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My brief background: I am a non-EEA national married to a Spanish EEA national. We have been married for 4 years, and I have been a legal Spanish resident since 2010. Our plan is pretty straightforward: to apply for EEA FP to grant an entry for me, travel together to the UK, for my husband to exercise his Treaty rights and to settle down there.

As I'm filling out the EEA FP online form, I have a couple of doubts, and I'd appreciate any advice on a couple of questions I've got in the process:

  1. I am currently unemployed but I am not financially dependent on my husband. Even so, in order to get the best chance of getting an EEA FP, what is the best answer when asked 'What is your current working status?'? Is there any substantial difference in answering with 'Unemployed' over'Supported by Spouse/Partner', and vice versa?

  2. What exactly is meant by 'sponsor' in 'Are you being sponsored by a person' question? I am uncertain whether, given our situation, I even have a sponsor. Is 'sponsor' used in:

    • legal context, as in 'my EEA-national husband who is going to exercise Treaty rights in the UK, and consequently transfers me the theoretical right of residence in the UK, as long as he stays there and is considered a qualified person'? or
    • financial context, as in 'my EEA-national husband, who supports me (and my application) financially?

I mean, if I state that I am unemployed, and answer that both my husband and I are going to cover the costs of our trip to the UK, should I still mention my husband as my sponsor?

Could anyone help out, please?

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I am currently unemployed but I am not financially dependent on my husband. Even so, in order to get the best chance of getting an EEA FP, what is the best answer when asked 'What is your current working status?'? Is there any substantial difference in answering with 'Unemployed' over 'Supported by Spouse/Partner', and vice versa?

"Supported by spouse/partner" is not an employment status. Put "unemployed." It's simple and to the point, and your employment status is actually entirely irrelevant to the application. They shouldn't even be asking.

What exactly is meant by 'sponsor' in 'Are you being sponsored by a person' question?

It is indeed a little ambiguous, but the answer is definitely yes, and the sponsor is your husband. For the purpose of an EEA family permit, the sponsorship is based on your husband's nationality and your family relationship. The fact that sponsor is also used in the financial sense in other visa applications is confusing.

This seems to be one of the questions that was inappropriately retained from the standard visa application; all EEA FP sponsors are "persons."

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  • Phoog, thank you very much for your answer! I just love your input on the fact that being supported by somebody has nothing to do with an employment status! Just out of pure curiosity, and in case you might know the answer, there is another question in the same section: 'Are you being sponsored by a company or organization?', I wonder in what cases being sponsored by a company can fit into EEA family application...
    – Amy
    Oct 22, 2018 at 11:15
  • @Amy it cannot. The application is very poorly constructed. I once filled out an application for my wife's mother, sponsored by my wife, and after answering the question about how they are related I also had to answer that they have never been married to each other and that they have no children together.
    – phoog
    Oct 22, 2018 at 12:08

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