EU Citizen returning to UK in future

[TamanTun]

We are in a position where DH (non-British EU citizen) is about to take a job in Asia and our family will move out there. Who knows whether it's indefinite but I'd like to think we could move back to the UK should we need to in the future (supporting remaining parent should anything happen to the other etc). I know the details are still being thrashed out with regard to EU citizens rights and the latest I can find is that May has said EU citizens who have lived here for 5 consecutive years can apply for settled status after they've been here for 5 years. Are we closing the door to coming back as a family in the future by leaving now?(I'm a British citizen and so are our children). He's started the process of getting a UK passport but it's looking like that's going to take longer than we have in the time it's going to take to be able to accept the new job. I would be absolutely gutted if we had to stay as we've been lining up for this opportunity for many years and I'd hate to think that Brexit has now scuppered our plans and left us in a position where we couldn't return as a family. Is anyone else in a similar position?

I can’t say anything useful, Tamantun. I don’t think anyone can. I wouldn’t trust anything May says, the Home Office doesn’t follow the rules and is generally malign. We all hope someone better will take over the government (and reform the Home Office). I have a DD with an EU spouse and I’m also worried.

Does he have ILR?
I vaguely thought you could keep ILR as long as set foot back in UK at least once every 2 yrs.
Others are more expert than me.

I got stuck in a similar situation when my family moved to Australia. When we wanted to come back dh couldn't as he's not from the EU. It was an absolute nightmare. He had lived here for more than half his life but hadn't for citizenship due to stubbornness.

I'm British, our dc were born here, we still owned our house we had been married for thirteen years, he's a high wage earner but we couldn't get him in. There are many people who are still in the same situation.

Sadly, I don't think anyone can properly reassure you because none of us actually know yet what will happen for people in your sort of situation. The fact that you haven't been resident in the UK could well go against you.

If it came to it, your DH might need to apply for a spouse visa in order to move back to the UK. That would require you to be earning above a certain income threshold, which could be difficult if you're giving up your career now to be a trailing spouse? Is there any way you can maintain your career while overseas so that your earning potential isn't hampered by the move?

I'm sorry you're in this uncertain situation. The whole Brexit thing is shit.

I suppose it depends on what grounds he is applying for UK citizenship but if it as a,spouse, would he be able to apply from the country you will be moving to? I'm so sorry that you are going through this stress, it's incredibly unfair on you and those in similar positions.

And I second Biscuit: I wouldn't believe anything TM says but especially not on immigration promises .

I think there has been talk of allowing EU citizens to be absent for up to 5 years without losing ILR. But (a) I wouldn't trust this government on this point and (b) it sounds like you may be away for more than 5 years anyway.

If your partner has a high-paying highly skilled job it may be that his employer could sponsor a future visa application. But there is definitely a risk that you will only be able to return if you (not your DH) earn above the Home Office minimum requirement to bring a foreign partner and children into the country. I think you need to plan on this basis. If you can afford to do so, take legal advice.

It may well be that the future brexit deal involves continued single market membership and hence FOM (because that's the only obvious solution to the Irish question) but clearly you can't count on this.

Ragged what is ILR? I gave up my career 7 years ago to be SAHM then a trailing spouse as a result of his new career. We lived abroad for a year 4 years ago but I think that doesn't matter with the application for citizenship as he'd already done 5 consecutive work years here. He's been working here since 98 (with 4 years out on international postings) and never bothered getting residency/citizenship as we were always part of the sodding EU which suited our 'European' family just fine. I'll look into whether applying from the new country is an option but I'm not optimistic I'll get a straight answer from anywhere on it yet.

ILR = Indefinite Leave to Remain. It's one of the steps towards citizenship. Also called settlement. Egads, now they want 10 yrs continuous residence (used to be only 5 yrs). Not cheap.

Taman Tun

My wife had to apply for Permanent Residence, which you can do if you've been in the UK for at least 5 years, so should be possible for you. After an initial rejection (on laughably spurious and contradictory grounds), she reapplied and has now got her little blue PR card. However, the gov.uk website appears to say that we'll eventually have to apply for the new Settled Status, although they've "promised" to make this easy.

The notes which came with the PR card state "If you leave the UK, you will normally be readmitted as a person with right of permanent residence provided that you have not been away for longer than 2 consecutive years."

I contacted them to ask how this works, asking how long she would need to be in the UK during the 2-year period to retain PR, but despite two enquiries I have received no satisfactory reply. I suspect they're not sure themselves and have just ignored the question. Can she pop back for a day, a week or what? It might be worth asking for clarification - maybe they'll be more forthcoming with you.

I suspect much of the "policy" is being made up on the hoof and administered by people with little training, as they've been overwhelmed by all the applications.

Good luck.

ragged Indefinite leave to remain doesn't apply to EEA/Swiss citizens. EEA/Swiss citizens only need a document proving residence in the UK (the one with an 85-page application form), but the government has said that they won't be valid after Brexit.

We just received ILR card about 3 months after sending in the paperwork. Would be worth getting that before setting off abroad if you can.

Monger

When my wife applied for permanent right of residence, when it was finally granted she received a blue card (bit like a 1940s rations card ) entitled UK Residence Documentation for a National of an EEA State (she's German) and a covering letter confirming her "Permanent Right of Residence". To get this, we had to fill out the famous 80-odd page form with kilos of evidence. Is this different to Indefinite Leave to Remain? I thought it was the same thing, but am happy to be corrected.

85 pages is a long form, but it would be nice if we could just fill one in for the UK to have Indefinite Right to Remain in the EU. Would we have to call ourselves Indefinite Remoaners or Permanent Remoaners?

Indefinite leave to remain only applies to non-EU/EFTA citizens. As an EU/EFTA citizen, you have the right to stay as long as you want without needing any documents to prove your immigration status (except of course your passport/national ID card).

There is an online service. I've tried to use it, but I don't have the work permit-style document (I can't remember what it's actually called) which I had to apply for when I first worked in the UK. It won't let me proceed without details of that, so I think I'll just use the new "settled status" service after Brexit.

Hi all,

Just been through this with my DH (EU citizen) as we moved abroad last year and didn't want to risk him losing the right to come back post-Brexit.

He had to first apply for a document certifying his right to permanent residency as a member of an EEA state. Once we had that (it's a little blue booklet) he could then move on to apply for British citizenship, as the permanent residence may be lost if you are abroad for 2 years and we didn't want to risk it, nor trust any 'promises' being made about status being protected etc.

The citizenship part was relatively easy - the hard bit was getting all the massive pile of documents for the proof of permanent residency.

I would at least kick off the process for the proof of permanent residency, then hopefully once he has that, things will be clearer on the post-Brexit status of EU citizens.

I'm now in the process of doing the opposite and have applied for EU citizenship in DH's country....plus having to get all the paperwork for the DC too.

Thanks all, the forms and documents all got sent off today to start the process of getting PR so at least that is a start. There is a fantastic Facebook site called 'uk Citizenship European Nationals UKCEN' with heaps of up to date info and legal advice for anyone affected by this.