UK amends its residence rules

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The UK Border Agency has announced that new rules came into force on 8 November which amend the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2006. These Regulations implement Directive 2004/38 in the UK and govern the conditions of entry and residence of EU citizens and their family members.

The changes are intended to:

  • ensure the UK’s Regulations comply with the EU Court of Justice’s rulings in Case C-83/11 Rahman by removing the condition that ‘extended family members’ needed to reside in the same country as the EU citizen to whom they are related;
  • incorporate new rules on entry and residence of primary carers of British citizens to ensure compliance with Case C-34/09 Ruiz Zambrano and will introduce a new application form for those cases;
  • tighten up the rules on primary carers and ‘derivative rights’, and
  • tighten up the rules on appeal rights for unmarried partners in a durable relationship.

The new rules are contained in the Immigration (European Economic Area) (Amendment) (No 2) Regulations 2012 (SI No 2560) and are explained further by the UKBA here.

This is the second time that the UK’s rules on entry and residence of EU citizens and their family members have been amended this year. In June 2012, changes were made to the Regulations to reflect developments arising from the EU Court of Justice’s rulings in Cases C-200/02 Chen (primary carer of EU minors), C-310/08 Ibrahim and C-480/08 Teixeira (primary carer of children in education of former workers), C-162/09 Lassal (calculation of 5 year period for the purposes of permanent residence), C-325/09 Dias (effect of presence without having a right of residence on a claim for permanent residence), C-434/09 McCarthy (dual nationality) and Joined Cases C-424/10 & 425/10 Ziolkowski and Szeja (effect of periods of residence acquired under national law on a claim for permanent residence).

The first set of amendments are explained further by the UKBA here and here and were contained in the Immigration (European Economic Area) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 (SI No 1547).

The EU Rights Clinic team will be producing a consolidated version of the Regulations which will be posted to this website in due course.