2 gaps btw jobs but no CSI. What can be done?

[calamari2000]

Hi
I have been reading through this forum but have been unable to find out a similar case as mine. Here is my story.

I am a Romanian citizen.
I arrived in the UK on 22 Sep 2007 and been living here ever since.
I was a student from Sep 2007 and graduated in July 2010.
I applied and was issued the Yellow Registration Certificate from Home Office in November 2007.
I was granted the UK Residence Documentation (blue Card) in November 2009.
I started working part-time from December 2007 (up to 20 hours a week during term time and full time during holidays) and mostly till July 2010. As a student though, there were months when I did not pay any tax (small income).
I had a gap of 21 days (in August 2010) of no work but was living in the UK - basically this was a transition between the old job to the new job I had already secured. I dont have CSI for these days.
From September 2010 to end of February 2013 I worked full time and was a regular taxpayer.

However, after that I had a second gap: 1 month and 16 days (March-April 2013)when I was looking for a new job which I got from May 2013 (albeit part-time). I do not have CSI for the second gap either.

Apart from these gaps I believe I have a clean record with minimal absences from the UK. I also have P60 information from Year 2008 to Year 2013 (current). I am worried about the small gaps though and wonder if this can be a reason for my application to get rejected. Should I proceed with my application for Naturalisation, what are my chances? Any thoughts? Any comments?

thank you
L.

[TreatyRightsMan]

Lorena,

I would not worry too much about the employment gaps as they were really very small and insignificant.

But my experience with the HO naturalization team and Nationality Checking service has shown me that sadly when it comes to demonstrating Treaty Rights, the HO has a very haphazard way of interpreting your evidence to say the least... Hence the risk of losing your fee when going for naturalisation through the EEA route is not insignificant, and as you might be aware there is no right of appeal for naturalisation decisions...

If you are not in a terrible rush and plan on staying in the UK for the time being, I would therefore strongly advise you to get your permanent residence confirmed through the EEA3 permanent residence card first as a low risk and low cost strategy of flushing out any doubts about those critical 5 years of exercising treaty rights. it's no longer free, you will have to pay 55 pounds and the downside is that you would need to wait a few more months (processing times are generally between 3-6 months, but your case does not seem to be too complicated so hopefully much quicker), but it is definitely the safer option. Keep in mind that even with a EEA3 PR document you would still need to provide your 5 year life history when applying for your BC, if you chose to apply before 1 year has lapsed from the issue date of your EEA3 document, regardless of whether you have been 6 or 10 years in the country. This is because the Naturalisation team go strictly by the papers and the EEA3 PR sticker does not specify the period you obtained the treaty rights for, so they cannot determine solely on the document whether you have been in the country for 1 year after obtaining PR status.

I would be more concerned with your time spent as a student, as the HO might argue that due to your status as student you might have had to have comprehensive sickness insurance (CIS) between 2007 and 2010.

If your employment record in that time is convincing enough (i.e. you paid taxes / have P45 and P60 forms / contracts of employment for most of the period), I would even consider leaving out the student bit and indicate that you were working from Dec 2007 - July 2010, as it would free you from the CIS requirement and also from the requirement to show that you had sufficient funds while being a student.

If you were still registered with your Romanian insurance back then, you could ask your Romanian Insurance provider to send you a letter in writing confirming that you were fully insured in Romania during the period in question and entitled to healthcare under EU law under the European Health Insurance Card Scheme (Romania joined in Jan 2007 so that should work) and also ask them to isusue a form S1 or E104 for you. I did something similar for my time spent as student as I was still registered with my insurance in my home country while being a student back in 2007-2008 and the HO accepted it for my EEA3 application.

[calamari2000]

HI Treatyrightsman,

Thanks for your reply.
For personal reasons, I am in a rush and I would prefer to apply straight for the naturalisation/citizenship.

Regarding the CSI:
I was a student between Sep 2007 -Jul 2010 and during that time CSI was not required and personally it never occurred to me back then to get one. In fact the law on compulsory CSI was passed one year later, Jun 2011.

