ishfaq

I m Pakistani national living in Spain with my wife (my wife is a British citizen)
and she has lived here for the last 15 years and worked more or less for 6 years in Spain. We are both residents of Spain with Spanish Residency cards and we want to go to England to work and live there.
Now i m not sure whether i should apply via the EEA family permit route or Settlement visa(spouse) route (can I choose one or the other or do i automatically fall into one category?


EEA Family Permit

more or less i know everything about the EEA Family permit after searching a lot and sending emails to Worldbridge. I only have a few questions about it.

1. My wife has worked in Spain for a long time but does she need to have a job in the UK in order for me to apply for my EEA Family permit?
(we live in Spain so this is not possible for my wife to get a job in UK living here)

2. With the EEA Family permit route, how long will it take in total for me to get British citizenship? ( I want to be able to go to Pakistan without any worries of immigration restriction periods)

3. Should my wife be currently working in Spain before i make my application? ( my wife has worked in Spain for 6 years and at the moment she is not working because of the employment situation in Fuerteventura Spain)

Please answer ONLY to my questions. I have search everything apart from these things which i haven't received anything about from anywhere including Worldbridge, UKBA homeoffice, and other sites

Spouse Settlement visa

My questions about this are:

1. Can i apply for a settlement visa from Spain ?

2. How long will it take altogether to get British Citizenship by going through the UK Settlement visa route?

3. What are the requirements for me to apply for a settlement visa?

The whole aim behind these questions is to get an easy and quick way out of these two routes (EEA Family permit & Settlement Visa) and be on the right route to gaining a British citizenship .

4. What changes were made to the spouse settlement visa policy on the 8th July 2012?

Thank you for your time, any help much appreciated.

roaringmouse

No. 5 years of continuous residency (don't break residency) to reach permanent residency status, then under current rules you could apply for naturalisation based on being married to a British citizen straight away.

IF the rules are changed before then so spouses have to be free of immigration restrictions (i.e. ILR or permanent residency) for at least 12 months like everyone else, then it would mean a further year (making 6 years) before an application could be made. She needs to be economically active - has she very recently become unemployed?

It can be applied for in whichever country you live. Same answer as above, except for permanent residency read Indefinite Leave to Remain. The sticky thread on this forum has a lot of information in it, particularly about the financial side of things. Sticky thread again. Main two things are the financial requirements, and the time it takes to get to Indefinite Leave to Remain - which is now 5 years.

Neither route are quicker than the other now - they both take at least 5 years to get to the stage of being eligible for naturalisation. If rules change to match non-spouses (and the way the rules have gone, this in my opinion is very possible) then it could become 6 years.

If possible to get an EEA Family Permit then I would suggest that's probably the best option out of the two as there are no fees - whereas with the spouse visa you would have a minimum of 3 visa applications (and associated fees) to get to Indefinite Leave to Remain stage.

ishfaq

Thank You so much (member roaringmouse) for your quick reply to my thread (member roaringmouse) you ask about my wife's job actually she still is registered as self employed from the last 5 months but we can't Afford to pay social security anymore that's why i said she is unemployed because we are going to stop paying that soon.
Another thing is which i have not mention i m actually waiting for my residency and we hope it will be here soon that's why we pay the social security for the last 5 months to the govt so i can get residency because jobs are not easy to get she is looking for job but its nearly impossible to find one.
one another question on your reply to one of my question you mention about i can apply straight away after 5 years for naturalization did you meant i don't have to apply for permanent resident card and have it for 1 year before i can apply for naturalization ? once again Great site with Great members and so many Thanks to you (member roaringmouse)

roaringmouse

If married to a British citizen at time of the naturalisation application, then as long as you meet the length of residency requirement, you only have to be free of immigration restrictions (there's no need for the 1 year minimum as a permanent resident - or ILR on the spouse visa route).

Regarding the need to apply for confirmation of permanent residency, I don't know for sure but think you probably will need to get that.

ishfaq

Will these changes apply to me ?here is the link of the changes http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si...ia-settlement1 which will effect in october ofcourse i can't apply for naturalisation now but if i get to uk 28 October 2013 will it make any difference with case going on EEA Family Permit with my wife she is British Citizen i explain everything regarding our case .

roaringmouse

You would need to have obtained those before you apply for citizenship. And this is a good point that I forgot - under the spouse visa route you would need to meet the English requirements before you apply for that visa. As far as I'm aware, there is no such requirement for the EEA Family Permit.

englishguygoinghome

Correct, ou would not need to meet any such requirments to get EU-based permanent residence BUT the requirement would be valid for naturalisation (so when getting citizenship rather than when getting ILR before getting citizenship). Either way, if you want a passport you need to pass the KOL and language requirements.

BritInParis

Both routes will take the same time, but going into the UK with a EEA family permit is far, far cheaper and easier.