accompany eu spouse visa successful from Irish Emb Bangkok

I am British and my wife Filipina, and we are living and working in Thailand. We applied for an accompany eu spouse visa 'C' short stay from Irish Embassy in Bangkok and after 3 weeks were told it was approved. We submitted two letters, one from me and one from her, stating we were going to exercise treaty rights, our marriage certificate (stamped by the Thai FM), my passport, her new passport, some wedding pictures, her marriage registration form (Filipinos need to register their marriage in Philippines). They looked at all the docs and then, to my surprise, gave them back to us. I guess they just took photocopies, or authenticated them on the spot. Anyway, the visa was issued after exactly three weeks. I believe it was sent to Malaysia where the decision was made.

So, all good news and we are ready to go in a few weeks. Daunting! Will update as and when if anyone is interested - I have got what I believe is most of the information I need from this website - about tax numbers and EU forms and GNIB cards and so on. All I need now is a job and a place to live! Was thinking of Cork.

One quick questions. I believe my non-EEA spouse needs medical insurance. Should we get this there, or before we go? Is it required for the initial 3 months? Any tips welcome.

Cheers
g
and
s

hello

we will be applying for the same visa in a few weeks after we marry can you send me the letter you wrote so we can get an idea of what to write

kind regards

Hi heregreg
Could u pls post the letter you sent with your application, my husband is about to apply for his short stay visa. It would help to include the letter also.

We wrote two letters, one each.
Here is the letter I wrote to accompany my wife's application:

Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is xxxxxxxxxxxxx (British Citizen, passport number: xxxxxxxxxxxx) and I am planning to exercise my EU (free movement) treaty rights from 10th October 2014 when I will travel to Ireland job seeking. I wish my wife (xxxxxxx, Date of Birth: xxxxxx2, Passport number: xxxxxxx) to accompany me and ask that you issue her with an ACCOMPANY SPOUSE visit visa (c-visa) for The Republic of Ireland on the basis of Directive 2004/38/EC. I would like the visa application processed under EU law, under Directive 2004/38/EC.

We were married in Thailand on xxxxxxxxxxxx, though as we were working and living in South Thailand at that time, we did not register our marriage until 23 June 2014 inxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx province, Thailand.

I have enclosed some wedding photos and the wedding invoice, our original marriage certificate and a duly authenticated (by Thai ministry and Foreign affairs) copy.

I have also enclosed a proposed itinerary.
If you require any further information or documentation, please do not hesitate to contact me.


And this is the letter my wife wrote:

Application Transaction Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ref: Application for an Accompany Spouse Visa for xxxxxxxxxxxx, Date of Birth: xxxxxxxxxxx, Passport number: xxxxxxxxxx
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is xxxxxxxxxxxxx and I would like to apply for an ACCOMPANY SPOUSE visit visa (c-visa) for The Republic of Ireland on the basis of Directive 2004/38/EC. I would like the visa application processed under EU law, under Directive 2004/38/EC. I will be travelling together with my husband from Bangkok to Dublin on or about the xxxxxxxxxxxx.

From Directive 2004/38/EC, I quote from Article 5.1 and 5.2 (Right of Entry),

1) Without prejudice to the provisions on travel documents applicable to national border controls, Member States shall grant Union citizens leave to enter their territory with a valid identity card or passport and shall grant family members who are not nationals of a Member State leave to enter their territory with a valid passport.

No entry visa or equivalent formality may be imposed on Union citizens.

2) Family members who are not nationals of a Member State shall only be required to have an entry visa in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 or, where appropriate, with national law. For the purposes of this Directive, possession of the valid residence card referred to in Article 10 shall exempt such family members from the visa requirement.

Member States shall grant such persons every facility to obtain the necessary visas. Such visas shall be issued free of charge as soon as possible and on the basis of an accelerated procedure.

I am a direct family member of my husband, xxxxxxxxxx. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx is a citizen of the United Kingdom and his passport number is: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Enclosed with my application is a copy of my husband’s passport, including all stamped pages. I have also enclosed our original marriage certificate, along with a copy which has been officially stamped by the Thai Foreign Ministry.
If you require any further information or documentation, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I hereby affirm that I will not overstay my visa, that I will observe the conditions of my visa and that I will not become a burden on the State, and that I will leave the State on the expiry of my permission to remain. I understand that I will need to register at a Garda office and apply for a GNIB card. I understand that if my husband and I stay for longer than 3 months in Ireland, I need to apply for an EU1 family permit.

(I hope this helps)
g

you should apply join EU spouse Category D visa not a C visa - "C" means your wife will be a tourist visa

with regards to medical insurance look for AXA -international not AXA schengen

if your planning to stay here and look for job permanently your wife should get a Category D visa not a C ,, C visa means she only be allowed for 3 months in Ireland as a tourist.

