Can someone explain the EEA visa to me please.

Hi everyone, Just to give you a breif outline of whats happening. I am British and my Partner is Albanian, we live in Greece together and have a 2 year old daughter. I have been told that it may be possible to get this EEA visa rather than an Unmarried Partners Visa, as my partner has been in greece, living and working for the past 10 years with all the correct paperwork. I dont really understand if we will be eligable for this visa, but any information would be great. Is it something that i would still need to instruct a solicitor for? Does it alow my partner to work once we get to the UK?

Thanks in advance for your help
Claire xxx

EEA visa or not, it will be based on your unmarried relationship that has lasted for 2 years or more.

You have two options
1. You are a British citizen, so you can sponsor your partner under UK rules. Check out the website of British embassy in Greece and look for spouse visa. Rules for spouse visa and unmarried partner visa are pretty much the same. Your spouse will get a 2 years visa to live and work in UK. At the end of two years your spouse can apply for ILR (or probationary citizenship if thats in force at the time of application).

2. As you have lived in another EU country, you can sponsor your spouse as "spouse/family member of an eea citizen". Your application will fall into something called as "surinder singh criterea". This application will be under eu rules. Check out the information EEA spouse section of the embassy website. Your spouse gets 6 months eea family permit. This allows them to live and work in UK. If you want, you can apply to get confirmation of this rights in the passport once you are in UK. After 5 years stay in UK, your spouse can get a "permanent residence" stamp in their passport.

It will be best if you do your own research in the above 2 categories and come back to the forum if you have any queries.

Ok, i knew about the first option, but the first i heard of this second option was yesterday. But thanks for the simple explination! i keep getting so confused with all the jargon!

Thanks again for your help.

xxx