Spouses of EEA nationals: how to count continuous residence in the UK for the purpose of permanent residence application?

By 1st 4Immigration - #1 UK Immigration Experts -
This post is about the starting point, ie when to start counting the 5 years of continuous residence in the UK for a spouse or civil partner of an EEA citizen. It covers spouses and civil partners (but not unmarried partners) who are EEA nationals (‘Polish married to Polish’) and who are non-EEA nationals (‘Brazilian married to Italian’).  

If we assume your EEA spouse has been living and working in the UK for 5 years. When do we start counting your (family member’s) period of residency? From the date of marriage for spouses? From the date of entry to the UK?

We usually find a point when all of the following requirements have been met, so whichever is the latest of these:

1)     Date of marriage.

2)     Date when both you and your EEA spouse have been in the UK (meaning if one of you came to the UK after the other, it will be based on the latter date).

3)     Date when your EEA spouse started exercising Treaty rights in the UK, such as started working.

For example, if you were married before you both arrived in the UK, then you can start counting 5 years from when your EEA spouse started working in the UK.  If you were married and your EEA spouse was already working in the UK – you can start from your date of entry. If your EEA spouse was working here and you got married some time after that – date of marriage.  

As you can see, we do not go by the dates of ‘visa stamps’!
For an individual advice or to make an application please contact us: info@1st4immigration.com or visit www.1st4immigration.com

If you are an Immigration Adviser or a Solicitor please visit our immigration Training and CPD website: www.1st4immigration.com/training

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