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Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Immigration to European countries, don't post UK or Ireland related topics!

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RedKite2010
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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by RedKite2010 » Fri Apr 04, 2014 8:32 pm

Shocked by your reply Prawo.

My wife is a non visa national, why would she need a visa?

Prawo
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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by Prawo » Fri Apr 04, 2014 8:43 pm

Sorry, did not read your last line.

But why all the fuss?
She can travel on her own without a visa.
Her marriage with you does not add anything substantial (with regard to her visa free travel possibilities).

RedKite2010
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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by RedKite2010 » Fri Apr 04, 2014 9:06 pm

well we are going to Spain to live... more accurately I am going there for work, and she is accompanying me.

When she gets to the boarder does she say she is here as a visitor? Or that she is travelling with her husband who is here for work and exercising treaty right by bring his spouse with him.? Or that she is here for work?

I would like her to be able to work as well as sitting around idol for 3-4 months is not her style!

I just dont know what to do when we get to the Spanish border... i have got most of the other stuff figured out.

Prawo
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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by Prawo » Sat Apr 05, 2014 3:17 am

First of all you have a free period of stay of three months. So has your wife.
So at the border there is nothing to tell or arrange.

Your right to stay for more than 3 months (and thus her right) is based on you working there.

When you have already your contract you can just register in your new home and apply for the proper documents. For you the "registration certificate" (certificado de registro) and for your wife the "residence card of a family member of an EU citizen" (familiar ciudadano de la Union). Once ther simply find out the porper office.
Here is som info in Spanish for you http://www.parainmigrantes.info/certifi ... de-la-u-e/
and for your wife (with application form) http://extranjeros.empleo.gob.es/es/Inf ... s/hoja103/

Your wife can also work if she likes to do so.

To find out the proper office, try to read this
Lugar de presentación:
Oficina de Extranjería de la provincia donde pretenda residir o en la Comisaría de Policía correspondiente.
Para obtener información de la dirección, teléfonos y horarios de atención al público de la Oficina de Extranjería se podrá consultar la página: http://www.seap.minhap.gob.es/servicios ... _ddgg.html
and you wil find the relevant addresses for the Canary Islands.

keepsim
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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by keepsim » Sat May 03, 2014 6:21 am

Related to above topic you mentioned uk national passport and marriage certificate will be enough to apply for eu national spouse visa.

1. Is there any need to provide confirmed travel tickets as well ? As asked by spanish embassy.

2. Also how many days it takes to get this visa.

Thanks

chaoclive
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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by chaoclive » Sat May 03, 2014 8:39 am

The Embassy of the Netherlands in Beijing asked us to show our tickets, which we did. The visa was issued and the passport returned to my partner within 3 days.

The Spanish Embassy in Beijing didn't ask to see tickets. The visa was issued in 20 minutes (after a 25 minute discussion with the Visa Section Head).

We were very lucky.

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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by Prawo » Sat May 03, 2014 9:12 am

chaoclive wrote:The Embassy of the Netherlands in Beijing asked us to show our tickets, which we did. The visa was issued and the passport returned to my partner within 3 days.
You didn't have to discuss anything with them?
The Spanish Embassy in Beijing didn't ask to see tickets. The visa was issued in 20 minutes (after a 25 minute discussion with the Visa Section Head).

We were very lucky.
Lucky?
Since when you call it luck when you get what you are entitled to?
Satisfied with the 20 minutes? Know they have to issue such a visa a.s.a.p and facilitate it.

I presume you were issued the Spanish Schengen visa for a different trip.

Next time try to apply for a 90 day multiple entry visa with validity of 2-5 years.

chaoclive
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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by chaoclive » Sat May 03, 2014 11:07 am

Prawo wrote:
chaoclive wrote:The Embassy of the Netherlands in Beijing asked us to show our tickets, which we did. The visa was issued and the passport returned to my partner within 3 days.
You didn't have to discuss anything with them?
The Spanish Embassy in Beijing didn't ask to see tickets. The visa was issued in 20 minutes (after a 25 minute discussion with the Visa Section Head).

