Applying for EEA2 within the UK while on holiday work visa.

[tj]

Hi,

I have been reading the forums and although they are VERY helpful I'm still a little unclear on a few things regarding my situation.

I am a South African citizen married to an Irish National, we got married 12/01/2008 in South Africa. There was not enough time to apply for an EEAFP while we were there, and I am currently in the UK on a 2 year working holiday visa, with one year remaining.

1) There wasn't a very clear consensus on whether I would be allowed to apply for the residency card, being in the UK on the visa and not the family permit.

2) We only have a marriage certificate issued by the church, we have applied for a full marriage certificate, but while we are waiting for this to be issued (it takes about a month) can we go ahead with our application just using the marriage certificate from the church?

3) We have not managed to go on honeymoon and we were planning to go sometime this year but after reading how long the applications take, I don't know what the best option would be. I have read that some people have asked for their passports back while the application was being processed, would this be advisable? Or should we rather just stay put until the application has come through?

4) What is the reason for applying for the EEA1 together with the EEA2?

Any information would really be appreciated.

[yankeegirl]

1) You don't HAVE to be in the UK on a family permit to switch to apply for an EEA residence card. People have switched from a student visa, etc and this shouldn't be a problem.

2) I'm not sure about the marriage certificate. Hopefully someone will know this.

3) You can ask for the return of your passport, but it would be the least amount of hassle to just wait until you receive the residence card.

4) In my situation, we applied EEA1/EEA2 together because a few people had posted that it seemed to speed up the processing of the EEA2 application. It's only a guess, but I think they just deal with both applications at the same time. I applied at the beginning of September, and at that time the BIA site was showing that it was taking 1 month to deal with EEA1 applications and 6 months to deal with EEA2 applications. We sent both off together and received everything, incliding my residence card, back in a month.

By the way, congratulations on the marriage

[tj]

Thank you very much for the info. It is all very helpfull. I guess we'lll have to postpone our honeymoon though

[thsths]

Thank you very much for the info. It is all very helpfull. I guess we'lll have to postpone our honeymoon though

As long as your are travelling together, and you have reasonable documentation with you (proof of residence, payslips, marriage license), you should have not trouble getting back into the UK even without the Residence Card. This is your right. However, if you are travelling alone, it can be much more difficult (there are a few reports on this board).

[JAJ]

I am a South African citizen married to an Irish National, we got married 12/01/2008 in South Africa. There was not enough time to apply for an EEAFP while we were there, and I am currently in the UK on a 2 year working holiday visa, with one year remaining.

As your spouse is Irish, have you thought about applying for a spouse visa under the U.K. immigration rules?

How long has your Irish spouse lived in the U.K. - and are there any children planned?

[tj]

My husband and I came to the UK together, so he's only been here a year. No children planned, would this make any difference to applying for a spouse visa?
We are applying for a Residancy card because as far as I am aware this is the route we should be taking. I am not sure about the spouse visa....
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[John]

The Residence Card, when it is issued, will only be confirmatory, that is, it will confirm the rights that you already have. However for a non-EEA person even that confirmation is very useful.

I think you need to wait until you have the marriage certificate before applying on form EEA2. After all, it is that certificate that proves that you are a "family member" and thus entitled to use EU Treaty Rights, to live and work in the UK.