can a NON-EU marry his British GF if already of EEA2 ?

Hi everyone i have some question. Please reply if you know the answer.


- NON-EU is married to EU from May 2009.

- EU ( polish national ) is excising Treaty Right ( working ) since july 2008

- separated since july 2011 and living in separate place but not divorced yet and they don't have any children's

Now the question is.....

1) What if NON-EU national want to marry someone ( a new lady ) who is British national by born. Can he marry her now after divorce from EU wife?


2) if he marry the new lady will it effect his residency ? ( currently on EEA2 , 3 years over )

3) Can he marry in UK or he need to leave UK and marry outside?

4) Can he switch to under UK law ? ( although it may not nessery because already can get retained right of resident for being married 3 years )



thank you

please reply if you know about this law

Funny enough i came across almost identical situation. I had a chat with a solicitor and an outcome was not very helpful.

Firstly, he advised to wait until you can apply for a perm residency under EU law. You can still divorce and stay on your current residency. He said that applying for retained right of residency might take up to a year. Therefore it is better just to stay on current documents. The question is what are you going to say when coming from abroad? They often ask are you married or where is your wife now etc.?

Secondly, you can technically get married in the UK (assuming you are divorced). However what if register office will question your status in the UK? They have a full right to do so nowadays. You can get married abroad. Not sure how it will help though.

Thirdly, UK immigration rules are much stricter than EU. Therefore extending your stay based on marrying British partner is a real problem. Plus after current changes you have to wait for 5 years to get ILR.

This situation is very tricky. In theory you have two genuine and robust routes to stay in the UK but none of them is straightforward. It is really annoying to be honest.

Perhaps someone can come up with other ideas.??

in theory, if a person retained his right of residence, it's an automatic status with the UKBA only CONFIRMING it. Although it may take up to 6 months to get that confirmation, one should, upon divorce, ideally apply on form EEA2 to confirm their status of a retained resident.

Once you know that the person qualifies (you say married since May'09) then it seems that if the EEA wife is working etc at time of divorce and willing to cooperate, then the person should normally qualify (subject to himself working etc after divorce and until May'14).

Now, once the person has retained the right of residence, they may remarry (legally) again as they would be in the country of their OWN right, not dependent on the EEA national. Which allows the person to marry again.

To address questions by the border staff who ask where the fam member is, you would reply that you are now divorced and you retained your right of residence and that you applied on such and such a date (if you travel after applying) to confirm your status (and you produce a COA or they can check if they don't believe you). In any case, even if they ask more questions, you have in-country rights of appeal so they couldn't just deport you from the airport.

Further, if the registrar asks questions, even though it'd sound awkward that you are remarrying soon after divorcing (possibility of a marriage of convenience) they cannot do more than just notify the UKBA but they MUST marry you two.

All in all, it may be an awkward situation but you know your rights and be prepared to respond to their queries should there be any. Legally, you can do it without leaving the country or switching routes!

It would be easier for you to marry in your own country (so to avoid the registrar's queries or UKBA involvement) but again, if that's not an option, marry here. Once you retain your right (i.e. the circumstances are such at the time of divorce initiation and finalisation) then you are in the UK without the need to depend either on your former wife or your future wife.

mcovet wrote:in theory, if a person retained his right of residence, it's an automatic status with the UKBA only CONFIRMING it. Although it may take up to 6 months to get that confirmation, one should, upon divorce, ideally apply on form EEA2 to confirm their status of a retained resident.

Once you know that the person qualifies (you say married since May'09) then it seems that if the EEA wife is working etc at time of divorce and willing to cooperate, then the person should normally qualify (subject to himself working etc after divorce and until May'14).

Now, once the person has retained the right of residence, they may remarry (legally) again as they would be in the country of their OWN right, not dependent on the EEA national. Which allows the person to marry again.

To address questions by the border staff who ask where the fam member is, you would reply that you are now divorced and you retained your right of residence and that you applied on such and such a date (if you travel after applying) to confirm your status (and you produce a COA or they can check if they don't believe you). In any case, even if they ask more questions, you have in-country rights of appeal so they couldn't just deport you from the airport.

Further, if the registrar asks questions, even though it'd sound awkward that you are remarrying soon after divorcing (possibility of a marriage of convenience) they cannot do more than just notify the UKBA but they MUST marry you two.

All in all, it may be an awkward situation but you know your rights and be prepared to respond to their queries should there be any. Legally, you can do it without leaving the country or switching routes!

It would be easier for you to marry in your own country (so to avoid the registrar's queries or UKBA involvement) but again, if that's not an option, marry here. Once you retain your right (i.e. the circumstances are such at the time of divorce initiation and finalisation) then you are in the UK without the need to depend either on your former wife or your future wife.

Thank you for posting. Why do you think a solicitor was so reluctant to applying for a document confirming retaining right of residence? It sounds like a reasonable thing to do. And why did he say up to a year? As far as i know it should be no more than 6 months.