We were very lucky.
Lucky?
Since when you call it luck when you get what you are entitled to?
Satisfied with the 20 minutes? Know they have to issue such a visa a.s.a.p and facilitate it.

I presume you were issued the Spanish Schengen visa for a different trip.

Next time try to apply for a 90 day multiple entry visa with validity of 2-5 years.
It was lucky that it took 20 minutes/a few days. I am very well informed about my rights and would not call it lucky to get something to which my partner is entitled to. However, they do not have to issue it on the spot. I would like to see how the UK deal with someone who asked them to issue it on the spot.

I didn't discuss ANYTHING with the Dutch. They were super. I told them “I'm Irish and I'm going to the Netherlands for a holiday. He's my civil partner." They asked if I brought the stuff and took his address for postage. Total of about 15 minutes (including queueing time).

The discussion with the Spanish was about a legalization of our civil partnership certificate, which I firmly said would not be happening.

Wfreij
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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by Wfreij » Sat Jul 26, 2014 12:22 pm

Hello,

I have read extensively on the topic but i would like to make sure i am covered under the Directive 2004/38/ec

I am a Lebanese, residing in Lebanon. I wish to travel to the Schengen area for 25 days with Italy as the country of entry, i will go for touristic purposes from the 8th of August till the 1st of september with a group of friends.

There is a data collecting agency which collects all the applications for the italian embassy visas called TLS Contact. For the sake of clarity, I am a 24 year old male, unemployed but recently accepted at the American University of Beirut. My father recently got the bulgarian citizenship, therefore I applied to the citizenship too at the Bulgarian Embassy in Beirut. Also, I am still dependent on my father for expences.

I applied to the Schengen visa at TLSContact on july 8th 2014, and the application was received by the italian embassy on July 9th 2014. Included in the application was all the necessary paperwork such as birth certificate, family statement, airline tickets, hotel bookings, insurance, my fathers bulgarian passport copy, a letter from the ministry of justice in bulgaria to the embassy in beirut stating that my citizenship application has been received.

The problem is that to this moment, i have not received an answer, or had any contact with the embassy; and TLSContact do not know any details about my application. Also, my girlfriend who has applied on the same date as I did, got her visa accepted on monday the 21st of august.

The problem is, i am traveling on the 8th of August, and i still need to book train tickets and make necessary plans, which i can only do after my visa is accepted.

As per EU Directive 2004/38/EC, part 2.2.1: “Member States shall grant [family members covered by the Directive] every facility to obtain the necessary visas. Such visas must be issued free of charge as soon as possible and on the basis of an accelerated procedure.” (page 86)

This has not been implemented so far. But my primary concern is i get my visa accepted. So my inquiry is, am I covered by this directive? Thank you

Wajih Freij

Donutz
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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by Donutz » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:18 am

Wfreij wrote:Hello,

I have read extensively on the topic but i would like to make sure i am covered under the Directive 2004/38/ec

I am a Lebanese, residing in Lebanon. I wish to travel to the Schengen area for 25 days with Italy as the country of entry, i will go for touristic purposes from the 8th of August till the 1st of september with a group of friends.

There is a data collecting agency which collects all the applications for the italian embassy visas called TLS Contact. For the sake of clarity, I am a 24 year old male, unemployed but recently accepted at the American University of Beirut. My father recently got the bulgarian citizenship, therefore I applied to the citizenship too at the Bulgarian Embassy in Beirut. Also, I am still dependent on my father for expences.
Hey Freij,

AFAIK you are not covered even thuogh yuo are direct family of an E citizen (your father), since you are no longer a minor:
directive 2004/38 wrote:Children (or grandchildren!) under 21 or those who are older than 21 but still dependent (e.g. students supported by their parents). The child can be of the EU citizen or of the non-EU citizen. This would include a child from a previous relationship or from before the EU-citizen obtained their citizenship.
Unless you cuold be classified as a dependant and travel together with your dad.

