On 10 May 2018, the Home Office replaced the old EEA Permanent Residence application forms with the new ones. It seems that the new forms are the same as the old forms which were valid until this date, however they are now revised.
There is an option for most of the applicants to submit their permanent residence applications online rather than using the EEA (PR) form. This was introduced by the Home Office on 01 October 2016. However, some of the applicants are exempt from using the online application, which are as follows:
- Family members of a qualifying EEA national who are not applying at the same time as the EEA national Sponsor;
- Students or self-sufficient applicants who are financially responsible for any other family members or are reliant on a family member for financial support;
- Applicants applying on the basis of retained rights; and
- People applying under the Surinder Singh category.
One of the advantages of online application for EEA (PR) is that the applicants can buy time if they are submitting a last-minute application and they need to get their application in urgently but do not have all the requisite supporting documents to be submitted with their application. The online application allows applicants to make in-time application whereby all the supporting documents can be sent to the Home Office by post up to 15 working days afterwards, or taken to the Premium Service Centre up to 45 days later.
It was announced that the EEA Permanent Residence rights will cease on 30 June 2021 due to Brexit. This means that EEA nationals and their family members will be required to apply for a settled status instead of permanent residence by that date. Some applicants may prefer to apply for permanent residence now so that they can either easily exchange to the settled status at the relevant time or they apply for British citizenship.
Applicants can currently apply for a permanent residence document if they have lived in the UK for 5 continuous years.
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