Hi this video is about the supporting document that you will need to have for an e a family permit or EU SS family permit the EU settlement scheme family permit as an unmarried partner now this is a special category of application and at the moment is an unmarried partner from outside of Europe from outside of European Union coming in on this basis you’re looking to come into the UK or remain here is ayah of long-term on the basis of your relationship with an EU national I was living in the UK and at the moment this is a category of application you can only may under the EI family permit regime which relies on the European regulations in due course in 2021 you will very likely have to apply under the European settlement scheme regime but at the moment as an unmarried partner you fall within the category of an extended family member and you need to apply for an EE a family permit so the they say although this is a narrow category I think a lot of people are caught by this and I have advised on this very recently so I’m going to talk about the documents that you will need now I’m just going to run through a list of them but the reality is that normally evidence of two years cohabitation is required and most people will not be able to satisfy this so many people may be applying to join their European family member in the in the UK and therefore they’re not living together now and others may be living together but in a different jurisdiction outside of Europe and to come together to the UK or you may have been living apart for a long period of time now the usual evidence that’s required I’ve put in the description just below and you can check it out but I want to tell you about what you can do if you don’t have some or all of these documents so the first one is evidence of two years cohabitation so this would typically include utility bills and the guidance on this is pretty thin from the government’s perspective I say normally you would need and if you’re making an application under the immigration rules then you would need six pieces of evidence in your joint names for example joint utility bills bank statements etc or if you don’t have that then twelve pieces of evidence for you know so six for each of you but referencing the same address so to show that you’ve been living together so that’s rule of thumb but as I say what if you haven’t been living together I’m going to come to that in a minute none of this arises of course if you’re if you’re married if you’re married then you only require evidence of the marriage certificate now the other ones I’ve listed here are tenancy or mortgage statements bank statements rental agreements in your joint names evidence of joint finances you have a mortgage together for example evidence of joint responsibility for children but what if you don’t have children I’m coming to that in a minute a birth certificate or custody agreement showing the or cohabiting or other evidence demonstrating your commitment and relationship now because this is because the test here is whether you have a durable relationship the way this is usually assessed under a UK law is on a discretionary basis the starting point being whether you’ve lived together for two years but although that’s the common test that’s used under the immigration rules it’s not a definitive test for the purposes of European law because we’re looking here at European or not merely domestic law now because of this if you have not been living together for two years then it would still be poor it’s still possible to succeed if you’ve been in a long-standing relationship over many years but you haven’t lived together it’s still possible to succeed but I would have to say that from the outset that you may have to get this before an immigration judge remember you’re going to have a right of appeal here both engages articulate family right and I European EU treaty principles on free movement but you’re you you’re going to be up for a fight here if you haven’t been living – together for two years so that means you could expect an initial refusal and then get it before an immigration judge so you’re looking at a number of months work but the other point is you’d be looking to get all of the evidence you can before the initial decision-maker so let me come to the key point now if you haven’t been living together then this the sort of document that you’ll be providing will be in more personal in nature than would otherwise be the case you would be going into the more it’s a more of an intrusive exercise because given that you can’t evidence your relationship through a common address you’d be looking at providing a number of things let me just write that let me run through them so first of all a chronology of the time that you’ve spent together so if you haven’t been living together how long have you actually been together at the same address definitely in the same country but at this address now it’s possible here for the European partner to have been already in the UK and for someone you know and for the other partner to be joining from outside of Europe now if therefore you’ve been coming into the UK and out of the UK you’ve been doing so on the basis of a visitor permission so either you’re a non-visa national and you’ve been coming backwards and forwards I say you know an Australian national for example and you have needed to apply for a visa or you’ve actually had to apply for a visa but either way you’ve been coming into the UK on the same basis and that basis is that you have been coming into the UK making a representation implied or Express that the UK is not your home it’s not your main home and you’re also coming into it on the basis that your travel was not being frequent or successive now they used to use to be a rule under the immigration rules which was that you should not spend more than 180 days a year in the UK on visitor permission however long that visitor visa was if it was multiple entry and lasting for several years you still could only come in for 180 days in a 12-month period