EEA Family Permit even though fiancee is already here?

Hi there,

I am a Swiss citizen living in the UK, and I am in the process of applying for a COA for my girlfriend so that we can get married. She is currently here with me on a student visa that expires four months from now. My intended approach is as follows:

- Apply for and receive COA (around 2 months?)
- Give notice of marriage (2 weeks?)
- Get married

Hopefully all this will be complete before her current student visa expires. In any case she won't be staying here illegally, so if we don't get the above sorted in time, we'll have to try a different approach (e.g. applying for fiancee visa from her country).

My question is, can I apply for an EEA Family Permit for her once we are married, even though she will be here in the UK with me at the time? The reason I ask is because all the information I've found (including the forms) all say fairly clearly that this is to be applied from the home country (i.e. through the local UK embassy).

If anyone has experience with this I would love to hear from you. Also, if you experts would care to comment on any of the above (sanity check) to make sure I haven't missed anything major, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!!


--JR

jrothlis wrote:Hi there,

I am a Swiss citizen living in the UK, and I am in the process of applying for a COA for my girlfriend so that we can get married. She is currently here with me on a student visa that expires four months from now. My intended approach is as follows:

- Apply for and receive COA (around 2 months?)
- Give notice of marriage (2 weeks?)
- Get married

Hopefully all this will be complete before her current student visa expires. In any case she won't be staying here illegally, so if we don't get the above sorted in time, we'll have to try a different approach (e.g. applying for fiancee visa from her country).

My question is, can I apply for an EEA Family Permit for her once we are married, even though she will be here in the UK with me at the time? The reason I ask is because all the information I've found (including the forms) all say fairly clearly that this is to be applied from the home country (i.e. through the local UK embassy).

If anyone has experience with this I would love to hear from you. Also, if you experts would care to comment on any of the above (sanity check) to make sure I haven't missed anything major, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!!


--JR

After you marry, you can apply for her to stay as your Family Member on form EEA2 (EU Residence Card application). This is done within the UK. I am assuming you're exercising your treaty rights by working, student, jobseeker or self-sufficient?

Rozen wrote:After you marry, you can apply for her to stay as your Family Member on form EEA2 (EU Residence Card application). This is done within the UK. I am assuming you're exercising your treaty rights by working, student, jobseeker or self-sufficient?

Thanks Rozen! I am indeed working here.

Do you think my estimated timeframes are realistic? i.e. get everything sorted before the four months (end of Nov) are up?

jrothlis wrote:

Rozen wrote:After you marry, you can apply for her to stay as your Family Member on form EEA2 (EU Residence Card application). This is done within the UK. I am assuming you're exercising your treaty rights by working, student, jobseeker or self-sufficient?

Thanks Rozen! I am indeed working here.

Do you think my estimated timeframes are realistic? i.e. get everything sorted before the four months (end of Nov) are up?

Yes I do! Get cracking on the COA application, and send it in asap.

Rozen wrote:Yes I do! Get cracking on the COA application, and send it in asap.

Oh thanks mate, much appreciated!