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Is derived free movement of non-EU spouses effectively over?

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

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liksah
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Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 5:14 pm

Is derived free movement of non-EU spouses effectively over?

Post by liksah » Sun Feb 21, 2016 3:04 am

It looks like the EU has agreed to restrict the free movement of non-EU spouses of EU nationals if Britain votes to stay in. The language in the EU council declaration is pretty worrying and has very broad reach:
The Commission intends to adopt a proposal to complement Directive 2004/38 on free movement of Union citizens in order to exclude, from the scope of free movement rights, third country nationals who had no prior lawful residence in a Member State before marrying a Union citizen or who marry a Union citizen only after the Union citizen has established residence in the host
Member State. Accordingly, in such cases, the host Member State's immigration law will apply to
the third country national. This proposal will be submitted after the above Decision has taken effect.
So if you married an EU national and never lived in the EU - they're going to make it pretty hard for you both to move to any EU country. This proposed change doesn't discriminate on whether you've been married for 2 days or 20 years. You will still be subject to national immigration rules - whatever they may be for each country (might also include language knowledge requirements?).

Schengen visas for tourism/short trips for spouses of EU nationals also might become far more complicated.

Am I right to be worried? It looks like this may at a later stage be challenged in the CJEU but that will take a few years?

bongwozzer
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Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2016 8:46 am

Re: Is derived free movement of non-EU spouses effectively o

Post by bongwozzer » Sun Feb 21, 2016 8:56 am

Yes, this is how I read it also.

Does anyone have thoughts on when this is likely to take affect?

In my personal situation, I'm a UK national, living and married non-EU (Asia) for the past 6 years.

We were considering moving to Spain next year under free-movement rights (self, non-EU wife and step-daughter) and actually settling in Spain. By this I mean long-term, not as a SS route back to the UK.

Opinions on whether we should move sooner and start the work / residency process - eg, before the UK vote in June?

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Casa
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Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:32 pm

Re: Is derived free movement of non-EU spouses effectively o

Post by Casa » Sun Feb 21, 2016 9:47 am

We don't need another thread on this. There is already one running, please post there:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-ro ... 03556.html
(Casa, not CR001)
Please don't send me PMs asking for immigration advice on posts that are on the open forum. If I haven't responded there, it's because I don't have the answer. I'm a moderator, not a legal professional.

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