About applying as a child.
My children, like me, have been in Scotland since 2005, they are all students just now, so could stay using their student status at the moment, but should apply before December 2020, if they want to stay after their studies.
They can apply using me as a ‘sponsor’ as they are under 21, or they can apply for themselves. In that case they will need to prove 5 years of UK residence which is not that straightforward as they won’t have many documents in their own name other than school reports or SQA results (Scottish Qualifications for their exams in the last 3 years of academy),which I’m not even sure are accepted as proof of residence.
If they apply with me as a sponsor, they get the same status as myself and just need to prove their relationship with me. I’ve written about applying for me in part 1 and getting the status in part 2.
Applying with the same device
Until recently, the app to apply didn’t work on iPhone. It does now, but … you need the latest version of the iOS.
So my son can’t apply with his phone. We used my Android phone. But the app ‘knows me’ and is using my email address and my mobile number and never prompted him to enter his.
For now, it’s ok. But when he gets the status, he will need to change both to his own email address and phone number so he can prove his status without relying on me. I assume it’s an easy process, but then who knows…
It starts the same
Take a photo of your passport, then scan it, take a photo of your face and answer a few questions about your nationality and residence.
They know you’re under 21 from the date of birth of your passport
So you get the specific guidance to apply for a child, which is good. I don’t know if the guidance would be different if the child is under 5, or under 12 for example. My son is 17 so he could understand the instructions most of the time. But if the child is younger, they probably assume that an adult is helping them or is answering for them.
Terms like residence card, or indefinite leave to remain are not obvious. You might not know your mother’s maiden name or their middle names, so best to have an adult with you.
National Insurance number
I assume they only ask for it if you are over 16. They say it will be used to try to match with the tax and benefits records to confirm they were a resident in the UK, but he is applying with me as a sponsor and they said earlier he didn’t have to prove his residence in the UK. So does he needs to prove it or not?
Security questions
This part was kind of funny. Before you submit your application, you need to select 3 questions in 3 different sets of questions. They use this if you need to phone them later about your application.
They don’t seem to have a different set of security question for children. (Hence the photo at the top)
So you can pick:
- In what city or town did your wedding take place?
- What is the first job you ever had?
- What is the name of your partner?
- What is your partner’s mother’s name?
- What make was your first car?
In the screen below, as a kid, you probably pick one of the two about school…
It’s funny for me but probably not to everyone
Because if you are a child in care who has been changing schools a lot, with no siblings, then most of the questions of the 3 sets won’t be relevant or easy for you. You probably end up picking one and inventing an answer, hoping you will remember it if asked later.
Result on screen
At some point, they announce you’re going to get your result ‘straight away’. Again they talk about the possibility of having to provide more evidence of your residence even though you’re not supposed to have to in this case?
I think they are re-using a screen from the adult flow of screens. Which is why they talk about proving your residence and don’t address at all what is very likely to be the result you will get: a request to prove your relationship to your sponsor…
I don’t know if there are cases where the Home Office has a way to check the relationship automatically. Maybe if the child is on the parent’s passport? but I assume in most cases they don’t. And at that point in the process, seeing that screen, I naively thought we were going to get the status sorted on the next page…
Prove your relationship to your sponsor
That was the result. I assume a selfie of my son and I won’t do… So the good thing is: there is a link to tell you ‘What to use as evidence of your relationship’.
The bad thing is, that link goes to a page which doesn’t help…so we had to look for the information.
I’ll be nice to you and put you on the right page and at the right place in that long page:EU Settlement Scheme: evidence of relationship to an EU citizen
Not too sure about the full birth certificate in French. Would this be accepted? They don’t say. I could phone to find out.
We uploaded something that is a bit different, it’s a document in French with translations in all EU official languages which shows the name of the parents. We hope this will do. If not I’ll have to get in touch with the French authorities to ask for a full birth certificate with a translation in English.
This last screen was probably not tested…
This service is in Beta (there is a little blue tag at the top left of the screens), which means the Home Office is still working on it and trying to improve it. Normally, you need to test your screens with users to make sure they understand your instructions and fix anything that results in errors before you put a service online at that stage (or any stage really).
On that last screen, the top is about ‘Add your relationship evidence’, and there is a button to ‘View or upload your evidence’ (screenshot above).
The second part of the screen is about ‘Use evidence from your previous applications’. The last part of the screen is ‘If you cannot provide evidence’ (screenshot below).
And just below this, a big green button ‘Finish and Submit’. In our case, we had uploaded the document, we had evidence, so we directly clicked the green button …. wrong.
You must answer the question to continue.
What question? We scrolled the whole screen to find the question we missed and in fact, it’s a checkbox we missed, not a question, and it’s in the part about ‘If you cannot provide evidence’ which ask you to confirm that … you have uploaded document as evidence!
Free advice for the Home Office team
It’s not a question, it’s a statement or declaration to tick and it should be under the first part, or in a separate part with a clear heading just above the green button.
And now we wait
This time, we already got the first email with the PDF letter confirming the application. So no need to wait for 7 weeks for it. But after 5 days, we still don’t have the final result.
They are still within the time announced (5 working days or up to a month). Hopefully, this is the last time I write about this.
Another of my children needs to apply with me as a sponsor, but also needs my phone and is not living at home so this will be a Christmas fun activity. The last one is over 21 so needs to apply herself, it’s ongoing for her.
Edit 13/01/20: it finally took 7 weeks, with no contact from the Home Office all this time, but my son did get the status based on the document we initially sent.
Links to part 1 and 2
Applying to the EU settlement Scheme part 1 (applying as an adult|)
Applying to the EU settlement Scheme — part 2, receiving it: how you get the news and what to do to prove your status to someone….