ADVICE NEEDED FOR MARRIAGE REGISTRY BETWEEN NON-EEA AND EEA

[canary]

I am planning to get married in 6 months, my fiance is EEA member and has been working in UK for 2 years after moving out from his homecountry. I am from NON-EEA member country and has been working under UK work permit for 20 months after completing my degree under a 3-years' UK student visa.
We are struggling to find any advice about the following issues:
1. whether it makes a difference, eg. on my immigration status, if we get married/registered in UK or in his homecountry,
2. whether the decision above will have any impact on our children's citizenship
3. after marriage, what extra rights I am entitled to being a non-EEA wife of EEA member, for example, don't need a visa to travel to his homecountry (passing Heathrow Passport Control is one of the most depressing things)
4. 3 years into the marriage, I might have to make a decision on whether I want to apply for UK PR or stay as a non-EEA wife of EEA member, where I can find help to make an informed decision
5. probably the most important one, where I can find help, I find Home Office's website is very hard to explore, I am often getting very depressed before I can find anything from their website.

[Administrator]

.

canary - you agreed to read and abide by our policies when you signed up for your account.

Please read this:

-> Announcements -> Multiple Posts will be locked/ deleted
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=5722

The other posts will therefore be locked and pointers made to this one.


That said, your enquiry seems to be that you are interested in a spouse relationship based visa to stay in the UK.

However, it also seems your (intended) spouse is in the UK under EU treaty rights and is not a UK citizen.

So, I am leaving this post in the Europe forum and locking the others.

There is quite a bit of information that answers your questions in quite a number of posts, and a lot of recent posts.

Therefore, please familiarize yourself with a few of them and also our search function, which will lead you to many of the basic answers you need.


It will be easier on those of us who try to read through your post if you help with the formatting a little bit.

Please, for example :

I am planning to get married in 6 months, my fiance is EEA member and has been working in UK for 2 years after moving out from his homecountry. I am from NON-EEA member country and has been working under UK work permit for 20 months after completing my degree under a 3-years' UK student visa.

We are struggling to find any advice about the following issues:

1. whether it makes a difference, eg. on my immigration status, if we get married/registered in UK or in his homecountry,

2. whether the decision above will have any impact on our children's citizenship

3. after marriage, what extra rights I am entitled to being a non-EEA wife of EEA member, for example, don't need a visa to travel to his homecountry (passing Heathrow Passport Control is one of the most depressing things)

4. 3 years into the marriage, I might have to make a decision on whether I want to apply for UK PR or stay as a non-EEA wife of EEA member, where I can find help to make an informed decision

5. probably the most important one, where I can find help, I find Home Office's website is very hard to explore, I am often getting very depressed before I can find anything from their website.

And, thank you for breaking the questions into distinct parts/numbers. That is very appreciated and something I wish more people would do.

Begin here:

-> Europe immigration forum -> Directive 2004/38/EC thread
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=15545

It will teach you the vocabulary and give you many of the tips and web links you need to search out all the details you need for your situation.


1) it doesn't matter where you get married, so long as it is in a ceremony generally recognized. You will need to document the civil registration of your marrigae. If your marriage is non-mainstream, it can still be valid but may require some extra effort.

2) No. The citizenship of the parents and the country they are born in are the determining factors.

3) "Rights" will vary depending on many factors. "Rights" are somewhat relative to where you are living and where you intend to live. Being able to travel in most of (theoretically all) of the EEA with less documentation than normal is a benefit.

It's really too complex to make blanket statements without evalutaion more specific conditions & situations.

4) Other members will have to step in to answer this question. I'm curious as to the answer myself. Can you, in fact, obtain ILR/PR in the UK based upon your non-UK yet EEA spouse ..?

5) I hate the Home Office website. Welcome to the club.

It is actually over a dozen interconnected websites depending on what you are looking for. It performs slowly and poorly quite often, and it is a nightmare to locate information fast if you don't know the site.

