Short Gap while Exercising Rights

[Pigkappa]

I am a PhD student from another EU country , I will finish my PhD soon and have an offer of employment with starting date approximately one month later than the date in which I think my course will end.

I understand that I will need 5 years of continously "exercising treaty rights" to gain Permanent Residency. Would that month gap be a problem for this?

Thank you all very much for managing and contributing to this forum, it's very nice of you .

[noajthan]

I am a PhD student from another EU country , I will finish my PhD soon and have an offer of employment with starting date approximately one month later than the date in which I think my course will end.

I understand that I will need 5 years of continously "exercising treaty rights" to gain Permanent Residency. Would that month gap be a problem for this?

Thank you all very much for managing and contributing to this forum, it's very nice of you .

Welcome.

For your carefree student years to count towards acquisition of PR you need to have had CSI (or alternative) in place.
If you maintain the CSI for the interim gap before commencing employment, and you have funds to support yourself, you fall into the category of selfsufficient qualified person - so all good.

On the other hand, if you don't happen to have CSI (or alternative) in place then you have a larger issue to contend with.

[Pigkappa]

I have an Italian EHIC which I think should count - Although I am slightly confused by this CSI rule because I don't really understand the point (do they actually try to recover money from Italy when I use the NHS?)

[secret.simon]

If you have a non-UK EHIC card as a student, that period does count as exercising treaty rights.

do they actually try to recover money from Italy when I use the NHS?

Yes.

See from Section 2.7 (Page 28) of the NAO Report on Recovering the cost of NHS treatment for overseas visitors (dated 28th October 2016).

[Pigkappa]

Very informative, thank you!

[noajthan]

The point is that economically inactive persons should not pose a burden to the host country's social assistance system - which, in UK, includes NHS.

You can dig into all flavours of qualified person and requirements for each in HO guidance here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _clean.pdf