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‘I've come to the UK from abroad’
> ‘I am a citizen of another country in the European Economic Area, or I'm a family member of an EEA citizen’
>> ‘What rights do family members of EEA citizens have?’

This page is for you if you are a family member of an EEA citizen who is in the UK, and:

icon-warning1.jpgThese rules do not help you if the other person is a UK citizen (even though the UK is part of the EEA).


At first glance it looks very simple

icon-key1.jpg 1. You need to be a family member of an EEA citizen
2. The EEA citizen has to be in the UK and have the right to reside in the UK.


Two important bits of good news

The problem is this: what is a 'family member'? Not all family members count as family members for these laws.

We'll look at this in a bit. But first...

How does this affect entitlement to benefits?

The right to reside rule affects the following benefits:

Since 2004, if you don’t have the right to reside in the UK you don’t have the right to income based benefits or Child Benefit.

This is really important, so I’ll repeat it…

icon-key1.jpgIf you don’t have the right to reside in the UK you don’t have the right to income based benefits or Child Benefit.




icon-warning1.jpgEven if you do have the right to reside in the UK, you may still have problems getting these benefits straight away: There are rules that say, in effect, that until the government is satisfied that you really have set up home here permanently it does not see why you should get benefit. This is called 'the habitual residence test'.

(Actually the right to reside rules are found 'inside' the habitual residence rules, but in practice it is easiest to treat them as two separate things.)

It is very unusual for the DWP to accept that someone is habitually resident from day one: on the other hand it is also very unusual for them not to accept someone as habitually resident after three months from when you arrive. In general, the more evidence they have that you plan to stay the shorter you will need to wait.

However, since January 2014, a change to the habitual residence rules means that if you are trying to claim income based Jobseeker's Allowance you will not be entitled to it unless you have been living in the UK (or the other common travel area countries: Ireland, the Channel Islands, etc) for at least three months.

Now, back to our earlier question...

What is a 'family member'?


icon-warning1.jpgRemember that in all these cases, the EEA citizen has to be in the UK and has to have the right to reside here to be any use.

To find out whether the family member has the right to reside you need to check out my page on EEA citizens


The main categories are as follows…

Partners

You will be classed as a family member:

icon-key1.jpgNote that under these rules, if you are married, or in a civil partnership, you don’t having to be living together. As long as your partner is still in the UK and still has the right to reside here, you will have the right to reside as their family member, until any official divorce is finalised. This is really important, especially in cases of domestic abuse.
icon-example1.jpgTherese is from Ruanda, but her husband, Andre, is French. They got married in the France. They moved to the UK together, where he works full time. Because of domestic violence she has to leave him and move into a women’s refuge.

Because they are still married, and he is still in the UK, she is still classed as a family member of Andre, and because he is still working and has the right of residence in the UK, she has the right to reside as well.

 
Children and Grandchildren

You will be classed as a family member if you are not yet 21, and you are the son, grandson, daughter, or granddaughter of an EEA citizen unless the EEA citizen is in the UK as a student.

If the EEA citizen is a student: If you are 21 or over, you are in the same boat as ‘other relatives’: see below.

Parents and Grandparents

You will be classed as a family member

Looking after a child

This is an odd one.

If you are the main person looking after a child who is in school, you have the right to reside, but only if, in the past, the child was in the UK while one of their parents was working in the UK as an EEA citizen.

You might be both people. In other words, you might have been working in the UK in the past, while your child was also in the UK, but now you're not working any more. In this case, although you don't have the right to reside as a worker you do have the right to reside as the main carer of your child.

Or the worker might be someone else. Perhaps you came as a couple, and your partner worked, but now they have left you and your child and gone back to (say) France. You have the right to reside as the main carer of your child.

Note:


Other Relatives

This is tricky. You may be classed as a family member if:
In either case you will also need to get a document from the Home Office to confirm that you a family member (I know that this seem to be going round in circles but there you are…). You will need:

icon-warning1.jpgIf any of the following things happens, you should seek advice urgently:

  • The EEA citizen that you’re a family member of dies or leaves the UK;
  • The EEA citizen loses their right to reside (they might stop working, for example);
  • You’re here as the spouse or civil partner of an EEA citizen, and you’ve got divorced or the civil partnership is dissolved.

You may still have a right of residence, but the rules in this situation are complicated and your particular history will be important.



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