Travel to EU with Non-EU Family Settled Status

I have a peculiar concern and have tried all avenues to find answer with no success so far.

My wife and I live and work in the UK. I hold Indian nationality by birth and my wife is from Lithuania (and has a Lithuanian passport). We both have acquired Settled Status in UK. I have received my Settled Status biometric card which states the 'Type of Permit' to be 'EU SCHEME SETTLEMENT' and would like to know if EU/Lithuanian border agency would allow me to enter Lithuania/EU with my wife for short trips to visit family?

I had tried to contact European Council with this question and got vague scripted response which doesn’t really answer my question. I had obtained EEA Residence Permit over 5 years ago which had recently expired in Feb 2019. It allowed me to travel to Lithuania with my wife visa free. I could acquire another EEA residence permit but as suggested on UK government website, it would not be valid after Dec 2020. Also, would the process be any different now that I have a biometric card under EU settlement scheme?

I understand that I could apply for Schengen visas, however, this would mean that I will have to go through extensive documentation and attend interview in London (which would be time consuming and expense when we have to travel from Newcastle) on yearly basis. EC suggested long term (5 year) Schengen visa but for that I need to show that I travel EU frequently while in our case we tend to go on annual basis (which is not ‘frequent’ by Schengen Visa standards).

I would hugely appreciate any advise on this.

Apply for EEA Permanent Residence, given that you already have 5 years, so you can move in EU under Article 10. Don't worry now about Brexit, who knows when is that going to happen... and transition time of the withdraw agreement will probably prolongue EU Free Movement much further than June 30 2021 (Dec 31 2020 is just in case of no-deal Brexit, which is very unlikely). By then it will probably be clearer what will happen to EU Settlement Scheme holders.

By the way, don't you have an Indian passport? I think Indian nationals don't need a visitor visa to enter Schengen countries.

Sorry, I am wrong, nationals from India do need a visitor visa.

To be on the safe side apply for schengen visa. The reason i said you know already some border official not so knowledgeable about EU law and forget about EU settlement scheme. Do you want to spend extra 1 hour in the airport .

When i was travelling with VALID EEA RC before one border guard won't let me leave schengen. he had to call his boss to get confirmation and then had to wait 30 minutes for that. He was so confused why i don't entry stamp . i told him family member don't get passport stamped at the border .. anyway in the end he put a exit stamp on my passport .. since then i always had schengen visa

jmedina wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:14 pm

Apply for EEA Permanent Residence, given that you already have 5 years, so you can move in EU under Article 10. Don't worry now about Brexit, who knows when is that going to happen... and transition time of the withdraw agreement will probably prolongue EU Free Movement much further than June 30 2021 (Dec 31 2020 is just in case of no-deal Brexit, which is very unlikely). By then it will probably be clearer what will happen to EU Settlement Scheme holders.

Thanks a bunch jmedina.

I have one more question for you, hope you won't mind answering. Looking at government website

https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-a-uk-resid ... st-provide

describing the process for applying residence card (hope I am looking at the right document?), it suggests that I need to give my biometric information which have very recently given as a part of Settled Status. Would you know if I would still be required to provide this?

Thanks in advance.

I am not sure. You probably would, because they are two totally different departments, one goes under EU legislation and the other one is a British thing.

Shengen visitor visa also looks like the easiest way, but I am not sure how hard is to get it.

I think you should be fine, assuming you travel with your wife

I have a residence card with will expire soon and i also have settled status, they will give me a new card with my settled status when my residence card exipres, i have always wondered how the the card for non EU family member with settled status will look like , could you please tell what does it say? Does it have expirey date

Settled Status, although issued to EEA citizens and their family members, is issued under UK Immigration law and not under EU law. It would therefore not be recognised outside the UK.

For visa-free travel in the EU, you need to hold a Permanent Residence Card with the wording "Family Member of a Union citizen".

You would therefore want to either
a) Apply for a PR Card under the EEA Regulations, OR
b) Apply for an appropriate Schengen visa.

hanihani wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 23, 2019 4:33 pm

I think you should be fine, assuming you travel with your wife

I have a residence card with will expire soon and i also have settled status, they will give me a new card with my settled status when my residence card exipres, i have always wondered how the the card for non EU family member with settled status will look like , could you please tell what does it say? Does it have expirey date

Thanks hanihani, but I'm quite certain that immigration officers on Schengen borders won't be that lenient.

