Non EU Partners Right To Travel

Hello I hope someone can help clarify things for me...

I am a British citizen my partner is a Thai National and our daughter has dual nationality Thai/British

Currently we are in the Netherlands whilst I work on a short term contract, Thailand is our home, my partner got a 12 month multiple entry 90 day schengen visa from the Dutch embassy in Bangkok with no problems through her right to free movement being the mother of a EU citizen she has been issued 1 schengen visa and 2 UK visa's previously

My question is does the 90 day limit apply to her ??

We are planning to travel back to Thailand after 90 days but we want to come back 6 weeks after that and it's my understanding that on a tourist visa she would need to leave for 90 days before re-entering, but if I am correct my partner can come back as we will be travelling with our child and under the right to free movement my partner should be granted entry?? Is her tourist visa effectively now a entry visa??

Anyone here with experiences with this??

Many Thanks

Normaly the family member of a eu citizen need a visa only for entry not for staying.
In your case if you and your wife are staying longer than 90 days in a 180 day period in the Netherlands you both have the duty to register anyway.
If your wife hold a residence card for a family member of eu citizen from the Netherlands a visa doesn't matter anymore.

Mgb thanks for the quick reply

At the moment we have no plans to stay longer than 3 months per trip, I have family in the UK and we plan to see them as often as possible and as I am on a short term contract we have no plans to register either.

Am I right to assume that her visa is a entry visa and that there is no real other restrictions about how long she has to leave the Schengen area before re entering?

Thanks in advance

Theoretically your assumption is right.
Practically there is the risk a airline don't let her boarding outside Schengen if the visa days are formaly used up.
On the other side if she want to leave the schengen area with a formal overstayed visa that will great a lot of discussion.

Every time I've asked this question the immigration authorities have said you can request for a residence card or an extension of stay (if possible in that particular country). I honestly don't know if the 90/180 days is a placeholder for Non-EU family members because of the uniform format (looks like a regular tourist visa) or what the deal is.

Last time I entered Portugal, the border agent was specific about the fact that I had about "35 days left". I wasn't visiting for more than 15 days in any case, but perhaps he is not aware of free movement rights. Furthermore, Portugal even lets you extend your stay all the way up to 9 months so I'm not sure what he was on about but I suppose he was just being nice to let me know of the trigger date for a potential visa violation.

The 90 day registration requirement still stands though and although for EU nationals no one comes running after you, it's harder if you're non-EU.

On another note, I fly in and out of Schengen a LOT and I've never had an airline actually COUNTING the days I've spent inside (they would need to locate all the stamps, calculate days, etc.). They just look at the visa, validity, and done.

My gut feeling says that due to derived free movement rights, this should be fine. I remember reading somewhere that Non-EU direct family members are pretty much immune to visa restrictions because the operative word is right. At the most I believe she can be fined the same amount as you would be fined for not registering your presence within 90 days. Apparently, that's the most that can happen. I read this over a year or two ago so take it with a grain of salt but perhaps the Directive or another handbook has info on how this stuff is to be administrated.

You might also have trouble when trying to get another entry visa issued once this one is not valid any longer. Consulates can be sticky about this kind of stuff unfortunately, even though it's a right. Things are getting better I think but who knows..

Here is a discussion on the same topic. It seems to follow the same ideas I've expressed in my post above:
http://expatriates.stackexchange.com/qu ... an-90-days

mgb wrote:Normaly the family member of a eu citizen need a visa only for entry not for staying.

could you please refer to this to any official document? This would be very helpful to our case of applying for a schengen visa from UK for my dependent family members, who are in possession of now expired sea family permit and not yet got the residence card and experience difficulty of proving legality of their stay. Many, many thanks.

Your problem is the registration for a stay longer than 90 days.
The UK doesn't enforce this duty:
https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-a-uk-residence-card

You don’t need to apply for a residence card as a family member but it can:..........


You can also refer to visa handbook C(2010) 1620 part III and ask the embassy where this precondition is mentioned.