Note that external parties such as TLS are entirely optional for all applicants as per article 17.5 of the Schengen visa rules (regulation 810/2009/EC) and yuo are entitled to deal directly with the embassy if yuo desire plus the embassies should communicate this clearly and make it a genuine choice.

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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by Wfreij » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:52 am

Hey Donutz,

Thanks for your reply,
Unless you cuold be classified as a dependant and travel together with your dad.


Well i am dependent on my dad, he pays my university tuition and my monthly allowance and he is also paying for this trip. However, since he is in Bulgaria, i could only obtain my mother's(divorced from father) bank statement for the application. How would I be able to show that my dad supports me without showing a clear money trail?:S

Also, this is an excerpt from the Italian embassies website
To apply for a visa, you shall contact “TLScontact” from Monday to Friday between 8.30 a.m. and 4.30 p.m. (Tel: 00961 1 669 888) or log on to the website http://www.tlscontact.com/lb2it, in order to set an appointment through the company itself (with an additional fee amounting to 56.000 L.P.) or, upon request, directly at the counter of the Embassy, but in such case, delays will be longer.
Well they did give a choice, but it sure isn't a genuine one.

Would you have any idea why the delay so taking so long? Its been 22 calendar days, 14 working days.

Thank you for your help,

Donutz
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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by Donutz » Thu Jul 31, 2014 11:10 am

Hey Wfreij, I'm not sure how one goes about proving that you are a dependent of your EU familymember (dad).
Perhaps there is something in the Schengen visa handbook, which has an entire chapter in EU/EEA applications made under directive 2003/38. You can find the handbook here:

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/wh ... dex_en.htm

As for direct applications, an other handbook (which explains the rules layed out by the visa code 810/2009)says:
4.4. Direct access
Maintaining the possibility for visa applicants to lodge their applications directly at the consulate instead of via an external service provider implies that there should be a genuine choice between these two possibilities.

Even if direct access does not have to be organised under identical or similar conditions to those for access to the service provider, the conditions should not make direct access impossible in practice. Even if it is acceptable to have a different waiting time for obtaining an appointment in the case of direct access, the waiting time should not be so long that it would render direct access impossible in practice.

The different options available for lodging a visa application should be presented plainly to the public, including clear information both on the choice and the cost of the additional services of the external service provider (see Part I, point 4.1).
This handbook can also be found on the before mentioned page. There you can also find contact info if you wish to sent feedback to the EU Commission (Home Affairs department) about embassies who seem to give people a hard time.

Also, your applications should have been dealt with ASAP, and at the longest 15 calendar days!! You may wish to contact the embassy and politely ask what the *** is going on (incompetence, not wishing to help you, mistakes by them, ... ?).

Wfreij
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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by Wfreij » Thu Jul 31, 2014 11:36 am

Hello Dontuz,
Also, your applications should have been dealt with ASAP, and at the longest 15 calendar days!! You may wish to contact the embassy and politely ask what the *** is going on (incompetence, not wishing to help you, mistakes by them, ... ?).
Well I have this instinctual fear towards asking asking them whats going on. But i guess I have to, because this is becoming unbearable! My hotel reservations expire by saturday if i dont pay, and nothing is certain so far.

Well the way i think of it is, why not reject the visa if they are not convinced. So, something else must be going on with it.

johnbeton
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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by johnbeton » Sat Aug 02, 2014 10:33 pm

Hello everyone

I'm new here and I just want to make sure my wife and I are going to be fine for our trip to Europe in two months.

I'm Belgian and my Brazilian wife and I are living in Brazil at the moment. We are travelling from Brazil to Belgium via Madrid.

My questions: Are we covered by the directive 2004/38? And if so, we can still be asked to produce our wedding certificate if I'm not mistaken. Since this would happen in Madrid do we need to translate it to Spanish, and does that have to be a legal translation?

Thank you very much!

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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by samancia » Sat Sep 05, 2015 9:07 pm

johnbeton wrote:Hello everyone

I'm new here and I just want to make sure my wife and I are going to be fine for our trip to Europe in two months.

I'm Belgian and my Brazilian wife and I are living in Brazil at the moment. We are travelling from Brazil to Belgium via Madrid.

