NI Resident living in NI with American Spouse on an EU/Settlement

Hi guys,

Thanks to your incrediable help I was able to get my US spouse into the UK originally in 2019 via a spousal visa, without your help it would have been impossible, so many thanks again!

Since we are in NI and I am an Irish Citizen (With British Citizenship also) we were able to jump over to the EU/Settlement scheme, which we did at the end of 2020 giving her permission to remain until 2025.

Now for obvious reasons we have been planning to go down the Irish Citizenship via marraige for her as she meets the requirements (3 years residence on the Island of Ireland whlle living on the island of Ireland) so it seems like the most sensible route. However just a few things.

Due to her ill health and Covid etc, we may be short some evidence for our first year, which will push our application time back.The wait time for a response is very long, looking at 2 years in some cases.

So my worries is that we may be left waitingfor a response when her current EU/Settlement visa expires, Which I fear means her being sent back to the States.

I was then thinking of checking up on the what I would have to do to keep her here under the British system as back up. However since she's been here under the spouse of an EU/Irish Citizen etc I am not really clear what we would apply for within the UK system?

Terrified of us being seperated, its bringing all the anxiety back!

Really thankful for this site and would love some insight if anyone would have any?

Bless you all thanks!

I could be mis-remembering,  but my take on the EU settlement scheme was that the person on it gets a temporary right to remain in the country for five years, after which time they apply for and get a "permanent settlement" and can remain without time limit. Applying for the temporary right was an extremely simple process when my daughter and I applied. I believe the second, "permanent" process is pretty much the same. (I seem to also remember getting info that if I had been working full-time, I could have applied for the permanent option after only 3 years and then retiring.) They may have twiddled with the agreement, so you might double-check the current regulations.

What you would do related to getting her Irish citizenship wouldn't really matter, I don't think, to the EU settlement scheme, other than if she becomes an Irish Citizen she might have the option to change from the dependent of an EU citizen to an EU citizen in the scheme's classification system.

If she becomes an Irish citizen, as things stand now, the EU scheme would be redundant because of the free travel/living/working arrangement between the UK and Eire.  I would stick with the first option (EU Settlement) anyway, since the UK could at any time decide "No Irish Need Apply".  And, yep, the waiting period for Irish Citizenship is horrific - we've been waiting for a response since 2018, and what I see on the various Irish Citizenship boards indicates that's not terribly unusual, although married spouses seem to get approved a bit more quickly.

(Of course, the UK could also back out of the EU settlement scheme provisions, too, but I would think that unlikely. Although one can never really tell.)

So my worries is that we may be left waitingfor a response when her current EU/Settlement visa expires, Which I fear means her being sent back to the States.

I was then thinking of checking up on the what I would have to do to keep her here under the British system as back up. However since she's been here under the spouse of an EU/Irish Citizen etc I am not really clear what we would apply for within the UK system?

Your wife would have been granted Pre-Settled status and would need to apply for Settled Status (which it the equivalent of ILR) before her Pre-Settled status expires. 


https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families/what-settled-and-presettled-status-means
Switching from pre-settled to settled status

You can switch to settled status as soon as you’ve had 5 years’ continuous residence, or sooner if you’re eligible before 5 years.

The 5 years is counted from the day you started your continuous residence, not the day you were granted pre-settled status.

You must apply for settled status before your pre-settled status expires to stay in the UK.



How your continuous residence is worked out

Five years’ continuous residence means that for 5 years in a row you’ve been in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for at least 6 months in any 12-month period.




This is the one for Family Members of an EEA citizen
https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families/join-EU-EEA-Swiss-family-member

Hi guys apologies about the delay,

I had an unexpected personal matter arise.

Wow, this is the reason why this Forum saved me so much pressure and stress last time. I can't believe the very fact that she is on the EU Pre-Set Scheme actually gave a pathway to settled status. Just shows how I was so giddy about her getting Pre-Set that I never bothered to read the small print.

I can't express the weight this has lifted off me. The thought of having to rely and hedge my bets on the Irish Citizen route was already starting to impact me.

I could be mis-remembering,  but my take on the EU settlement scheme was that the person on it gets a temporary right to remain in the country for five years, after which time they apply for and get a "permanent settlement" and can remain without time limit. Applying for the temporary right was an extremely simple process when my daughter and I applied. I believe the second, "permanent" process is pretty much the same. (I seem to also remember getting info that if I had been working full-time, I could have applied for the permanent option after only 3 years and then retiring.) They may have twiddled with the agreement, so you might double-check the current regulations.

What you would do related to getting her Irish citizenship wouldn't really matter, I don't think, to the EU settlement scheme, other than if she becomes an Irish Citizen she might have the option to change from the dependent of an EU citizen to an EU citizen in the scheme's classification system.

If she becomes an Irish citizen, as things stand now, the EU scheme would be redundant because of the free travel/living/working arrangement between the UK and Eire.  I would stick with the first option (EU Settlement) anyway, since the UK could at any time decide "No Irish Need Apply".  And, yep, the waiting period for Irish Citizenship is horrific - we've been waiting for a response since 2018, and what I see on the various Irish Citizenship boards indicates that's not terribly unusual, although married spouses seem to get approved a bit more quickly.

(Of course, the UK could also back out of the EU settlement scheme provisions, too, but I would think that unlikely. Although one can never really tell.)

Oh Wow! Are you based in NI as well NanD? I hope the application for Irish Citizenship goes well! Best of luck!


