Applying For Uk Residence Card Long Waiting Que

[londonthai]

my wife is thinking about applying for the residence card using EEA2 application - however it takes some 6-7 month for the application to be processed. My wife has to travel almost every month to the continental europe for work and at the moment using her second already family permit to travel (and during her xmas visit to thailand she will be applying for the 3rd one).

is there a way of speeding up EEA2 application?

is there possibility of having 2 thai passports (one for the travel and the other to be placed with the application to BIA) and how diffucult it is?

for how long the card is valid for and what rights it gives (on top of the freedom of entering the UK)?

if nothing along applying for residence card are possible, due to travelling restrictions while the application is processed - what are the other speedier options, the least difficult and not that costly?

we are in a cosher relationship, my wife has a joined account with me, is self employed, payes NI contribution and council tax, speaks reasonable english, can read basic but problems with writing. Since 06.2006 spend with me in the UK some 30 weeks.

we are doing well at the moment, but might be applying for the income support, housing benefit for my wife, if her medical condition would prevent her from making money

[the scouser]

A residence card is valid for five years and demonstrates that the holder is the spouse of an EEA national who is living/working in the UK. The BIA is obliged to consider applications within 6 months of them being made but routinely fails to meet this deadline. Unfortunately, there is no means of persuading the BIA to speed up consideration. However, your wife can make the application and then ask for her passport back when she needs to travel, but this would place her application on hold until such a time as she resubmitted it. I don't know whether it is possible to hold two valid Thai passports concurrently, but your wife may care to ask the Thai embassy in London.

Scouse.

[londonthai]

great, we will be than applying.

a few years back I did apply for a residency card fo myself (to help my wife coming here - but which, at the end, did not work). After 3 months waiting for the decission I had to travel to thailand and called BIA to return my passport. The office explained that my application will be put on hold and I should re-send my passport soonest.

I was really surpriced that after several days I have received my passport together with the card - they dig the application up from the bottom of the pile and, probably because it was reasonable well grounded, processed my application positevely.

what might be the next step, possibly easy and not too expensive, as to helping her to settle in the UK?

[the scouser]

Once she has been in the UK for five years she can apply free of charge to have any restrictions lifted, and after six she can apply for naturalisation as a British citizen at a current cost of £655.00. For the latter, your wife will need to take either an ESOL with Citizenship course or pass the Life in the UK test.

Scouse.