My questions: Are we covered by the directive 2004/38? And if so, we can still be asked to produce our wedding certificate if I'm not mistaken. Since this would happen in Madrid do we need to translate it to Spanish, and does that have to be a legal translation?

Thank you very much!

Does your wife have a F card?
I am not expert on this topic, however having read some of the posts here, in my opinion it is important to have F card for your wife before she visits another EU country

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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by vinny » Thu Jul 14, 2016 11:45 am

This is not intended to be legal or professional advice in any jurisdiction. Please click on any given links for further information. Refer to the source of any quotes.
We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by Classified Machine » Mon May 15, 2017 5:58 pm

Has anyone else considered challenging VFS Global (or the member states who've decided to outsource to them) and their dubious 'service charge' with regards to EEA/EU spouse visas? This amongst many other dubious things. DIRECTIVE 2004/38/EC states:

"Family members who are not nationals of a Member State shall only be required to have an entry visa in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 or, where appropriate, with national law. For the purposes of this Directive, possession of the valid residence card referred to in Article 10 shall exempt such family members from the visa requirement.

Member States shall grant such persons every facility to obtain the necessary visas. Such visas shall be issued free of charge as soon as possible and on the basis of an accelerated procedure"

VFS of course say they are not charging for the visa. But given that paying the service charge is the only way to get the visa it amounts to the same thing, surely? Imagine a pub giving away free beer but charging a 'service charge' for the glass and that is the only way you can get the beer. Whatever way they dress it up, they are charging for a visa which according to DIRECTIVE 2004/38/EC is meant to be free.

Additionally, there is certainly no evidence of these visas being issued 'as soon as possible' or through an 'accelerated procedure'. You find yourselves sitting with people who've are applying for a variety of different visas and who've applied for an appointment online the same as you have done.

I've also read posters on this thread state that all that is required for these visas is a marriage certificate and passport. Yet the requested documents from VFS include the residence permit, a photograph, photocopies of the passports pages etc etc. On what basis do the member states or VFS require these documents?

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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by Neelam81 » Fri Jun 16, 2017 10:51 pm

Hi i am a uk citizen and my huband has a indian passport but he has settlement in the UK and thats what his residence permit say's i am very confused on what type of visa to apply for as the spanish website states the following
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Under Directive 2004/38/EC and according to Real Decreto 240/2007, 16 February, Family members of an EU/EEA National in possession of a valid 1*UK Residence Permit / 2* British Residence Permit card are not required of a visa to enter Spain if traveling with or intending to join the EEA family member. If the person travels without the family member, they would be required to apply under the Tourist visa category and provide all of the required documentation for the same, and would be required to pay the visa fee in addition to the service charge. Please note that the UK Residence Permit/BRP card must state the exact following wording
1* “Residence Card of a Family Member of an EEA/EU National”2 * “Residence Card of a Family Member of a Union Citizen”
as he's a spouse of a eu national should i apply for eu spouse visa or tourist?

please help i'm very confused

Thanks in advance x

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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by rnazaret » Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:14 am

Has anyone used a Lawyer in Germany to help with 2004/38/EC (dependents + Other Beneficiaries) case?
- Any recommendations?
- Any ideas on Budget?

Working with SOLVIT and German Embassy for over 4 months and getting extremely frustrated with the 'competency' of the officers.

Thank you!

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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by CR001 » Mon Aug 07, 2017 8:40 pm

rnazaret wrote:Has anyone used a Lawyer in Germany to help with 2004/38/EC (dependents + Other Beneficiaries) case?
- Any recommendations?
- Any ideas on Budget?

Working with SOLVIT and German Embassy for over 4 months and getting extremely frustrated with the 'competency' of the officers.

Thank you!
Members are not permitted to post the contact/name details of solicitors.
Char (CR001 not Casa)
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Please DO NOT send me a PM for immigration advice. I reserve the right to ignore the PM and not respond.

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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by rnazaret » Thu Aug 31, 2017 3:00 pm

ok, thank you. I can appreciate that.

