EEA Permanent Residence

EEA Nationals, including all EU states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland can apply for a document EEA permanent residency. If they have lived in the UK for 5 years as a qualified person.

EEA permanent Residency is acquired after five continuous years of possession of the right of residence. The right of residence is possessed by a person who is exercising Treaty rights and engaging in one or more activity as a work or self-employment or self-sufficiency and student.

The family members of an EEA citizen who engages in one of these activities will also qualify for permanent residence after five years.

FAQ

• Brexit - how it affects you?

  • On 23rd June 2016, Britain has voted to leave the EU. This means it’s likely that some laws will change in the future - but not immediately. Everything will stay the same until new laws are made. If you’re an EU citizen living in the UK, your EEA permanent residency eligibility won’t change.

    From the 12th November 2015, any EU national who wishing to apply for British citizenship must apply for EEA permanent resident card as introduced by the British Nationality (General) (Amendment No. 3) Regulation 2015.

• Do I need to have a permanent residence card before applying for British Citizenship?

  • From the 12th November 2015, any EU national who wishing to apply for British citizenship must apply for a permanent residence card as introduced by the British Nationality (General) (Amendment No. 3) Regulation 2015.

• Breaks in employment: do I qualify?

  • You may be eligible for EEA permanent residency in cases of gaps in employment only in some circumstances. As a general rule, anything up to six months should be fine, however longer breaks in employment will be dealt with individual circumstances. You can prove that during the periods of not working you were actively seeking work such as letters / emails to potential employers, CV and other job search related information. Maternity leave of up to 12 months should be fine.
    
    A person who is unemployed may still retain their worker status in EU law for a certain period of time, for example, and the source of self-sufficiency can be in part of a family member from outside the EEA.

• How long can I stay outside UK?

  • Absences from the UK for up to six months do not disqualify or prevent a person from acquiring a EEA Permanent residency.

• Retained rights of EU citizens and family members

  • Under some circumstances, an EEA national may qualify for permanent residence even before five years of qualifying activities. These are referred to as retained rights in the Citizens’ Directive and are conscripted at Article 17:
    
    a) Workers or self-employed persons who, at the time they stop working, have reached the age laid down by the law of that Member State for entitlement to an old age pension or workers who cease paid employment to take early retirement, provided that they have been working in that Member State for at least the preceding twelve months and have resided there continuously for more than three years; or .
    
    b) Workers or self-employed persons who have resided continuously in the host Member State for more than two years and stop working there as a result of permanent incapacity to work. If such incapacity is the result of an accident at work or an occupational disease entitling the person concerned to a benefit payable in full or in part by an institution in the host Member State, no condition shall be imposed as to length of residence; or .
    
    c) Workers or self-employed persons who, after three years of continuous employment and residence in the host Member State, work in an employed or self-employed capacity in another Member State, while retaining their place of residence in the host Member State, to which they return, as a rule, each day or at least once a week. .
    
    For the purposes of entitlement to the rights referred to in points (a) and (b), periods of employment spent in the Member State in which the person concerned is working shall be regarded as having been spent in the host Member State. .

• Can the permanent residence be lost?

  • The right of EEA permanent residency may be lost in certain circumstances, including through absences in excess of two years or due to public interest deportation action against the individual.

    Do I need to pass the Life in the UK Test before applying?
    No. For the EEA permanent Residency application, there is no legal requirement to do so, however, if you wish to apply for naturalization, then you would be required to pass the Life in UK Test.

• Do I need to pass the Life in UK test before applying?

  • No. For the permanent residence application, there is no legal requirement to do so, however, if you wish to apply for naturalisation, then you would be required to pass the Life in UK Test.

• Government Fees

  • Home Office fees for Permanent Residence
    	Postal	Super Priority Service	Overseas
    Main Appplicant	£65	N/A	N/A
    Partner & Child (<18years),if applying together	£65	N/A	N/A
    Partner or child aged under 18 (if they are applying later), or child aged over 18	£65	N/A	N/A

• Processing Times

  • In line with the Home Office service standards for processing EEA permanent residency applications, the process can take up to 6 months.