For your curiosity below is my Settled Status biometric

secret.simon wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 23, 2019 4:45 pm

Settled Status, although issued to EEA citizens and their family members, is issued under UK Immigration law and not under EU law. It would therefore not be recognised outside the UK.

For visa-free travel in the EU, you need to hold a Permanent Residence Card with the wording "Family Member of a Union citizen".

You would therefore want to either
a) Apply for a PR Card under the EEA Regulations, OR
b) Apply for an appropriate Schengen visa.

Thanks secret.simon for sharing your thoughts. I think you’re right, I’m better off getting myself the PR card.

jmedina wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 23, 2019 3:39 pm

I am not sure. You probably would, because they are two totally different departments, one goes under EU legislation and the other one is a British thing.

Shengen visitor visa also looks like the easiest way, but I am not sure how hard is to get it.

Thanks again jmedina. Trouble with Schengen visas is that’s I will be required to acquire one every time we wish to go see my wife’s family. We tend to travel every year for a week or two which means that every year I will need to go through tonnes of paperwork and a trip to London (unfortunately that’s the only Lithuanian consulate in the UK) for the meaningless interviews. It’s just the silly process that I will have to go over and over again. Long term 5yr Schengen visa wont be something I will be able to acquire as I have explained above.

So I must go through painful red tape, I might as well do it once for the type of document that has longer validity i.e. EEA PR. I understand this again would probably become invalid post brexit but, like you said, who knows when would it actually happen.

Not really some countries will issue you Schengen Visa for 6 months easily if you can show them your Wife ID card and Marriage certificate .. My ex wife from EEA and when i went to polish consulate they issued me 6 month schengen visa in 3 days and yes you can get schengen visa from france and travel to another schengen country .. yes it's true you should travel to the country that issued the visa but you can always say you will travel there later. it's not a requirement at all . I've traveled with schengen visa many years .. it's trouble free and i'm out in few minutes

askmeplz82:
Would you please tell me which documents you submited in Polish embassy for schengen visa? And was it free of charge??

Yes Free of charge.

They wanted to see copy of my EU national ID Card . They even emailed her asking if i'm her husband .

MY passport
Copy of her National ID card
Marriage Certificate
EEA residence card

They didn't ask for Hotel booking or Plane ticket but i booked hotel anyway in booking.com which i can cancel 24 hours before arrival .

They called me for an interview. Asked me question like how long i am married / where is my Wife / Do we have any children / why i am not applying for British Passport as i'm already living in the UK more then 10 years / where i am working

So you had to go twice? Once for submitting application and then for interview?.
How long it took them to issue visa?
Did they ask evidence of your work or funds?

Yes twice

1st time like everyone else to submit the application

Then after 2 days I received an email from the consulate . They want to interview me . I only wanted 5 days visa but after the interview they issued 6 months visa

When you click “ EEA family member “ in the application form they can’t ask you about your funds / bank statement / travel ticket

Less then week for visa . Previously I applied schengen visa from Belgium consulate too but they kept passport for 2 months in the end I withdraw my application and went to polish consulate

Thank you very much for this info. It helps a lot.
Last question, does your schengen visa says" joing or accompanying EU national"?
Thanks

Ok so I did some more research and have decided to go down the path of EEA PR card as suggested by secret.simon and jmedina.

In fact, we are both going to go down the route of EEA QP (which I suppose stands for Qualified Person) and FM (Family Member) route as there is an online form for this application opposed to just FM paper based application.

While filling up the online form we have been given a check list of all the documents we need to furnish along with the application. This includes

"Proof of living with your partner - for example, utility bills, mortgage or tenancy agreements, and NHS letters showing you and your partner live at the same address"

My question is, for how long? Are we just supposed to add a couple latest utility bills with both our names on or are we supposed to provide one for each year for the past 5 years, or for each month from last 5 years, 10 years??? The above statement as you can read is quite vague. Has anybody got an experience of this or has successfully acquired the EEA FM card in which case, what documents did you send?

Thanks again in advance!