The Join or accompany spouse is a short stay c visa. Pls do not mislead people. It is clearly written on Inis website. It states to get a C visit visa and extend when in the state. This is to ałlow the quick facilitation under the eu laws. When u get in, u then go and extend so far It's an acc/join spouse visa u will report to the gnib office and get an extension to enable u process ur long term stay. Pls read the Inis website so u don't mislead others. I just got mine. Thanks.

[[/b]

lordvon wrote:you should apply join EU spouse Category D visa not a C visa - "C" means your wife will be a tourist visa

This is my understanding too.

That a c class visa acts as an entry visa for a visa required non-eea spouse of an EU citizen.

Once in the state, the non-eea will then have to apply for an EU1 / GNIB - and basically extend the visa once in the country.

If I were already in Ireland with a job and tax number and tenancy agreement, etc, then I could apply for a D visa. But I would have to submit a lot more docs - such as the tenancy agreement, etc, and the visa would take a lot longer than the three months a c visa took to be issued.

But I could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time!

U are very correct according to the Inis website. The c visa should actually be issued within a month at the maximum. But a D visa which will be required in the case of an irish national May take up to six months to be issued. The difference Is the EU perspective.

Cheers. Xx


quote="heregreg"]This is my understanding too.

That a c class visa acts as an entry visa for a visa required non-eea spouse of an EU citizen.

Once in the state, the non-eea will then have to apply for an EU1 / GNIB - and basically extend the visa once in the country.

If I were already in Ireland with a job and tax number and tenancy agreement, etc, then I could apply for a D visa. But I would have to submit a lot more docs - such as the tenancy agreement, etc, and the visa would take a lot longer than the three months a c visa took to be issued.

But I could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time![/quote]

thank you so much for posting the example of the letter!! i will use as a template for my wife after we marry in 2 weeks, i felt the same way that it is best to apply for a short stay C visa to get it quickly then extend once in the country

thank you so much you are a legend for posting this and being successful with your application did you provide any other paperwork or just marriage certificate? invoices and passports? for travel itineracy did you use a quote from a travel agent? or did you give a real booking? i am wary of a real booking incase of delays or refusals. also did you provide bank statements or anything like that?

kind regards
p.s would it be ok just to provide a photocopy of my passport? we would be doing our application by post and being in indonesia i have to report to the immigration office every 3 weeks so i am wary about sending my original passport to them

As for paperwork we provided the original marriage cert, and translation. I did send some pics of our wedding and an invoice for the wedding ceremony, which actually took place a year before we got officially married, which was only infact about 3 months ago.

I also sent a travel itinerary, which was just something from the internet, not confirmed or booked. No bank statements or financial docs of any kind.

As for your passport, I really don't know. I guess they would want to look at the original. They looked carefully at mine and my wife's. I would say ask them. They may just want to look at it and then send it back to you ASAP.

Good luck
g

Thank you for your advise, yeah i will email the irish condulate in jakarta, they replied quickly before, if it wasnt for the fact i have to keep extending my visa once a month id send it, worried my it wouldnt come bk in time, maybe i could send orginal birth certficate instead as proof

I'd also like some information on medical insurance mentioned above. I wasn't aware that this was a requirement.

Would this be to cover 3 month c visa or the longer stay when applying for residency?

Anyone have experience with this?

BTW I moved to Cork if you want to know anything based on my personal experience just send me a pm

tastylentils wrote:I'd also like some information on medical insurance mentioned above. I wasn't aware that this was a requirement.

Would this be to cover 3 month c visa or the longer stay when applying for residency?

Anyone have experience with this?

BTW I moved to Cork if you want to know anything based on my personal experience just send me a pm

I would like to PM you to talk about Cork, as I will be going there, but I can't, probably because I have not made enough posts. I also can't receive PMs. So, if you could post a little about your experience in Cork, that would be most appreciated. Something along the lines of how you got settled there, did you stay in a hostel, and also how did you approach job hunting. Any tips would be greatly helpful!

Sorry, to reply so late, it's been a busy week. Actually, in my experience it was very smooth. My initial thought was that it was going to be difficult. I decided to come by myself and set everything up first. There was very little planning on my part. Stayed at a hotel, used daft to find apartments. I viewed about 10 apartments. Found that estate agents were the most demanding so doing business with the owner directly seems the easiest way. I've read that other people have also had problems with estate agents. I did meet one or two people who messed me around. As soon as they found i was not working they ran for the hills. One person asked me a lot of questions including whether i was working and booked an appointment for me. . When I got there changed their mind and said they were not available. Estate agents said August was the busiest time for letting. I suspect as the year winds on it will be much easier to do a deal. I ended up renting the first apartment I saw on a six month lease.

