In this post I wanted to share my experience of using "Right to free movement" EU directive
I and my wife are non-EU Indians, hold ILR, are in well paid jobs and have a dependent child who has U.K citizen ship. We have travelled to France, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy on Schengen visitor/tourist visas many times in last 10 years and have always been given 3months to 1 year visa. However since becoming parent of a British citizen things slightly changed because of a E.U. directive: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/ci ... nt_low.pdf
When applying for Schengen from Greece VFS (2014) we were told that because we are parents of an E.U child we could apply for a visa without needing to pay the application fees or prove our income. All we need is travel bookings and proof of relation to the child. However this year (2015) we were denied this facility by the Spain VFS saying that they follow this directive. Despite paying full fees, providing income proofs and with a history of long visas being granted by other EU states we were just given 8 days visa valid only for our one trip. No consideration given to our ILR status or to annual travel insurance policy for all. So no scope to move our trip even by a few days if one of us fell sick or whatever.
To conclude I would like to tell two important things here:
1. For non-EU parent of EU children: Travel to Greece or whichever country offers free visa and you can find out from the respective VFS office beforehand by phoning them. Its so much less paper work arrive with the Child, his/her birth certificate and passport and travel bookings..
2. Avoid Spain like hell for Schengen tourist visa application. They are notorious for issuing very short visas probably because they want to mint money from ill-informed non-EU travellers who think Spain is the best destination or they dont like anything not from Europe (specially Asians).
Finally a message to Spainish visa guys if they ever read this post. Treating my family this was surely means something is seriously wrong with your understanding of the applicants and this will show up in next few decades as Spain is left further behind everybody else in E.U and the world (as if it is not behind already). It did not leave a good first impression of Spain. Keep minting money as long as you can.
Finally a question: Can we not challenge Spainish consulate in U.K for not implementing the EU policy ?
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