now that’s only a rule of thumb and if you’re going through the e gates now you won’t get their stamp and but the test is essentially is not 180 days as a general rule it’s simply whether your visits are frequent or successive on whether you’ve made the UK your main home that’s not permitted under Vista permission so the reason I mention all of this is that you’ve got to be careful when you’re making representations about your relationship you saying that you know this is effectively my main home I live with him or her and this is my main home so if you’ve been coming in as a visitor you will want to be able to say if it is the case that you’ve been compliant with your visitor permission one point to look out for as well is that sometimes there are stamps and I’ve seen recent examples of this where if you don’t go through the e gates and you’re stamped then it does actually say in the stamp on your passport 180 days maximum and I think it’s just because some people are using the older version of the stamp so you have to look out for that but either way your you’ll want to ensure that you’re not making any representations that imply that you have actually made the UK your home because then your application could be refused on compliance grounds you know on condo grounds effectively that you’ve breached the rules previously so that’s something to bear in mind but the chronology of your visits to the UK is going to be important because that’s how your show that you’re in a durable relationship without it having been your home your main home so that’s number one the chronology number two is what’s another way of the evidence in your relationship in the absence of joint utility bills etc what holidays are one of them so if you’ve had holidays together then hopefully you’ll be able to able to evidence that most things are on email these days so you would be able hopefully to evidence hotels and flights and be able to show that you’ve had holidays together that’s an important factor and something you could evidence thirdly and this isn’t mentioned in the UK guidance as well but it it’s about photographs of you being together and in some of the cases that I’ve been involved in in the past there’s actually a huge book or portfolio if you’d like of photographs that are dated to evidence the genuineness of the relationship over a period of time and what you can sometimes do is show that there’s a time stamp so sometimes you can print out your photographs like from your iPhone or your Android phone where you actually have a time stamp from the phone at a time and date stamp which is great so you know photographs ordered chronologically to evidence the duration of the relationship not every single one but one for every period of time or perhaps for signal significant events if you graduated together that sort of thing I’m the neck the next thing point four is confirmations from people around you now if you have not everyone is religious but if you have you know if you go you go to church perhaps even if not living together if perhaps on occasion if you want to church together or you have another religious community and you have a figure in that religious community you can confirm that you’ve attended together that they’re aware of your relationship and that’s an example of one you know authority figure or respective member of your community who can confirm that they’re aware that you are in a relationship you have been in a relationship for a number of years and it is a genuine relationship and they plan to live together part of durability is you know the forward vision even if you’re not married now other people who could provide confirmations of your relationship or and the fact it’s subsisting and durable are your parents on each side other community figures up some people from your professional circles now if you’re both working or in business and then probably at the bottom of the rung is you know friends perhaps long-standing friends you’ve known both of you and both people in the couple and can confirm the durability of the relationship then we then we come onto social media so what used to be done a number of years back perhaps before social media blew up was you would have telephone logs and telephone logs of course there’s any way of recording telephone conversations you don’t have to necessarily produce all the messages you might be able to produce the call log and in fact there’s a way of producing awards app called log so if you can extract that data for the phone again there’s a way of the way of doing that and you know show those communications throughout the course of your relationship then that that’s additional evidence so basically if you if you haven’t been living together for two years then and you’re unmarried then you’re in for a challenge and as I said probably a fight not but you’re going to have to produce a huge or very significant portfolio of evidence in the absence of the other evidence that wouldn’t ordinarily be expected in order to make out your case so as I said the current position is you as a durable partner extended family member you will need to apply for the EEA family permit and in due course from likely January 2021 I’ll do another video about this at the time you’ll need to apply under the EU settlement scheme program and by that time your partner European partner in the UK will have needed to have applied for pre settled or settled status in order to do this but at the moment even if they apply for a present other set of status now you it’s done you still need to apply under the EI family permit regime if you’re an unmarried partner so I hope that’s helpful I’m just going to because this is a live stream I’m just going to check if you have any questions I thank you very much for joining Morgan Khalid jag and Leone thanks for your comment I can’t see any questions for now but of course if you do have an either drop them any comments below or you can contact me on the details below thanks very much I will see you in the next live stream bye for now