Retained Rights of Residence for Family Members of EEA Nationals, Where an EEA National Has Died (Category No1)

Retained Rights of Residence for Family Members of EEA Nationals, Where an EEA National Has Died: In my previous overview blog post and video I’ve explained that there are there are four major categories of people who can claim that they have retained their rights of residence.

In today’s blog post and video I’ll concentrate on the 1^st category:

1. Where the EEA national family member has died;

Retained Rights of Residence for Family Members of EEA Nationals, Where an EEA National Has Died, The Requirements:

1. You will need to prove that you were a family member of an EEA national who has died, normally by the way of producing either a marriage certificate or if you were related in other capacity, by submitting your birth certificate and other documentary evidence confirming your relationship;
2. The EEA national, who has died, was a qualified person for at least 1 year immediately before his death. In other words that he was a worker/self-employed person/student or self-sufficient person;
3. and the last requirement to satisfy is that you are either a worker/self-employed or self-sufficient yourself or a family member of such a person.

Let me give you an example: Paulo was a national of Italy, he came to the UK in 2012 and has been living and working in this country since that time. Stella is a national of Morocco (a non-EEA national) was Paulo’s wife and she has been residing in the UK together with Paulo since 2012. Stella was a housewife and never worked in the UK. Paulo died last week.

The question is: ‘Can Stella remain living in the UK on the basis that she has a retained rights of residence in the UK?’

Let us analyse this case together:

1. Was Stella a family member when Paulo died? Yes, she was. So the first requirement is satisfied;

   

2. Was Paulo a qualified person for at least 1 year immediately before his death? Yes, we know that he has been working in the UK since 2012;
3. Does Stella meet the last, 3^rd requirement? Well it’ll will depend on Stella’s circumstances. We know that she never worked in the UK and we do not have any information to suggest that she is self-employed. So, she is neither a worker, nor a self-employed person. However, we do not know if Stella has any savings because if she does, then, depending on how much she has, she may potentially claim that she is a self-sufficient person.

What if Stella does not have any savings? Well, if she has a job offer confirming that she’ll be employed as soon as she is allowed to work, then she will meet all 3 requirements.

This was the explanation of the 1^st category of family members with the retained rights of residence. In my next three blog posts and videos I’ll explain the remaining 3 categories, giving you various examples. Stay tuned.