Thanks Sirius, your username brings back memories of you helping me first time round as well!

Oh Wow! Are you based in NI as well NanD? I hope the application for Irish Citizenship goes well! Best of luck!

Thanks Sirius, your username brings back memories of you helping me first time round as well!

I think Nan got her Irish citizenship through ancestry and has never lived on the Island of Ireland? She was in Scotland for a while with her adult daughter using the EU Free Movement, before they returned to the US.  Nan is tryng to get Irish citizenship for her daughter. I'll be interested to hear how you get on with that Nan and how you did it.

Glad I was of  help to you. When your wife gets Settled Status (ILR) she can apply for British citizenship too. She won't have to hold that for 1 year before she can apply, as she is married to a British citizen.

Others on here will be able to advise you of the requirements to meet for British citizenship, to ensure a successful application.

Thanks to your incrediable help I was able to get my US spouse into the UK originally in 2019 via a spousal visa, without your help it would have been impossible, so many thanks again!

Since we are in NI and I am an Irish Citizen (With British Citizenship also) we were able to jump over to the EU/Settlement scheme, which we did at the end of 2020 giving her permission to remain until 2025.

I don't know the NI rules to Settled Status.  Therefore I have no idea when your wife's 5 years to settlement (for her settled status application) started.  For those married to an EU citizen, it was 5 years from the date of marriage and living in the UK and the EU citizen exercising treaty rights in the UK. Your wife  might not have to wait until 2025 to apply for Settled Status?

Nor do I know if those on the NI rules have to fill in the Lounes paper route and post it in, instead of applying online. My very limited undertanding of Lounes is that this is for the non-EEA Family Members whose EEA sponsor  then became a British citizen. You were born a British and Irsih citizen, so that doesn't appear to be the application for your wife?

The very useful UKCEN has now closed due to the their funding  coming to end because Brexit was a long time ago, but they have left their forum up for others to read the replies and links to all the questions.

Or you could try an EEA forum, such as
https://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-route-applications/

You could ask them the date your wife can apply for Settled Status under the NI route.
And if your wife can use the online form to apply for Settled Stated. The queue at the Home office is so long that many have to wait before they are told to use Lounes paper and post application and then have to get in the queue again.

I think Nan got her Irish citizenship through ancestry and has never lived on the Island of Ireland? She was in Scotland for a while with her adult daughter using the EU Free Movement, before they returned to the US.  Nan is tryng to get Irish citizenship for her daughter. I'll be interested to hear how you get on with that Nan and how you did it.

Glad I was of  help to you. When your wife gets Settled Status (ILR) she can apply for British citizenship too. She won't have to hold that for 1 year before she can apply, as she is married to a British citizen.

Others on here will be able to advise you of the requirements to meet for British citizenship, to ensure a successful application.

Yep, we were in Scotland for three years and several months.... wish it could have been longer! At one point we were going to go to Ireland when leaving Scotland (because of Brexit complications), but with Covid, etc., it was our best option to just come home to the USA. For now.

I have Irish citizenship through my maternal line. Unfortunately, although I had been told I had been registered as an Irish citizen as a child, I found out after I had my daughter and was trying to register her that my registration had never happened. (Thanks, Dad - I know he would have been behind that. Mister Red-White-and-Blue.) For citizenship to have had to have passed to her, the current law states that I would have had to have been a citizen at the time of her birth. So that breaks "the chain" and so my daughter is not eligible to register as Irish. Technically, I was pregnant with her when the law changed, so....

Anyway, we are trying to wiggle through a very small loophole in Irish immigration law that allows the Minister of Justice complete discretion to ignore the normal procedures and allow citizenship via "Irish Associations" - which would be association with me. It is very slim indeed, but not completely impossible. It would have been exponentially more likely if we had gone on to Ireland, but the daughter would not have been able to work for the time it took for the case to be decided (years).  We have already passed most of the normal hurdles (background checks, attestations by witnesses, etc.) that would not normally have been requested if it was going to be a flat "no". But it's been since 2018 and the pace even for a normal citizenship ap in Ireland is glacial. Hopefully we'll hear one way or the other before I croak of old age. 

To OP - I think the rules on Settled are the same everywhere in the UK. Immigration is not a devolved power.

That sounds promising Nan.

To OP - I think the rules on Settled are the same everywhere in the UK. Immigration is not a devolved power.

True, but what about the NI route to the UK for non-EEA citizens?  Would his wife need to use Lounes for a settlement application (request a paper application, fill in all the numerous pages and post it; sponsor must be exercising treaty rights as per the EU requirement for free movmentetc) but I'm not sure that would be correct for "the people of Northern Island"? Lounes seems to be for those EEA citizens who exercised EU treaty rights in the UK and then became a British citizen, but on the NI route they are born a British citizen. While other EEA citizens only need to show they have lived in the UK (even if they haven't exercised "treaty rights") and were doing so before the end of the end of Free Movement to the UK (11pm on 31 December 2020).

The People of NI are a niche group and there doesn't seem to  be a lot of immigrants who used this sponsor to the UK, especially as this route only lasted for a short period of time because of the date of that ruling and the UK ending the EU's Free Movement to the UK. Therefore it's not often talked about on forums by the non-EEA citizens who used EU routes to the UK. I don't know if the NI route is an online application, or when Settled Staus can be applied for. I guess that will be in the immigration rules somewhere, or they can ask on the EEA routes to the UK forums.