I am traveling to the UK on a tier 5 religious workers visa and wish to apply for a Schengen visa to visit Portugal, Germany and France. I am a permanent resident in New Zealand and will be traveling on my South African passport. Am I able to apply for the Schengen visa from the UK? It says on most websites that you have to be a resident of the UK, however I am not sure whether having this religious workers visa classes me as a resident? It is valid for 24 months.
1 Answer
Since Tier 5 does not afford automatically any benefits of permanent residence in the UK, you will have to find out if you are resident currently or not.
To answer the question if you are resident in the UK is tricky. Until April of 2013, this was a question if you stay above 183 a year in the UK, or, if not, if you come to the UK to live or work on a continuing basis. Issues if your family etc, are in the UK also matter. Since then, there is a temporary new method to test (click the link on the bottom) if you are a resident.
All those tests basically check if you have to pay taxes in the UK. This, in return, determines if you are resident.
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1This answer incorrectly conflates the concepts of residence as an immigration status with residence for purposes of taxation.– phoogJul 5, 2016 at 16:32