Working rights for non-EU family members of EU citizens?

Imagine (not hard), you are the non-EU family member of an EU citizen. Lets assume they all move to Ireland from another EU country, where they have been living and the EU family member is exercising treaty rights.

My understanding is that the non-EU family member does not automatically have a right to work in Ireland from the day they arrive in Ireland. Is this correct?

Is anyone in this situation and have first hand knowledge?

According to immigration that's correct. You are only entitled to work from the day you receive the residence permit (Stamp 4).

Email from the European parliament office here in Dublin has this reply to an EU citizen-

Thank you for your email.

The first question to be addressed is whether you are an Irish national or a national of another EU State. Strange as it may seem, if you are a national of another State, your husband has the right to work in Ireland even though he has not received his residence card. This is because you are regarded as exercising your EU Treaty rights. If you are an Irish national and your husband has arrived in Ireland, you are subject to Irish law and cannot rely on EU law to assist you.

0000

can the sister of the non eu spouse of an irish national work?

Doubtful

dsab85 wrote:According to immigration that's correct. You are only entitled to work from the day you receive the residence permit (Stamp 4).

Sorry to be extra careful, but let me check with an example.

The situation is an EU citizen and non-EU spouse. Resident in, lets say, Paris. They get an offer from a friend to work at a week-long Irish traditional music festival outside Dublin. They get paid and get free access to the wonderful music. They get on a Ryanair flight on Friday afternoon from Paris to Dublin and return home 14 days later.

If I understand correctly, under present Irish law the EU citizen could work that weekend but the non-EU spouse would not be able to work legally in Ireland.


I know it is too much to ask, but are there any references to this on Irish government web sites?

Directive,

The Irish government are very careful in their choice of words on the net.
It is a breach of the EC law not to allow a Non spouse of an EU citizen to work until the EU1 application is approved. Directive 1612/68/EEC is very explicit on working rights.
Any non EU spouse of an EU citizen with a correspondence from the DoJ with a "not allowed to work" statement can actually sue for lose of earnings.
It is sad that people cannot even enforce their rights,especially the EU/NON EU citizens.I am sure alot of this people have not even applied for the so called PPSN,which puts you into the govenment data base.

Just an update regarding this work permit. My husband got his working permit approved a couple of weeks ago. This permit allows him to work while we're waiting for the EU1 form to be processed (i previously posted info for it). Unfortunately he's on a contact so the permit is only for that contract period. The process took about a month but would have taken about 2 weeks if the employer filled out the form correctly (it was only a minor correction). It definitely helps as he get the PPS number and get paid legally. A word of warning though. the permit people suggested to the employer that they shouldn't pay him for the work prior to receiving the permit as he was not legal. The employer is going to try put it through anyway so hopefully he'll get back paid.

I'd strongly suggest people to apply for the working permit as it's gives the non-EU spouse a chance to work and earn money. My husband would have died of boredom if he were made to wait for 6-9 months for the EU1 form (even though we suspect it would get rejected based on others on the forum).

That's definitely very good to hear! Thanks for keeping us posted!

brownbonno wrote:Directive,

The Irish government are very careful in their choice of words on the net.
It is a breach of the EC law not to allow a Non spouse of an EU citizen to work until the EU1 application is approved. Directive 1612/68/EEC is very explicit on working rights.
Any non EU spouse of an EU citizen with a correspondence from the DoJ with a "not allowed to work" statement can actually sue for lose of earnings
.

I guess since a bunch of us got refusal letters today, we can get started on the lawsuit together since it would help to share the legal costs.

Yeah but, we were told by Solvit and DOJ no point in involving legals as this is a court case not an individual's situation.

All the same I'd take any route at this stage.

0000

Hey guys a law suit is a good idea but im in the same boat as Plassjapie i dont have a year to burn. and a courtcase is going to be at least six months upwards. then they might just adjourn the decision like they already have.