Let me ask, could anyone describe their experience in working with the national court system on getting their 2004/38/EC rights recognized ?

I am in an extremely frustrating situation with the (National) Competent Office and the National SOLVIT agency has been non-responsive.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by baconator » Sun Sep 24, 2017 7:56 am

Hello dear members,

I'm a German national, right now living in China, married to a Chinese national. Our marriage was registered in Hong Kong, including an apostille from the High Court.
We want to go for a short stay tourism trip to Hungary later this year. Previously, a Schengen visa had been issued. At that time we also wanted to visit Germany, so we processed the visa "as usually", including accomodation reservation, flight tickets, all documents from my spouses employer, bank statements.
This time, I would like to travel to Hungary only, so I think this falls under the directive 2004/38/ec.

So here my questions:
1) Does our situation actually fall under the Directive?
2) Is the reason for travelling "Tourism" or "Other"?
3) On the TLS website online form, there is no way to actually skip the "Host information" part - should I enter the name of the accomodation we plan to stay? I heard that all fields marked with an asterisk on the paper form should be left blank. It's impossible to leave these fields blank in the online form - Catch 22, because if I don't fill in anything, the form cannot be processed. Or should I just enter "N/A" in order to trick the online form?
4) Is a health insurance (30'000 EUR) required? I wanted to produce it anyway, better be safe than sorry.
5) Should I write a letter explaining the situation to the embassy/consular? We just want to go to Hungary as tourists for two weeks and then return to China.
6) Am I just overly concerned?

It's not really about the 60 EUR for the visa, but producing the documents from the employer is a bit complicated. My wife is working in a higher position, the company is state-owned.

Thank you in advance, and have a good day!

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Re: Directive 2004/38/EC thread

Post by Two9A » Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:02 pm

Ok, a new question. I can't see that this has been answered recently, so here goes:

I'm in the process of moving from the UK to the Netherlands (I have an apartment in Rotterdam, and have set up a consultancy BV), and my wife (from the visa-required country of Pakistan) applied for a visa under 2004/38/EC. On the first occasion in March, she was refused on the grounds that the marriage certificate was not duly attested under article 2 of said directive, and appeal to the IND was also refused with no reason given. She has today been refused her second application, with the following wording:

Detailed investigations have shown that you are attempting to abuse the right of free movement. You have demonstrated artificial conduct entered into solely with the purpose of obtaining the right to free movement and residence under EU law. Although you formally meet the requirements set out in Community rules, this conduct is contradictory to those rules.

Is it worth taking this second application to appeal, and/or to Solvit instead of appealing to the IND directly? Is there any way to find out the grounds on which the application was denied, except for the intentionally obtuse "artificial conduct"?

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Re:Coming back to the UK with no visa

Post by mrandmrsbo » Wed Jun 13, 2018 3:34 pm

wiz wrote:
Wed Dec 04, 2013 2:08 pm
European Union Freedom of Movement


After she arrived in this country, 10 days later we applied with the same documents for her “RESIDENT DOCUMENT” and it took the HO in Liverpool…… more than 6 months to issue it! Obviously, as it was FREE of Charge, it wasn't for them priority to do any work …… and only Moved when I threaten to complain to the EU Parliament for breaking the Directive’s time scale. I did not bother complaining to SOLVIT.

While we were waiting for the “Resident Document “ to be processed, we had requested our Passports back and decided to visit Greece. Visiting the Greek Consulate to apply for her Visa, according to the rules, FREE OF CHARGE, I was told that she had to pay…… which I replied to read their instructions…… and finally made a call to the FO in Athens, spoke to somebody who was dealing with EU Matters and few minutes later the woman who was adamant and refused to process our application, came out looking for us and in 30 minutes later we had a 3 months Schegen Visa in her Passport.

It is clear that the various clerks of the Authorities do not bother reading new instructions…… and to make sure we will have no more problems I printed the relevant Greek Law and took it with us. Entering Greece was a breeze, and testing the waters, I found out that the officer was very knowledgeable, asking my wife, “”where is your husband, you must be travelling together or is he waiting outside?” So I showed my face.

