Hello,

first post here and apologies if you've seen my post on other forums, but I am in need of help to claim my Permanent residence certificate as a EEA citizen in UK.

Hello,

the original formulation of article 6(2-3-4) of the The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 were as follows:

“Qualified person”

 

6.—Worker

(2) A person who is no longer working shall not cease to be treated as a worker for the purpose of paragraph (1)(b) if—

 

[...]

 

(b)he is in duly recorded involuntary unemployment after having been employed in the United Kingdom, provided that he has registered as a jobseeker with the relevant employment office and—

 

(i)he was employed for one year or more before becoming unemployed;

 

(ii)he has been unemployed for no more than six months; or

 

(iii)he can provide evidence that he is seeking employment in the United Kingdom and has a genuine chance of being engaged;

 

[...]

 

(4) For the purpose of paragraph (1)(a), “jobseeker” means a person who enters the United Kingdom in order to seek employment and can provide evidence that he is seeking employment and has a genuine chance of being engaged.

“(2A) A person to whom paragraph (2)(ba) applies may only retain worker status for a maximum of six months.”;

(7) A person may not retain the status of a worker pursuant to paragraph (2)(b), or jobseeker pursuant to paragraph (1)(a), for longer than six months unless he can provide compelling evidence that he is continuing to seek employment and has a genuine chance of being engaged.”

Looking forward to your valuable feedback.

Hello and welcome to CAG.

Can you tell us a bit more about the problems you're having please? I myself haven't seen your posts on other forums.

HB

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

Can you tell us a bit more about the problems you're having please? I myself haven't seen your posts on other forums.

 

HB

Hi Honeybee,

I posted the same question on an immigration forum but not here on consumeractiongroup .

The problem I have is that I am in the process of applying for a document certifying permanent residence: form EEA (PR).

I'm Italian and I've lived in this country for many years. I never needed to justify my presence in this country, but the 2014 amendment to The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations [i can't post links yet but you can google it] have moved the goalpost from the requirement the way they were before.

In particular, as explained in my first post, they have changed the definition of "retained worker status" and "jobseeker".

This makes things particularly difficult for me, because I have periods of unemployment lasting more than 6 months, all this in the period 1999-2013.

According to the old rules, I would have kept the status of "worker" even after 6 months of unemployment. According to the new rules, the periods after the 6 months don't count as "exercising Treaty Rights". In other words they could potentially break and reset the count of the continuous five years.

In other words I wouldn't be counted as permanent resident in this country.

My question was, and is, if they changed the rules, would these rules apply retrospectively to before 2014 or not?

I have long researched this topic and I haven't found a definite answer. I think it would be unfair they did apply retroactively, as I was in the expectation that I was in this country and exercised my rights as European citizen.

I hope I have clarified the issue but please let me know if more details are needed.

The definition of a "Worker" under EU law is being employed for at least 12-14 hours a week.

6.2.1.2 “Worker” includes:

• job seekers
  
• those between jobs (for example, women who have ceased employment on becoming pregnant but who intend to resume work at some point after the birth)
  
• those undergoing training in their own or another field
  
• sick, injured and retired workers
  

I cannot see these ammendments being retrospective, you cannot be punished with new legislation on things happening in the past you had no direct control over

As a rule, without clear words to the contrary, statutes do not apply to the past. They apply to a future state or circumstance.

I am sure this has, or will be appealed to the ECtHR.

This again is a knee jerk reaction badly thought out Government policy that will be overturned by our own domestic, or european courts. This is in direct violation of Treaty law

My advice would be contact a local law centre that specialises in immigration matters. The advice is free