Travel to France with an EEA2...

[reginacarlson]

Hello everyone! I'm Regina and I'm a new member here.

I'm married to a French national and would like to ask some clarifications regarding travelling to France with an EEA2 residence card.

I always thought that the non-EEA national can travel to France with just the UK issued residence card but I came across the French Embassy's website today and found out that foreign spouse of French nationals are now an exception to the visa free travel???

Am I reading and understanding this all wrong or am I just in denial? Does this mean that since my husband is French and an exception to the rule that I now need to apply for a Schengen visa when travelling to France?

Note as from March 2009, The foreign spouse of a EU national (except French national) may enter France without visa if they are holding a valid travel document, a valid UK residence permit with the endorsement "family member of EEA national" and if they are meeting up or travelling with the EU national. If you do not meet the set criteria, you will need to apply for a visa to travel to France and both the spouse’s valid EU passport AND the marriage certificate are requested. However, you may apply for a short stay Schengen visa, i.e. pay the visa administrative fees and provide all requested documents (proof of activity, of financial means of support, of travel and of insurance).

[pdykid]

"Note as from March 2009, The foreign spouse of a EU national (except French national) may enter France without visa " this is news to me.
But family members of French citizen (who is visa nationals) may be requested to attend the Visa Section with the visa national, this is always the case.

My friend who is French recently Applied visa for his wife (non-eeu, even she has PR in UK)
But its strange why French non-eu spouse need visa, when an other Eu's non-eu wife with UK EEA2 doesn’t need one? Mmmm

By the way French consulate always ask the French national to registered at the Consulate, i.e. "inscrit au registre des Français établis hors de France":

If anybody not done yet, its easy can apply from French consulate website with scanned documents and its free service.
https://www.consulfrance-londres.org/rd ... choix1.php

[mourad]

same if you want to go to poland and you are married to a polish national you will need a schengen visa while you wont need it if you are traveling to the other counties with your eea partner/spouse of course .

[Rozen]

same if you want to go to poland and you are married to a polish national you will need a schengen visa while you wont need it if you are traveling to the other counties with your eea partner/spouse of course .

Errr... point of correction! As a non-EU spouse of a Polish citizen who is exercising his treaty rights in another EU state (eg working in UK), you will not need a schengen visa to enter Poland!

[Rozen]

Hello everyone! I'm Regina and I'm a new member here.

I'm married to a French national and would like to ask some clarifications regarding travelling to France with an EEA2 residence card.

I always thought that the non-EEA national can travel to France with just the UK issued residence card but I came across the French Embassy's website today and found out that foreign spouse of French nationals are now an exception to the visa free travel???

Am I reading and understanding this all wrong or am I just in denial? Does this mean that since my husband is French and an exception to the rule that I now need to apply for a Schengen visa when travelling to France?

Note as from March 2009, The foreign spouse of a EU national (except French national) may enter France without visa if they are holding a valid travel document, a valid UK residence permit with the endorsement "family member of EEA national" and if they are meeting up or travelling with the EU national. If you do not meet the set criteria, you will need to apply for a visa to travel to France and both the spouse’s valid EU passport AND the marriage certificate are requested. However, you may apply for a short stay Schengen visa, i.e. pay the visa administrative fees and provide all requested documents (proof of activity, of financial means of support, of travel and of insurance).

If you have a UK Residence Card endorsed in your passport, then your French partner is obviously exercising his treaty rights in the UK, and you can go to France without a schengen visa! When they say that a spouse of a French national must apply for a visa to enter France, what they actually mean is that this is for spouses of French citizens who have not exercised their treaty rights in another country! For some wierd reason, quite a number of consulate websites do not make any effort to make this 'exception' clear.

[mourad]

dear rozen this an extract from the polish consulate website visa section .
read the last paragraphe please.


Information for the spouses of the EU Citizens

If you are a spouse of the EU national (but not of the Polish citizen), please, note that, on the basis of Directive 2004/38/EC you do not need an entry visa to enter Poland if all of these three conditions are fulfilled:


1. You are married to an EU-citizen but not to a Polish citizen,

2. You are a holder of
-the British "Residence Card of a Family Member of an EEA National",
or
-the British "Limited leave to remain in the United Kingdom",
or
-the British "Indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom",

3. You are accompanied by your spouse (EU-national) when travelling to Poland.

Please, make sure you hold the original of your marriage certificate which may be requested to present upon arrival to Poland.