On the way out it was another story. A young ignorant officer was refusing to allow my Russian National wife to depart for the UK and it took over 20 minutes to sort it out, because the boss was drinking coffee…. and she would not listen to me neither bother reading the Greek Law.

Dear all

I've seen the above post by Wiz and noted he had somewhat similar situation, although that was a while ago, but would like to find out what your current opinion would be on the following:
My wife (non-EU) and I (EU citizen) have been married for over 6 years and living in the UK for over 10 years. We now both have applied for PR, which unfortunately could take up to 6 months to get and we are unaware of any ways to speed it up. We applied last month as her EEA permit was expiring anyways, and used European Passport Return Service so we both have our passports and as it is summer time we really would like to travel to her home country and EU. As her EEA permit was expiring she could not get a Schengen visa 3 months prior to her EEA permit expiration date (that seems to be the rule with all the embassies). So it now looks like travelling is not so straightforward. We read extensively about the Freedom of Movement directive and success stories which gave as some hope, but it is still a risk, so we thought we'd ask someone who is possibly more knowledgeable than us for opinion.
Travelling with no visa, Schengen or UK, at all seems like a huge risk. She phoned some of the EU embassies in her home country, but they replied they will not accept her application for Schengen visa because she does not live there for such a long time. This seems to contradict with the directive, but it is hard to explain something to someone there as they seem to be living by their own rules, never picking up the phone and not replying to emails. We found a way to possibly get her a tourist visa for 110 Euro. In given situation we are willing to accept the cost. (The situation is more complicated because i cannot accompany her for full 2 weeks visa waiting time in her home country and then go to Europe because of work, i can only take about a week off in total, and i think without my passport she would have hard time proving anything, so we think tourist visa could be a solution)
However, even in the event she gets that Schengen, we travel and get to the border in France, we still need to convince the border officers there to let us in on that ferry and those in the UK to let us off and in the country. In your opinion, how likely are we to succeed? Who are more difficult to deal with - border control in Europe or border control in the UK? I know it is said in the post it is possible, but that was nearly a decade ago and most of other success stories are from a couple of years ago. Do you have any information whether the situation changed since then, to the better or worse? And another question, what happens if all fails and they dont let us in? Do we have to wait for the decision from the Home office about her PR to come back? I dont think she could have two visa applications simultaneously. Also, do you think it could have any impact on the Home office decision about her PR? We really do want to travel, but we really do not want to be separated for 4-5 months.
To sum up, in the event we travel together to whatever UK border we could (most likely one of the sea ports as we dont want to risk air-travel and speaking to airport staff and missing flights etc) with marriage certificate (well, an official copy as original we sent out with our application), with her COA letter from the Home Office (that also gives her right to work), a black and white copy of her old, expired by the time of travel EEA residence permit, copy of the directive in several languages, bills and statements from our address (cant think of anything else), can we, well she in fact, get denied entry? If so, what could be the consequences?
As we see it, we are covered by two laws - the EU freedom of movement directive, and here in the UK, after 5 years together with me since i exercise the treaty rights, she automatically acquires the right of Permanent Residence. If i got it wrong somewhere, please let me know.
Thank you in advance

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Re: Re:Coming back to the UK with no visa

Post by Caravel88 » Fri Jul 13, 2018 8:46 am

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/t ... dex_en.htm

This page will answer your questions regarding travelling in the EU with your NON-EU spouse.

Basically with your marriage certificate you can travel together.

If you go to her home country, you are unlikely to be able to return without a visa because the airlines are likely to refuse boarding.
mrandmrsbo wrote:
Wed Jun 13, 2018 3:34 pm
wiz wrote:
Wed Dec 04, 2013 2:08 pm
European Union Freedom of Movement


After she arrived in this country, 10 days later we applied with the same documents for her “RESIDENT DOCUMENT” and it took the HO in Liverpool…… more than 6 months to issue it! Obviously, as it was FREE of Charge, it wasn't for them priority to do any work …… and only Moved when I threaten to complain to the EU Parliament for breaking the Directive’s time scale. I did not bother complaining to SOLVIT.

