# EEA2 COA - Doesn't Confirm Right to Work



## surfsquirrel17 (Jul 25, 2013)

Hi There,

Hoping you experts can weigh in on this one and my best path forward.

I'm the American unmarried partner of a French national who is living and working in UK. In November, I arrived in the UK on an EEA Family Permit. I applied for my EEA2 residence card (22/1/14) and received my COA today (4/2/14). However, my COA states that the HO is unable to confirm my right to work in the UK. 

I was under the impression that by being granted and entering on my EEA Family Permit, I had the right to work in the UK (for the duration of the permit at least), so I'm confused by the COA statement. A valid EEA FP should give me the right to work, correct? 

If so, I need to communicate with the HO and request that the COA be changed, as I am in the middle of interviewing with employers and the COA in this format is definitely not going to help the process. Any suggestions here as to the approach would be appreciated. I don't want to delay their decision or complicate matters.

If I am mistaken and I do not have the right to work in the UK, I'd love if someone could help me understand the rules a bit better.

Thanks!


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

It's up to the Home Office to decide whether to add work eligibility in COA or not. Since it's at their discretion, there is no point is demanding it. Officially and legally, your EEA family permit is still valid beyond its expiry date until your residence card application is decided, and since the permit gives you the right to work, you are able to accept employment offer. The trouble of course is that few employers are going to risk a fine and bad publicity without documentary evidence of the right to work. 



> There may be a number of reasons why we cannot confirm that you have a right to work in the UK. The main reasons are listed below:
> If you are seeking to remain in the UK on the basis of caring for a child who is an EEA national, your application is based on your full-time caring responsibilities, so you will not be given permission to work in the UK under the European regulations.
> If you are the *unmarried partner *or an 'extended family member' (such as a brother or sister) of an EEA national, you do not have an automatic right or entitlement to live in the UK with them. Until we have fully considered your application and determined that you qualify under the European regulations, we cannot confirm your right to work in the UK.
> If you have not provided satisfactory evidence of your identity or of your relationship to an EEA national, we may need to ask you for additional or alternative evidence. Until we have fully considered your application and determined that you qualify under the European rules, we cannot confirm your right to work in the UK.


UKBA.


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## BertineC (Mar 17, 2012)

Yeah, this is the language that worries me a lot.

I am also in the process of interviewing and as an Unmarried Partner, was under the impression I had the right to work and the same legal rights as the EU partner. We can't apply for RC just yet because we are both looking for jobs and self-sustaining seems like a waste of time. First paycheck he gets the application goes in.

However, if this confusing language is going to jeopardize our entire enterprise here we may as well suck it up and get married for the piece of paper. Its been 10 years, and we have lived together for 7, but I can just see the unmarried part resulting in a serious problem down the line.

You know, if they processed the RC applications a little faster I wouldn't be so bothered, but I am not spending half a year in limbo!

Sorry - just commiserating because I feel like I am winging it a bit too with this.


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