I am a US citizen living in the UK under a work permit scheme. I am in my third year of a 5 year permit, and am still working with the company that attained my permit.

I was married in 2010; my wife is a French citizen. We have two daughters together and are all living here in the UK.

I want to establish my right to reside in the UK, and/or establish my right to live/work in France/EEA. The main reason is that I am in the process of starting my own company, and my current work permit does not allow me to work for any company other than the one that got me the permit.

At the moment I intend to continue working for my current employer while I build up my own company. But I also have a significant amount of consulting work lined up (both here and back in the States) that does not fit into my current company’s business model. I also want the opportunity to shop my skill set around to other companies that might have more attractive remuneration options.

I know that marriage to an EEA citizen opens up some options for me, but I’m not sure what the best path is for me to take: do I wait out the 5 years on my current work permit and then just apply for indefinite leave to remain? Not my favourite option as I would like to move forward with my other business. Do I apply for a residence permit based on my marriage? If so, does my wife need to formalize her residence in the UK? Currently we have not registered her formally, as the UKBA site says this is not a requirement for her.

Any advice, including reference to third parties that might be able to provide assistance, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

NEW INFO: I spoke to the Home Office and they suggested that I apply using the EEA2 form. However it seemed like there may be a down side to this - they seemed almost hesitant to recommend it. Any ideas why this might be? Is it just that my 5 year timeframe resets itself?

 

My wife is a stay-at-home mother caring for our kids, but she is part-time employed, working from home doing some data entry for my employer. However she'll likely stop even that over the next year and just care for the kids and practice her anglais. But short answer is she's currently working, has an NI Number, as do I. How is it relevant? Good or bad?

 

Can I just be a complete pest and ask about the health insurance - my wife and I are both covered under a private health plan with my current employer. But how is this relevant? We're NHS registered and have used the NHS frequently, we even had our second child at a UK hospital just recently (excellent service from all involved, by the way).

If I lose this health insurance are you saying that I'd have to get my own private health plan? Is this coverage for the NHS in the case of a serious illness? Or is there something else to it?