While we were waiting for the “Resident Document “ to be processed, we had requested our Passports back and decided to visit Greece. Visiting the Greek Consulate to apply for her Visa, according to the rules, FREE OF CHARGE, I was told that she had to pay…… which I replied to read their instructions…… and finally made a call to the FO in Athens, spoke to somebody who was dealing with EU Matters and few minutes later the woman who was adamant and refused to process our application, came out looking for us and in 30 minutes later we had a 3 months Schegen Visa in her Passport.

It is clear that the various clerks of the Authorities do not bother reading new instructions…… and to make sure we will have no more problems I printed the relevant Greek Law and took it with us. Entering Greece was a breeze, and testing the waters, I found out that the officer was very knowledgeable, asking my wife, “”where is your husband, you must be travelling together or is he waiting outside?” So I showed my face.

On the way out it was another story. A young ignorant officer was refusing to allow my Russian National wife to depart for the UK and it took over 20 minutes to sort it out, because the boss was drinking coffee…. and she would not listen to me neither bother reading the Greek Law.

Dear all

I've seen the above post by Wiz and noted he had somewhat similar situation, although that was a while ago, but would like to find out what your current opinion would be on the following:
My wife (non-EU) and I (EU citizen) have been married for over 6 years and living in the UK for over 10 years. We now both have applied for PR, which unfortunately could take up to 6 months to get and we are unaware of any ways to speed it up. We applied last month as her EEA permit was expiring anyways, and used European Passport Return Service so we both have our passports and as it is summer time we really would like to travel to her home country and EU. As her EEA permit was expiring she could not get a Schengen visa 3 months prior to her EEA permit expiration date (that seems to be the rule with all the embassies). So it now looks like travelling is not so straightforward. We read extensively about the Freedom of Movement directive and success stories which gave as some hope, but it is still a risk, so we thought we'd ask someone who is possibly more knowledgeable than us for opinion.
Travelling with no visa, Schengen or UK, at all seems like a huge risk. She phoned some of the EU embassies in her home country, but they replied they will not accept her application for Schengen visa because she does not live there for such a long time. This seems to contradict with the directive, but it is hard to explain something to someone there as they seem to be living by their own rules, never picking up the phone and not replying to emails. We found a way to possibly get her a tourist visa for 110 Euro. In given situation we are willing to accept the cost. (The situation is more complicated because i cannot accompany her for full 2 weeks visa waiting time in her home country and then go to Europe because of work, i can only take about a week off in total, and i think without my passport she would have hard time proving anything, so we think tourist visa could be a solution)
However, even in the event she gets that Schengen, we travel and get to the border in France, we still need to convince the border officers there to let us in on that ferry and those in the UK to let us off and in the country. In your opinion, how likely are we to succeed? Who are more difficult to deal with - border control in Europe or border control in the UK? I know it is said in the post it is possible, but that was nearly a decade ago and most of other success stories are from a couple of years ago. Do you have any information whether the situation changed since then, to the better or worse? And another question, what happens if all fails and they dont let us in? Do we have to wait for the decision from the Home office about her PR to come back? I dont think she could have two visa applications simultaneously. Also, do you think it could have any impact on the Home office decision about her PR? We really do want to travel, but we really do not want to be separated for 4-5 months.
To sum up, in the event we travel together to whatever UK border we could (most likely one of the sea ports as we dont want to risk air-travel and speaking to airport staff and missing flights etc) with marriage certificate (well, an official copy as original we sent out with our application), with her COA letter from the Home Office (that also gives her right to work), a black and white copy of her old, expired by the time of travel EEA residence permit, copy of the directive in several languages, bills and statements from our address (cant think of anything else), can we, well she in fact, get denied entry? If so, what could be the consequences?
As we see it, we are covered by two laws - the EU freedom of movement directive, and here in the UK, after 5 years together with me since i exercise the treaty rights, she automatically acquires the right of Permanent Residence. If i got it wrong somewhere, please let me know.
Thank you in advance

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