EEA Family Permit

I have been trying to get all the evidence I need ready for a spouse visa for my finance, so as soon as we are married, she can come and live with me in the uk, but I have just heard about EEA Family Permits.

1. Is a EEA Family Permit easier to get than a visa?

2. Could my finace (soon wife) work in the UK if she got a EEA Family Permit?

3. Where can I get a EEA Family Permit for her, she is now in South Africa with her parents.

Im asking becuase a EEA Family Permit is free and a visa is £260 and there seems to be a lot of hassle involved in getting a visa.

Before answering those questions, what is your nationality?

..and don't you have to be 'exercising treaty rights' too?

John wrote:Before answering those questions, what is your nationality?

Sorry I'm british with a full UK passport

In that case your family members are not eligible to apply for an EEA Family Permit. Assuming you are getting married in SA, or somewhere else outside the UK, your wife (as she will be) will need to apply for a 2-year spouse visa.

Why not eligible? Because you are not in the UK exercising EEA Treaty Rights. You are in the UK because you are British and thus have a right to live here.

John wrote:In that case your family members are not eligible to apply for an EEA Family Permit. Assuming you are getting married in SA, or somewhere else outside the UK, your wife (as she will be) will need to apply for a 2-year spouse visa.

Why not eligible? Because you are not in the UK exercising EEA Treaty Rights. You are in the UK because you are British and thus have a right to live here.

Ahh Ok, thought it might be too good to be ture.

What exactly does "Exercising EEA Treating rights" mean?

Thanks for your help btw

As a British Citizen, and therefore an EEA/EU Citizen, you have the right to live and work in other EEA countries, subject only to transitional arrangements in newly-joined countries.

For example you can go and live and work in France, Spain, Greece, Iceland etc etc. That would be you exercising your Treaty Rights.

Conversely if you were for example French, Spanish, Greek, Islandic etc etc and you were living and working in the UK then you would be exercising Treaty Rights in the UK.

And it is not just the right to work, but also study, etc etc.

Does that help?

John wrote:As a British Citizen, and therefore an EEA/EU Citizen, you have the right to live and work in other EEA countries, subject only to transitional arrangements in newly-joined countries.

For example you can go and live and work in France, Spain, Greece, Iceland etc etc. That would be you exercising your Treaty Rights.

Conversely if you were for example French, Spanish, Greek, Islandic etc etc and you were living and working in the UK then you would be exercising Treaty Rights in the UK.

And it is not just the right to work, but also study, etc etc.

Does that help?

Yes, thank you that has cleared a lot up.

It seams strange that its more difficult for me to bring my wife into the Uk than an somebody who is not from the UK but from the EU

What I really don't understand John is why citizens residing in other States get this 'advantage'.

Am I correct in thinking it's redress an disadvantage such a person may have in that whilst that are in other state, and not citizens of that state, they cannot avail themselves of that states immigration/visa regime?

Phew!

Why does not she apply for a fiancee's visa and then switches into a spouse in the UK ?

To exercise your treaty rights you must have lived and WORKED (Surinder Singh case) in any other EEA coountry for at least 6 months....

moogle333 wrote: It seams strange that its more difficult for me to bring my wife into the Uk than an somebody who is not from the UK but from the EU

Before you get too outraged, don't forget that under EEA rules, a partner must wait five years for permanent residence. Compared to two years or less under standard UK rules.

No permanent residence, no chance to apply for British citizenship by naturalisation, for example. Quite a few people who do have a "choice" as to what system to apply under choose the EEA route and then find out about this the hard way.

And an EEA family permit can still be refused on certain grounds, eg "marriage of convenience".

So it's not such a great "advantage" in the scheme of things.

Wanderer wrote:What I really don't understand John is why citizens residing in other States get this 'advantage'.

An advantage? If it is an advantage then it is a mutually beneficial advantage. By that I mean that a British Citizen living in any other EEA country has exactly the same Treaty Rights for themself and their family, as other EEA Citizens have as regards the UK.

JAJ has already pointed out one detrimental side-effect of someone exercising their Treaty Rights, and the advantage gained by those using domestic UK immigration legislation.