Here is an extract from a link that refers to Bulgarian and Romanian Nationals:

http://1st4immigration-visas.blogspot.c ... ssues.html

Students without comprehensive sickness insurance. From 20 June 2011 students from EU countries, including Romanian/Bulgarian, are considered as self-sufficient and must have private medical insurance while studying, otherwise it won’t be counted as exercising Treaty rights. The catch here is that even if you were studying before 20 June 2011 you still need to show you have had that insurance at the time, ie before or after 20 June 2011, ie for any time spent in the UK studying. This affected those who did not have insurance at the time because they 1) they did not know about it (most commonly) and/or 2) because it was not required at the time. Unfortunately, the changes were applied retrospectively.

There is an exception. If you obtained a Yellow Card as a student before 20 June 2011, without needing comprehensive sickness insurance (as it was not needed back then), then you can now be treated as if you had it. So, the changes from 20 June 2011 do not affect you. However, if you have never applied for a Yellow Card you need to show you had this insurance even before 20 June 2011. Also, if you had a Yellow Card as a student, then applied for a Blue Card to work and then returned to study again, then this exception only applies to the period of studies before the Blue Card.

As mentioned in my previous post, I acquired the yellow registration certificate first which was later exchanged by the Home Office with the blue certificate (currently holding). Again, I am not sure how accurate the above information is, I think I will probably need to seek some legal advice to confirm it.

Ironically I am more worried about my gaps and in particular the 6th year because it's got a bigger gap (over 1 month but less than 2) and my employment record has not been very strong (part-time since May and lower income). I have never received any state benefits for the past 6 years though and I hope this can count in my favour.

Finally I have been unable to find concrete information as to how relevant the 6th year is going to be in the citizenship application. Everywhere there is lots of emphasis on "exercising your treaty rights continuously for 5 years" but little word on the 6th year and how carefully it will be checked.

[askmeplz82]

Because Romanian and Bulgarian national need to register first you are covered that period without CSI

it's only problem for other A8 national students who don't need to register

I agree with Treaty rights man ; I would recommend you apply for PR first because it cost less but if you have enough money then go ahead with BC. I would still advise you to see a Lawyer who is expert in EU law.

Home office did refused a Polish national BC in this forum who had a gap more then one month in the 1st year under WRS scheme ( polish national needed to register and work continuously for 12 month before 2011 and gap allowed maximum is 30 days if they change job )

[calamari2000]

I feel more confused now. Of course, like anyone else, I would not want to waste my money on an application with few prospects.

Suppose I apply for the Permanent Residence now, how soon can I apply for the naturalisation afterwards? Do I need to wait for another year to apply for that even though I've so far completed 6 years?

The problem with this option is that I could not afford to wait for another year due to personal reasons.

[askmeplz82]

Can you please continue here : both user have same problem. Your friend also posted on behalf you i guess here...

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... highlight=

[Jambo]

The small gaps in employment are not an issue.

Have you received the blue card as a student or as a worker? If as a student, you don't need CSI. If as a worker, did you work continuously since its issue (apart from small gaps)?

[calamari2000]

I acquired both yellow and blue certificates while I was a student; yellow was issued in Nov 2007 and blue came in Nov 2009. I graduated in July 2010.
Do you think CSI will not be an issue in my case then?

[TreatyRightsMan]

I feel more confused now. Of course, like anyone else, I would not want to waste my money on an application with few prospects.

Suppose I apply for the Permanent Residence now, how soon can I apply for the naturalisation afterwards? Do I need to wait for another year to apply for that even though I've so far completed 6 years?

The problem with this option is that I could not afford to wait for another year due to personal reasons.

You do not have to wait for 1 year from the issue date of your PR, although it would make processing much easier for the naturalization team as they would no longer require your supporting documents for the 5 year treaty rights period. What you could do is apply straight after receiving your EEA3 (hopefully 2-3 months from now if all goes well). As said, you would still need to provide the same supporting evidence if you chose to do so, however the presence of the EEA3 PR sticker along with a statement in your cover letter that the EEA3 was granted based on the enclosed evidence should make your evidence more solid in the eye of the naturalization case worker.

[calamari2000]

Thank you so much for all your help here on this forum. I've now decided to see an immigration lawyer prior to applying in order to hedge my risk After that I'll decide what next.

[Jambo]

You should be aware that many immigration lawyers are not fully knowledgeable on EEA regulations (mainly because they don't deal with many applications).

Back to the yellow and blue card question - I know they were issued while you were a student. My question is whether the evidence you provided for the application was solely studies related or did you also attach payslip/employment evidence as part of the application?