PR for EEA nationa - self suffiency proof

[saira1983]

Hello all
I have already had some useful info from this forum, and now need some advise on a different matter. I am a non EU national married to my EU national husband, and we intend to apply for my husband's PR in April' 16.

The 5 year period for my husband's treaty rights would be:
Apr 11 - Dec 11: Employed
Jan 12 - Nov 12: Looking for work
Dec 12 - to date: Employed

My husband has been in UK for about 8 years. We applied for his PR last year, covering the latest 5 years at that time, but Home Office rejected the application for a couple of reasons. First reason was that he was employed pre Apr 11 without being registered with WRS (which we accept as a reason for refusal).

However, the second reason HO gave for refusal was that he did not provide enough evidence that he was actively looking for work in the period mentioned above. We had sent with the PR application (a) Job Centre letter confirming that he was a registered as a job seeker during that period, (b) about 4 copies of different email correspondence applying for jobs. But for HO, this was not enough evidence that he was genuinely looking for work throughout this period.

My argument against HO is you can't be registered with Job Centre unless you visit there regularly and apply for at least 3 jobs per week or so. So the job centre letter (which we had specifically requested from Job Centre for his PR application) should be proof enough that he was looking for work, because most of the 'seeking work' activity took place during his weekly Job Centre visits.

Also, I have just realised today that during this period of seeking work, he had a CSI in place (Essentials package with WPA), which we had set up while applying for my Residence Card in Nov 11 and only cancelled about a year ago. I have been employed all this time (with £30k plus salary most of the time) and was responsible for paying rent, bills etc while he was looking for work (all going out from my bank account and can be proved).

So my question is: since he had CSI in place for the period he was looking for work and I was employed, can he instead qualify as "self sufficient" for that period (Jan 12 - Nov 12). Also, is the fact that he does not have CSI now relevant here, as we cancelled the CSI in the start of 2015 ?

Any advice will be much appreciated.

[noajthan]

Sounds like a good idea and may work out.

[saira1983]

Sounds like a good idea and may work out.

Thanks! I had been waiting for a more assured response from someone.
Also, can someone confirm please what documents we need to send as proof of self sufficiency, apart from CSI documents.
Do I need to send my bank statements showing rent going out etc, or just my payslips will suffice (to confirm that I was earning enough money to support my husband while he was looking for work) ?
Also, can you be "looking for work" and "self sufficient" at the same time ? I only ask because in our previous application that was rejected (as mentioned in my earlier post) we have already mentioned to HO that my husband was looking for work in that period.
Please advise !

[Sophia08]

Hello saira!

I have the same problem. I was a jobseeker for the first three months of my qualifying 5 years. But my only evidence are emails for job interviews and rejections. I also did not register with job centre plus at that time. So i dont know if i should apply for PR now or wait for three months before applying. But i want to do it before the referendum just in case there will a big change for eea route. Im really confused.

[saira1983]

As long as you have rejection letters, you will be fine. The problem with us that hardly any one ever replied to our job applications. Hence, in HO eyes, the vacancies were not pursued. They assumed that we were offered jobs / called for interviews but didn't take those. So you should be fine, as long as you can prove that you had your applications rejected (provided there are a few of those rejections - my guess would be on average 3 per week would be sufficient)

[saira1983]

Hi all
I am intending to apply for PR based on exercising treaty rights in the UK for 5 years. I have been working four out of these five years. For one year, I was registered with Job Centre (no moneys received though). During that period as a job seeker, I also had a CSI in place, set up by my husband, with payments going out of his bank account. Rent and expenses were paid by him as well.
I have applied previously for PR and was refused on the basis that I didn't provide enough evidence that I was genuinely looking for work. In that application, I didn't include self-sufficient / CSI bit.
Now can I apply again saying in that period, I qualified both as a job seeker as well as economically self sufficient. Can you be both at the same time ?
If yes, what proof do I need to send for being economically self sufficient ?

Thanks in advance for help.

[noajthan]

You can get into the head of the caseworker weighing up and assessing your case as a self-sufficient person, here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _clean.pdf
- ref page 18+

[LilyLalilu]

You need to submit itemised bank statements showing sufficient funds and proof of CSI. In addition to this, I also submitted a letter from the DWP confirming that I was not receiving any benefits during my self-sufficient time...not sure if that's necessary though as they should be able to verify this themselves should need be.

[saira1983]

You need to submit itemised bank statements showing sufficient funds and proof of CSI.

Thanks. Should I send mine or my husband's bank statements? Should I send his payslips as well to prove he was earning enough to support both of us ?
For CSI, the only proof I have (apart from monthly payments going out) is a confirmation email sent by the insurance company confirming the period I had the insurance for. Would that be enough ?