I'm not sure what sort of work you're looking for so I guess it might be different for you. If you've got any I.T. experience then you might like to know that Apple is the biggest employer in Cork. In my case, I was just looking for a job and didn't care too much about the situation. I did most of my searches on jobs.ie. Tried monster.ie but I had zero results. I came back from China after having worked there teaching English for 4 years so I was a bit unsure who would take me on. I had experience of administrator and call centre jobs (not that you need much experience) and applied for a job working for the Road Safety Agency dealing with driving licences. I think it was advertised through La Crem Agency (something like that) It was a pretty fast turn around from interview to starting work. It's not highly payed or particularly engaging work, but it's a job that keeps me afloat until I finally go back to Britain. I've also noticed that some companies especially in retail don't advertise for positions on jobs.ie but use their own websites, something to bare in mind if you're looking to work for a specific company. Once you get a job give Revenue a call and sort out your tax situation. I gave them a call earlier this week and they told me I needed to fill out a form 12a for tax credits. The form itself asks questions such as country of origin and how long you intend to stay in Ireland. You can download it from the revenue website.

Cork itself seems a pretty nice city, very cosmopolitan, lots of things going on. I'm very happy here. Wish I had had the confidence to come here with my wife rather than play it safe

Have you made any progress on the health insurance for your spouse? That's something that I'm looking into and I'd be very interested in your experience.

Thanks for your reply. I too have just landed in Cork and am starting my job search. Daunting - but I guess persistence is the key.

When me (UK), and my non-EU citizen wife arrived at immigration the officer there was surprisingly straightforward and clear about things. I entered through the EU channel and kind of loitered at the back of the immigration booth as my wife was waiting to go through the non-EU citizen channel. When she was questioned I should have stepped forward immediately and identified myself, as the immigration officer said - and i think he said this because he could not see me - that he would refer my wife to the immigration office. But then when he asked where her husband was, he asked to see my passport, I explained that we were traveling on EU treaty rights, and told him we would apply for the EU1 form within three months (essentially telling him that we knew what we were talking about) he was then very straightforward and professional in telling us what we needed to do within three months, and duly stamped my wife in for three months. We applied under EU treaty rights for a accompany visa. However, and I guess it is not important, the visa sticker just said visit (c-visa) on it (we applied in Irish emb Bangkok). But it all worked out well and here we are, in Cork, where the people are super friendly. Any tips on seeking work in Cork would be a help.

Moral of the story: if you are traveling with your non-EU spouse, identify, or go together with your spouse to the non-EU channel at immigration, even if you have got to go through the EU channel first.

Thanks
G

Glad you and your wife arrived and hope you get a job. Hopefully everything should fall into place after that. Submitted my wife's application for a visa last week to the embassy in Beijing, hope it won't be too long before we get answer back.

Did you take any action about health insurance? It's something that's been bothering me for some time. Some websites have said go with travel insurance which will cover the term of the c visa. I've also seen some posts stating that if partner is a spouse of an eu citizen then it shouldn't be a requirement, the only requirement is proof of relationship. It's bit a of a dilemma for me because health insurance would take a huge chunk of my earnings and some insurance schemes like layer don't offer any cover until you've been with them for six months. I don't intend to be here much longer than 8 months anyhow. It's nice to have, even prudent but absolutely necessary, i'm not entirely sure.

tastylentils wrote:Glad you and your wife arrived and hope you get a job. Hopefully everything should fall into place after that. Submitted my wife's application for a visa last week to the embassy in Beijing, hope it won't be too long before we get answer back.

Did you take any action about health insurance? It's something that's been bothering me for some time. Some websites have said go with travel insurance which will cover the term of the c visa. I've also seen some posts stating that if partner is a spouse of an eu citizen then it shouldn't be a requirement, the only requirement is proof of relationship. It's bit a of a dilemma for me because health insurance would take a huge chunk of my earnings and some insurance schemes like layer don't offer any cover until you've been with them for six months. I don't intend to be here much longer than 8 months anyhow. It's nice to have, even prudent but absolutely necessary, i'm not entirely sure.

Did you get EU spouse visa in Beijing?
What document did you provide and did your spouse give any biometric info?

tastylentils wrote:Glad you and your wife arrived and hope you get a job. Hopefully everything should fall into place after that. Submitted my wife's application for a visa last week to the embassy in Beijing, hope it won't be too long before we get answer back.

Did you take any action about health insurance? It's something that's been bothering me for some time. Some websites have said go with travel insurance which will cover the term of the c visa. I've also seen some posts stating that if partner is a spouse of an eu citizen then it shouldn't be a requirement, the only requirement is proof of relationship. It's bit a of a dilemma for me because health insurance would take a huge chunk of my earnings and some insurance schemes like layer don't offer any cover until you've been with them for six months. I don't intend to be here much longer than 8 months anyhow. It's nice to have, even prudent but absolutely necessary, i'm not entirely sure.

Did you get visa for your wife? If yes congratulation
I am here same situation about to apply
Few question ask
What documents submitted?
Has she given biometric info?
Has she gone to Irish embassy in Beijing to submit document in person or submitted or sent by post?
We live mongolia no Irish embassy here that is why I would like to khow if it is possible to send all document by courier such as DHL?
Thanks for your help answering to my question

Thanks for sharing your experience