citizenship for eea national married to UK citizen

[verenalein]

Hello!
I have been in the country for 5 years now, so I understand this means I have automatically required ILR, as I exercised my rights as an EEA national. I want to apply for citizenship now. Am I right in understanding that I DON'T have to wait another year (in order to have held ILR for 1 year), as I am married to a British Citizen, but that i can apply now (i.e. AFTER 5 YEARS) instead.
So on the form point 2.4, I only have to give information for the past 5 years and not 6 years as normally requested? Do I understand this correctly?
Thanks for your help!!!
Verena

[Jambo]

Your understanding is correct.

You will also need to pass the life in the UK test.

Just to make sure you are eligible - how did you exercise your treaty rights? Did you work, study? If you are from A8 country (the EU new joiners countries), have you registered with WRS at the time?

[verenalein]

thanks for the reply!
I did a PGCE university course the first year to qualify as a teacher and has been working for the last 4 years as a teacher. I have a letter from my university confirming my enrolment with them and a letter from my school confirming my employment. That should be enough, right?
I am currently on maternity leave, but I don't think that should cause a problem?
I have passed the citizenship test and want to send my form of asap.

[Gyfrinachgar]

Sounds like you got it covered. The only thing missing that springs to mind is evidence of comprehensive sickness insurance for the duration of the university course. P60s would be helpful, too. Maternity leave is no problem whatsoever.

[Jambo]

I would say you got it covered if you had private health insurance during your studies.

The HO view is that EEA students require to have private health insurance (or a non UK EHIC or if you applied for EEA1 as a student) during their studies. This has nothing to do with the fact that NHS covers you for that time.
If you worked during your studies, you don't need insurance but if not, your time as a student (without health insurance) doesn't count as exercising treaty rights.

[verenalein]

thanks for the replies. This opens up a new problem though: i was covered by nhs during my study year. However, it was a pgce course, i.e. Teacher training, where i received a bursary whilst training in schools with one day a week at university. Does this then count as an income?i already had a nhs number, as i had previously been in the country for 1 year, so i was covered by nhs and did not think i'd need another insurance on top!

[Gyfrinachgar]

Does this then count as an income?

We had that discussion before, and did not come to a satisfactory conclusion. I guess it is worth a shot, but you probably need to supply a lot more evidence of "income", since bursaries are normally tax exempted you rarely get P60s. To play it safer, I would advice applying for documentation certifying permanent residency first. That is free, won't get in your way later and is an excellent test. Call it a dry-run.

[Jambo]

You may wish to apply for a PR Confirmation from the HO using form EEA3.

The application is free and if the HO confirms you have obtained PR, this confirmation can be used for the naturalisation application. This way you will not risk the £850 application fee for naturalisation.

The downside is the application can take 2-3 months before a decision is made.

[verenalein]

thanks for the tip! How do I get this PR document?

[Gyfrinachgar]

thanks for the tip! How do I get this PR document?

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... /eea31.pdf
(the newest version: 07/2012, and it STILL has the comma in www.ukba.homeoffice,gov.uk )

[verenalein]

i just had another idea: i have been covered by my hubbie's company private health insurance, but only since december (and not september which is exactly 5 yrs ago)4 and a bit years ago. Rather than going via Eea3, would it work to wait with citizenship application until december, as this will then enable me to use private healthcare as health care cover during studies? The fact that i hadnt had that cover from september to december 5 years ago shouldnt matter then, as this was then more than 5 years ago, i.e. Irrelevant to application, right?

[Gyfrinachgar]

Sounds reasonable. You qualify from the moment you have continuously been exercising EU treaty right in the UK (student+CSI or worker). If that is December, you simply have to wait three more months. Why you got CSI at a specific time does not matter at all - as long as you had it as student during the qualifying period.

[verenalein]

silly question, but what does CSI stand for? Would it be enough evidence if i get the office's accountant to confirm that I was on the company's private insurance?
I am really grateful for all the help i've been given in this forum, thanks so much!

[Gyfrinachgar]

silly question, but what does CSI stand for?

Sorry: comprehensive sickness insurance.

Would it be enough evidence if i get the office's accountant to confirm that I was on the company's private insurance?

I think so.

[Jambo]

It stands for Comprehensive Sickness Insurance.

What exactly the insurance needs to cover is not very clear and there is no list of approved policies by the HO.

Which policy do you have? Most companies would have Bupa or AXA or similar and corporate policies seem to be comprehensive in nature so will probably be accepted by the HO.

Again, if you want to reduce risk, you can apply for PR Confirmation first (form EEA3) and once this is confirmed apply for naturalisation.

[verenalein]

the thing is that im cautious of sending id documents in the post, as im worried they might get lost, especially the ones i need to use again for citizenship application once i've done eea3. As far as i know there is no way of acoiding sending in documents for eea3, there is no checking sevice as there is for citizenship. Not sure if i want to risk losing my documents in the post...

[Jambo]

There is only one ID document that is required for EEA3 or/and naturalisation and that is your passport or ID card (for EEA3). I presume they cost less than £850 to replace.

Send using Royalmail Special Delivery as this includes a £500 compensation. Include a prepaid special delivery envelope in your application for your documents to be returned to you.

Or apply directly for naturalisation using the health insurance you got.