have 6 consecutive years worth of documentation of work history from recent years so could I use this as my qualifying period instead? The only issue with that is I haven't kept paperwork to prove what I was doing between leaving school and my recent 6 year period. Call me stupid but I was young and never imagined I would have to prove my whereabouts one day.

If I use this recent period of work can I just leave out the whole period before it on the form? Seeing as the employment period on its own is enough to prove PR? Would they question the gap between my arrival and the start of my work history? I'm more than happy to write down what I was doing but without evidence I wonder if it will cause my application to be rejected even though I have a subsequent qualifying period.

I've been putting this off for months because I don't know what to do. Started the form several times and given up on it worrying if I'm creating more problems for myself so any ideas would be very much appreciated, thanks.

Hi fruitpicker 15, I don't usually post answers because I'm far from an expert in all this, but I think you are making your case a lot more complicated than it has to be. For PR you only need to back-up with relevant documentation a period of 5 (continuous) years and I guess it looks better if those 5 years are the last 5 continuous years.

Furthermore, if you have back up of employment documentation of 6 years, then you can even apply for neutralisation as soon as you get your PR card.

If I were you, I'd just apply for PR on the basis of having been working for the past 5 years -just attach your 5 latest P60s with your application and done.

Oh, and one more thing, given your situation (EU national who's been working) I'm sure you can apply using the online form and that makes things a whole lot easier than the paper one.

Hi,

I was in a similar situation like yourself, I’m Portuguese and arrived with my family here in 1995. The form can seem quite daunting but we just have to make it as simple as possible for ourselves.

I did manage to get letters from all my schools and university to prove my whereabouts between 1995 to 2011 and I started full time employment in November 2011.

I received my document cerifying permanent residency last year (Nov 16) and HO calculated me as acquiring PR in that same month. This makes sense as I was continuously working for 5 years from 2011. I am now in the process of applying for naturalisation as it’s been a year of me holding this status.

So in short, you don’t need to go all that way back, in my case they didn’t count it, just submit from the last 5 years, but of course if you have evidence of employment from 6 or more years even better as you can apply for your naturalisation as soon as you get your PR! It was very stressful and unnecessary for me to go that far back when none of that evidence was actually needed, but I didn’t have anyone to assist and did this all on my own.

Btw I have worked in 2 jobs within the 5 years and just asked for both employers to write an official letter each stating my name, dates of employment and salary and this was more than enough for my application to be successful! The job centre even wrote a letter confirming a couple months I claimed job seekers as evidence of what I was doing whilst not working, this showed I was actively seeking employment. I didn’t have my P60s on hand etc so there is always options, but great if you do have this on hand! Just make sure you have sufficient evidence covering that 5 year continues period correctly.

Good luck

fruitpicker15 wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 21, 2017 1:05 pm

I'm an EU national applying for my PR card and have a slightly complicated situation. I've been in the UK since I came here as a child in the mid 90s. I can prove the date I arrived but spent the first 6 years at school and I don't know how I can prove I was in the UK. I have a few bank statements from a savings account but my school no longer exists and I've hit a brick wall with the county council who was running the school. If I could prove I was at school would the Home Office accept this as a qualifying period?

Alternatively I have 6 consecutive years worth of documentation of work history from recent years so could I use this as my qualifying period instead? The only issue with that is I haven't kept paperwork to prove what I was doing between leaving school and my recent 6 year period. Call me stupid but I was young and never imagined I would have to prove my whereabouts one day.

If I use this recent period of work can I just leave out the whole period before it on the form? Seeing as the employment period on its own is enough to prove PR? Would they question the gap between my arrival and the start of my work history? I'm more than happy to write down what I was doing but without evidence I wonder if it will cause my application to be rejected even though I have a subsequent qualifying period.

I've been putting this off for months because I don't know what to do. Started the form several times and given up on it worrying if I'm creating more problems for myself so any ideas would be very much appreciated, thanks.

Sure your parents register you with a GP as a child, you went to the doctor at least once in all that period,?? so there must be a record at your GP, that will show since when you were registered there.