Hi Honeybee,
I posted the same question on an immigration forum but not here on consumeractiongroup .
The problem I have is that I am in the process of applying for a document certifying permanent residence: form EEA (PR).
I'm Italian and I've lived in this country for many years. I never needed to justify my presence in this country, but the 2014 amendment to The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations [i can't post links yet but you can google it] have moved the goalpost from the requirement the way they were before.
In particular, as explained in my first post, they have changed the definition of "retained worker status" and "jobseeker".
This makes things particularly difficult for me, because I have periods of unemployment lasting more than 6 months, all this in the period 1999-2013.
According to the old rules, I would have kept the status of "worker" even after 6 months of unemployment. According to the new rules, the periods after the 6 months don't count as "exercising Treaty Rights". In other words they could potentially break and reset the count of the continuous five years.
In other words I wouldn't be counted as permanent resident in this country.
My question was, and is, if they changed the rules, would these rules apply retrospectively to before 2014 or not?
I have long researched this topic and I haven't found a definite answer. I think it would be unfair they did apply retroactively, as I was in the expectation that I was in this country and exercised my rights as European citizen.
I hope I have clarified the issue but please let me know if more details are needed.