After visiting it constantly, and getting a few links from helpful people, then you begin to get a feel for it.

I find that learning how to use google very well with power search functions tends to be one of the best approaches.

the Admin

[sakura]

To answer questions 3 and 4.

If on the family permit, you should be able to travel visa free to any EU or EEA member state, if travelling with your EEA partner. There seems to be some problems with member states implementing and understanding visa free travel for people on EEA permits or spouse visas, so it might be that you will be asked to get a visa (issued for free) from the respective embassies. I'm not 100% sure on this issue -the directive that covers the EEA permits are pretty dense to understand.

If you go on the EEA Family Permit, you have to wait the full five years before being eligible for permanent residency. The EEA route does not give ILR (indefinite leave to remain), but the EEA equivalent of PR (it's the same thing, basically).

If you read John's answer in this post

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=19525

you will see that, once on the EEA FP, you need to complete the whole five years. So, your wait is actually 5 years, rather than the three you mention.

What country are you both from?

[canary]

Many thanks, Admin and Sakura:

After reading your posts and John's, things are much clearer. I have been in contact with our local registry office and was told to get COA (Certificate of Approval for marriage) if we want to marry in the UK. The approval will take 4 weeks in general. Alternatively, we need the authorization of Italian Embassy in the UK to marry in my fiance's homecountry.

I am Chinese btw. Regarding my status, it seems wiser to stick to my own route, ie., working under my work permit for another 3 years then apply PR then ILR. Please clarify if I misunderstand anything?

[sakura]

Many thanks, Admin and Sakura:

After reading your posts and John's, things are much clearer. I have been in contact with our local registry office and was told to get COA (Certificate of Approval for marriage) if we want to marry in the UK. The approval will take 4 weeks in general. Alternatively, we need the authorization of Italian Embassy in the UK to marry in my fiance's homecountry.

I am Chinese btw. Regarding my status, it seems wiser to stick to my own route, ie., working under my work permit for another 3 years then apply PR then ILR. Please clarify if I misunderstand anything?

It depends on how quickly you wish to become an EU citizen (specifically British)...assuming that is your end goal. You have two options. Please note: ILR and PR and TWO different routes! You don't apply for PR then ILR (like you state); you obtain ILR OR PR, depending on the route you use. The PR status is given to people on the EEA FP, whereas the ILR status is given to people using the general UK immigration route (e.g. WP or HSMP). Do you geddit now?

So, you have two options...

1. You're already on a WP. If you stay on the WP you qualify for ILR (UK immigration track) in 3 years and 4 months, correct? So, if you do that, you'll be applying for ILR...remember that on this track you'd have to 1. pass the Life in the UK test AND 2. pay something like £750 or £950 (for same day service) for ILR. After 12months on ILR, you can naturalise as a British Citizen.

2. You're on a WP but move onto the EEA Family Permit. You will have to complete the whole five years, meaning you obviously add another two years from option 1 above. BUT, the benefits are that PR is given without you having to pass the Life in the UK test OR pay anything at all. After 12 months on PR, you can naturalise as a British Citizen - BUT for this, you will now have to pass the Life in the UK test AND pay the naturalisation fee (something like £600 odd).

Complications: UK immigration rules are subject to change in 2008-09, so one option might be better than the other. If you lose your job/wp, then you'd have to go on the EEA FP anyway, in order to stay here. Conversely, if you gon on the EEA track and subsequently get divorced (before being married for three years), you might lose your EEA FP (just helping you make an informed decision).

Benefits: If your partner naturalises (this would be after he has been in the UK for six years, passes the Life in the UK test AND pays the fees), you can apply for British Citizenship much quicker. I don't know if he wants to bother to do this, since it'll cost him money, but it might help you in the long run...on either option. Not 100% sure how it works, but it might help!

Are you a Chinese citizen or from another Chinese-majority region, e.g. Malaysia, Hong Kong or Singapore?