EEA family member residence card

I'm an American married to a Danish citizen for over 10 years now. We have two small children who have dual citizenship. We moved to the UK in February 2016 and intend to stay for good. We have jobs and a child in primary school.

Now we're hoping to go to Denmark for this coming Christmas but I have not applied for a residence card yet. I'm worried I will have trouble coming back in without it.

I also didn't have an EEA family permit when we moved here. The immigration officers did question us but eventually let me in with just a stamp on my passport.

I know the application and processing time will be quite a long time especially after Brexit. I'd like to know if I should be gutsy again and go on with our trip and hope they will let me back in or if we should just stay put for Christmas.

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Yes, it will be difficult to re-enter without the card.  Not impossible but will likely cause a delay and some stress.

Why did you not apply for it before your six month stamp was expired?

If I was in your position, I would apply for a RC asap. Most people are doing this if they will not achieve the 6 years of EU law they needed for settlement before spring/summer 2019, when EU law will be put into UK law and the UK will remove what they don't want.

Some think it might be only those with an RC that get an offer to stay under the Brexit negotiations and it is worth getting one just in case. Plus the UK is also talking about of a cutoff date and your RC will give you a date on the UK records. Nobody knows yet about the offers, but it won't hurt to have an RC.

The other thing is that since June 2016, your employer can now go to jail for employing an illegal worker and they like to see proof that non-EU citizens has a right to work in the UK. Not that the RC is proof of that as it becomes invalid if your EEA citizen ceases to be a "qualifed person", but I assume it might enough to keep the employer out of a criminal record if he isn't told this by the non-EU citizen.

I have a different kind of question and one I posted quite some time ago.  We're an American family.  My husband has dual citizenship (American/Irish).  My 17 year old niece lives with us and we have guardianship over her.  She is going to apply to Colchester Institute next year and our 15 year old daughter will apply to Colchester Sixth Form.

I will take early retirement and have a partial pension.  We will also have some rental income and some retirement savings.

I want to apply for the EEA Family permit.  Questions?  If plan to arrive next August (2017), what is the earliest we can apply?  The application states we must send in our actual passports.  How long does it take to get all the application materials back, including the passport?  Does anyone know what information we'd have to show, to show we take care of our niece?  Does anyone anticipate us having any problems getting the EEA Family permits?

Advice? Suggestions?