Please note that spouses of the Polish citizens need to apply for a visa if they wish to travel to Poland.

[reginacarlson]

If you have a UK Residence Card endorsed in your passport, then your French partner is obviously exercising his treaty rights in the UK, and you can go to France without a schengen visa! When they say that a spouse of a French national must apply for a visa to enter France, what they actually mean is that this is for spouses of French citizens who have not exercised their treaty rights in another country! For some wierd reason, quite a number of consulate websites do not make any effort to make this 'exception' clear.

Is this for sure? It's so hard without any written proof from the embassy. I've read quite a few horror stories here in this forum about EU nationals married to non-EU who were deported upon arrival to a Schengen state because the Immigration Officer doesn't know anything about the directive.

[noble72uk]

Hi There

Actually most of the countries are acting with the same process which they request a schengen Visa to travel for a family memebers of their own people( French)

in my case I' m married to a french for 4 years we have been togather for nearly 9 years, first when my wife has called the consulate in edinburgh to register they asked for too many documents to provide and interviews even me to go there to for an interview to translate the marriage certificat to the french rules, as I do believe you know the french with the documents, my wife went to the consulate and complained against the staff members as being not gentle with people and she doesn't like her own people how they are acting. I still got schengen visas from other states because i have the Old Stamp residence got it 4 years ago. Some EU states consulates accept the directive 2004/38/ec as denmark you can check on the website.
If you have a new residence card you can go to more the 15 states without Visa but accompanied with your partner plus don't forget your marriage certificate. All countries accept the residence permit except Spain we came back last week and i did ask if a was allowed to travel without Visa. The answer was No, they don't implemnent the directive at all. I have complained to the consult and the emmbassador abd copied the Solvit Already the spaniads are worst then the french.
PS: if your partner is registred in the french consulate i advise you to stamp a schengen Visa to france for one or 2 years period of validity they will grant you one.

[abidjan1]

i can see differents answer i think the best thing to do is to apply for a shengen visa anyway it will free as you are an eea familly member this way you will be avoiding uneccessary eventual delay at the border.

[ribena]

oh dear.. i will be travelling to france for a weekend getaway and certainly hope i dont run into any trouble with the officer :s

altho i did check the france embassy website and was told that i don't need a visa to enter france. <finger crossed>

[Plum70]

Ribena, please let the forum know how it went upon your return.

Bonne chance!!!

[ribena]

hi all
just came back to uk after spending a few nights in paris. didnt had any problems with the immigration on both side of france and uk.

-left UK on euro star via st pancras.
-french border control didnt check my visa, just look at the page with my details and just stamped my passport and he even spoke to me in malay language

-leaving gare du nord.
-french border control, couldn't be bothered. flipped thru my passport (very uninterested) and gave a stamp in my passport
-UKBA control. saw my passport and asked if i have filled in the landing card.which i didnt. then he saw the residence card and said oh no need to then.
-then he saw my residence card visa and asked if the man behind me is my husband. i said yes and he had a look at both passport and we had a nice chat.
-asked him if i can travel along without my husband (told him i am planning a girls weekend in paris) and he said yes of coz. i am not bound to balls and chain with my husband. and just make sure that my husband is exercising treaty rights in UK. And if UKBA need to contact my husband, he can be reached in UK.

and off we go!

[Obie]

Thanks for the update Ribena.

The French are still insisting that family members with the Irish equivalent of the British Resident card under directive 2004/38EC are still required to get a visa.

Hopefully they will change their stance soon.

[ribena]

hi Obie
when you mentioned "...are still required to get a visa. " , do you mean Schengen Visa?

[meats]

hi Obie
when you mentioned "...are still required to get a visa. " , do you mean Schengen Visa?

Or a French visa i'm guessing.

Minor point, it's St Pancras and not St Pancreas

[ribena]

lol.. thanks for pointing that out.

[Obie]

hi Obie
when you mentioned "...are still required to get a visa. " , do you mean Schengen Visa?

Yes i meant Schengen Visa.

Meats, France is part of Schengen and hence issue Schengen Visa.

