UK citizenship for spouse in Belgium

I am a UK citizen who has recently started working for the UN in Brussels. My girlfriend is a Cameroonian who has been living and officially seeking asylum in Belgium for 4 years. We are planning to get married later this year (either in Belgium or in UK). Will she be able to claim UK citizenship while I am living and working for the UN in Brussels ? If this is a lengthy process, will she have other rights as my wife in the interim - (for example she is currently unable to travel outside Belgium) ?

Jas,

Your wife to be has to get a full right of residence in Belgium (ie resolve the Assylum status) before she can 'safely' travel out of Belgium.

All the best with marriage and everything else

Will she be able to claim UK citizenship while I am living and working for the UN in Brussels ?

No. She must first obtain Limited Leave To Remain in the UK then Indefinite Leave To Remain aka Permanent Residence before applying for naturalisation as a British Citizen. All three have a UK residence requirement. The Home Secretary has powers to ignore certain residence requirements but IMHO this does not apply in your case - you would have to have a more direct link to HMG e.g. armed forces or perhaps the European Commission. You are looking at a minimum three year time frame to naturalisation - marital bliss eh?

If this is a lengthy process, will she have other rights as my wife in the interim - (for example she is currently unable to travel outside Belgium) ?

1. You should immidiatley apply for a residence permit as an EU national exercising treaty rights in Belgium. Dependents of EU nationals exercising treaty rights have the right to live with their EU spouse and do no require a work permit for employment in the relevant member state. Note that EU law only recognises a spouse or children under 21 as dependents so you may need to get married earlier than anticipated - however there may be national legislation giving fiance/ees a concession. Include your wife's details in the application and she will be awarded residency in line with you - not sure about the Belgian system but it may be for 5 years. Your wife is then back in status if her asylum claim is yet to be decided. It may be that this residence permit invalidates her asylum claim but I am sure she wouldn't mind - you need to check with a Belgian lawyer or wait for comments from Elfa the EU law expert on the European Forum.

2. In terms of the UK your girlfriend will need to meet the requirements of the immigration rules for whatever category she is entering the UK in. IMHO she will not get a UK visa in a category that does not lead to settlement because she has no ties or legal status in Belgium before a marriage. She will still need to meet the requirements of the rules after your marriage if you then intend to return to the UK with the exception below.

3. An exception to 2 above is where you/ a British Citizen returns to settle in the UK after spending a 'long' enough time in a third EU country exercising treaty rights as you are in Belgium - 'long' has been deemed in case law to be 6+ months. You can in this case apply for your wife to enter the UK under the principles of EU law as per the Belgian scenario i.e. you are treated as if you were an EU national coming to exercise treaty rights in the UK - your dependents would thus be entitled to return to the UK with you - this is known as the Surinder Singh route to family re-union after the case law establishing it.

4. Mr Singh an Indian national was married to a British Citizen. Mr. Singh's wife went to work in Germany and was accompanied by Mr Singh. She then wanted to return to the UK but the UK government insisted that Mr. Singh meet the relevant requirements of the immigration rules to re-enter the U.K. These conditions are more stringent than those under EU law - the courts ruled that Mrs Singh was being prejudiced in relation to other EU nationals entering the UK. Accordingly the courts ruled that British Citizens who had been exercising treaty rights in a third EU member state would have their re-entry or rather that of their non EU dependents based on EU law.

In all cases your girlfriend/ to be wife should not depart Belgium before regularising her stay.

Hope things work out for you.

Thanks a lot for the advice, its really appreciated Can you recommend a lawyer who I could consult on this subject ??