There are two types of family members who may enjoy rights of residence in the UK together with their EEA national relative: direct and extended.
Extended Family Members of EEA Nationals in the UK (1 of 4): This post is about extended family members of EEA nationals in the UK. It is very important to understand the distinction between the two because direct family member have automatic rights to live together with their EEA national relative as long as he or she continues to be a qualified person. With some minor exceptions to the rules, generally speaking, a qualified person is a person who is either a worker, self-employed or self-sufficient.
Extended family members’ rights are not automatic and have to be actively proven by the way of applying for an EEA family permit, a registration certificate or a residence card. And they will not be eligible to make their permanent residence application without such a document.
In my previous video I’ve explained the rights of direct family members. In this video I’ll concentrate on Category 1 of this extended family group. If you are curious about 3 remaining groups, you more than welcome to watch my next videos where I’ll be covering these topics in full.
The first category of the extended family members is for relatives of EEA nationals who were residing in a country other than the UK and were dependent on the EEA national and before joining their EEA national relative in the UK they were either members of the same household or were financial dependant on the EEA national and are going to continue with the same arrangement in the UK.
In other words, they will either be living together in the UK or their EEA’s relative is going to support them financially.
Let me give you an example:
A French national nephew Patrick was residing together with his uncle Alex, who was a national of Morocco. They lived together, in the same house, but Alex was working and was supporting himself financially.
Patrick finds a job in the UK and his uncle Alex wants to join him in the UK. However, Alex does not want to live with Patrick, he only asks Patrick to financially support him.
Will Alex be able to join Patrick in the UK as his extended family member? The answer is ‘YES’! This is because Alex meets both conditions in this case:
Alex and Patrick were members of the same household in France; AND
Alex will be financially dependent on Patrick in the UK;
What if Alex never lived together Patrick in France, but Alex was always financially dependent on Patrick while in France?
Also, in the UK Alex will NOT be reliant on Patrick financially. However, they will be members of the same household.
The answer is ‘YES’ again. This is because two necessary conditions are present again. There is financially dependency and they are members of the same household.
As you have probably guessed by now, family members can use these two conditions interchangeably.
So, if you meet the above conditions are likely to be qualified as extended family members of EEA nationals.