[ribena]

well.. at least they didnt make a fuss even tho i didnt apply for the schengen visa.

lucky i guess or immigration officer that knows his job?

[meats]

hi Obie
when you mentioned "...are still required to get a visa. " , do you mean Schengen Visa?

Yes i meant Schengen Visa.

Meats, France is part of Schengen and hence issue Schengen Visa.

Yeah i know that, i'm guessing that there's still a French visa of some sort though with the exception of the working holiday visas.

[Obie]

I found it a bit queer that an intelligent man like you meats wouldn't know that. I just thought that stuff we were discussing earlier might be taking its toll.

Ribena, it looks like some people are doing a great job indeed.

We still have a long way to go in convincing member states to fulfill their obligations and abide by the rules. The French are certainly heading in the right direction.

I hope the UK also see sense and abandon the EEA family Permit, as they seem isolated at the moment, with their friend Ireland.

[meats]

I found it a bit queer that an intelligent man like you meats wouldn't know that. I just thought that stuff we were discussing earlier might be taking its toll.

Ribena, it looks like some people are doing a great job indeed.

We still have a long way to go in convincing member states to fulfill their obligations and abide by the rules. The French are certainly heading in the right direction.

I hope the UK also see sense and abandon the EEA family Permit, as they seem isolated at the moment, with their friend Ireland.

I hope that we abandon the EEA family permit too. The fact that, pure example only, a Pole can bring his non-EEA wife into the UK free of charge if he applies in Poland yet a UK national has to stump up £600 or so for the same privilege is quite frankly an outrage!

[Obie]

Meats, if you would care to exercise you treaty rights in another memberstate, courtsey of your British Citizenship, i am sure the same rights will be awarded to your overseas wife- that is if you intend to have one of course.

Recent statistic show that only a tiny proportion of community citizens exercise treaty rights in another state. Without assurance that their non-EEA partners will be allowed to travel with them, these small proportion of people might be discouraged from doing so. They do bring economic benefits in terms of taxes and trade to the countries they go to , incidentally.

[meats]

Meats, if you would care to exercise you treaty rights in another memberstate, courtsey of your British Citizenship, i am sure the same rights will be awarded to your overseas wife- that is if you intend to have one of course.

Recent statistic show that only a tiny proportion of community citizens exercise treaty rights in another state. Without assurance that their non-EEA partners will be allowed to travel with them, these small proportion of people might be discouraged from doing so. They do bring economic benefits in terms of taxes and trade to the countries they go to , incidentally.

Well it's definitely a consideration what with recent events. Still, the only place that i'd go to in Europe is Spain as i speak the language. Well it's a bit rusty as i haven't spoken it since i left uni.

[86ti]

I hope that we abandon the EEA family permit too. The fact that, pure example only, a Pole can bring his non-EEA wife into the UK free of charge if he applies in Poland yet a UK national has to stump up £600 or so for the same privilege is quite frankly an outrage!

The UK may abandon the EEA FP (very unlikely as there would be stlll a need for entry clearance for visa nationals) but they still cannot charge EEA nationals as that would violate community rights. £600 is indeed outrageous but that's a problem of the UK.

[kaycee23ful]

"Note as from March 2009, The foreign spouse of a EU national (except French national) may enter France without visa " this is news to me.
But family members of French citizen (who is visa nationals) may be requested to attend the Visa Section with the visa national, this is alwa
My friend who is French recently Applied visa for his wife (non-eeu, even she has PR in UK)
But its strange why French non-eu spouse need visa, when an other Eu's non-eu wife with UK EEA2 doesn’t need one? Mmmm

By the way French consulate always ask the French national to registered at the Consulate, i.e. "inscrit au registre des Français établis hors de France":

If anybody not done yet, its easy can apply from French consulate website with scanned documents and its free service.
https://www.consulfrance-londres.org/rd ... choix1.php

I think this the case if your passport doesn't says EEA family member of ______ name of (EEA national). Even if you have PR in UK if issued under the UK immigration law, you still need a schengen visa even if you're married to French national. But if your visa says Family member of an EEA national then automatically you also have the right as of any other eea national, that's why you don't need a schengen visa when travelling with your french husband. But some EU countries have different interpretation of this. so just to make sure check it first with the concerned embassy.