As I am not from the EU, how do I know whether I am covered by the Scheme?

• Pages: 5-10

5

What you need to know as a non-EU citizen living in the UK

if you have, or had, a family connection to an EU citizen

3 As I am not from the EU, how do I know whether

I am covered by the Scheme?

It is important to know whether you can apply for status

under the Scheme. This means identifying whether you

have a qualifying relationship to an EU citizen6. Even

if you currently do not have a relationship with an EU

citizen, you may still be able to apply for status under

the Scheme if you had a relationship in the past and

certain conditions apply (e.g. you have sole or joint

responsibility for a child from a former relationship).

Some application categories have complex conditions

attached, and you may need to discuss your situation

with a qualif‌ied adviser to know whether you can

apply to the Scheme and what evidence you will need

to submit (see Section 6 for details on how to f‌ind

organisations that will be able to tell you whether you

are able to apply to the Scheme).

Non-EU applicants need to fall into one of three

broad qualifying categories to be covered by the

Scheme. Sometimes applicants fall into more than

one category, or they may move between categories

when their circumstances change. The Scheme

operates in a f‌lexible manner to allow this to happen.

Each category has conditions attached, which are

expanded upon in the following sections.

Family-member applications cover:

▶family members of an EU citizen (can include

former family members in some cases);

▶family members of an EU citizen who has become

British since living in the UK whilst also retaining

their EU citizenship (can include former family

members in some cases).

6 This leaf‌let does not cover the rights of non-EU family members of

British citizens who do not also hold an EU citizenship (known as

Surinder Singh / Qualifying British Citizen cases) or non-EU carers of

British citizens (known as Zambrano cases).