EEA Job seeker status

[dilberg]

Hello,

I am a french national and I have been in continuous employment for the 2 years I have been in the UK. I had to resign my job this month due to problems at work.My question is as follows,

While I am looking for a new job, should I register with Job Center plus to maintain job seeker status or can I claim economic self sufficiency during my job search?

I have comprehensive health insurance and bank statements and I am hoping to claim economic self sufficiency for the period I am going to be unemployed.

I would appreciate any advise in this regard.

[Englandd]

If you are planning to support EEA2 application as because of your non-EEA partner then in your case as you mentioned earlier that you have medical insurance and bank statement then it should be your preferable mode of excercising your eu treaty rights. On the other hand if you leaving the job in one of the below mentioned cases after working atleast 1 years then you will still be considered as worker:

"If an EEA national temporarily ceases employment, they can still be considered a qualified person under the following circumstances:

They are temporarily unable to work as the result of an illness or accident
They are involuntarily unemployed and have started vocational training; or
They have voluntarily stopped working and started on vocational training related to their previous employment.
were employed for one year or more before becoming unemployed;
have been unemployed for no more than six months; or
can provide evidence that they are seeking employment in the United Kingdom and have a genuine chance of being engaged".

[dilberg]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I want to clarify that I don't have a partner. It's just application for me. Since I resigned due to problems at work I will be considered a voluntarily stopped working.

I am actively looking for jobs with several interviews lined up, but nothing concrete has materialized yet. During my job search should I also do vocational training since I voluntarily resigned or can I just claim economic self sufficiency for the period I am looking for jobs?

I would greatly appreciate if you could clarify this so that in case do vocational training I can go ahead and register some course immediately.

Thank you

[sum1]

You are "just" a job seeker (registered and actively looking for a job). You can maintain this status for six months or maybe longer if you can prove (should the need arise) that you have a genuine chance of landing a job. I do not see why to declare yourself as self-sufficient at the moment (which means that you would not need that health insurance). What exactly is your concern?

[dilberg]

My concern is that since I resigned it will be treated as voluntary unemployment. To maintain status while job seeking do I have to do vocational training or not?

I am a senior engineer and I don't need any vocational training which is why I want to know if I can be self sufficient during my job search.

[sum1]

If you do not receive benefits (or maybe just in moderate amounts) self-sufficiency should be a safe fall-back options. But the question is what 'voluntary' unemployment really means. I do not think that you have to maintain a work relationship when it becomes apparent that it is unreasonable to stay at that place. I also see why it would be silly to do some vocational training just to satisfy the letter of the law.

Just my thoughts, of course. Maybe feedback from a work lawyer?

[dilberg]

Thanks for the reply. I am not on benefits and I can support myself with my savings for as long as my job search takes without benefits. I also have private healthinsurance from Aviva.

I feel self sufficiency would be safer route for me. I am also actively seeking contract positions which may leads to gaps in my employment history over 5 years time. So I want to self sufficient in that time.

I hope it would be ok to do this. I would appreciate any feedback on whether it is safe to do this.

Thanks.

[sum1]

If this is about a permanent residence application you can just explain your situation in a cover letter. E.g. mention (plus documentary evidence) that you had comprehensive sickness insurance and sufficient funds for the gaps (and needed no recourse to public funds). You could than also write that you were actively looking for a new job (and registered) because you had to leave the previous one for a certain reason.

[Jambo]

Unless you plan to apply for British citizenship (Isn’t that blasphemy for a Frenchman?), I would not worry too much as this should not affect your stay in the UK.

If you already have a private health insurance in place, then self sufficient would probably be the easier to prove but job seeker can also be an option.

If you move to become a constructor, then you would be self-employed so gaps between contracts would also be accepted (as part of self employment).

[dilberg]

Thank you. It is for my permanent residence application. I don't want to enroll in vocational training everytime my employment ends with one employer and I look for a new contract. I just want to make sure I don't fall out of status during this period. I hope my status will be economically self sufficent and seeking jobs during the gap periods
Thanks for you help. I will follow your suggestion if there is anything else I need to do please let me know.

[Jambo]

It is for my permanent residence application.

I suggest you read - EEA member wants to apply for permanent residence.

[Englandd]

As I explained earlier that under your circumstances self sufficiency should be a preferable mode. The main logic is that it is very difficult for job seeker to prove that he/she will will not be a burden on public fund without job and a job seeker is normally be expected to become self sufficient. In either way, if you supporting EEA2 application or planning for getting PR after 5 years always your activities are mainly concerned.
Hope now you better understand.