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Best place in southern Europe for "EU Route" to NL

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chesterfield
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Best place in southern Europe for "EU Route" to NL

Post by chesterfield » Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:32 pm

I am Dutch and my girlfriend is American. Our baby is dual-nationality.

We want to move to the Netherlands. But due to the income requirement (per Dutch rules I have to show an employment contract for €1500/month, which I don't have, since I have not been living there for a long time) we are planning on going the "EU route", living in some other EU country for 6 months and then moving to the Netherlands.

We decided it would be nice to do it somewhere warm, and preferably not extravagantly expensive.

I am having a hard time parsing the rules in the various countries.

Between Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal (other suggestions welcome too, but probably not somewhere small and isolated like Cyprus), which one of these would accept us on the basis of a non-marriage relationship? And which ones would be willing to issue her a residence card on this basis without much hassle? Would getting a "registered partnership" in the Netherlands make anything easier? Is that treated the same as marriage by any countries?

Directive/2004/38/EC
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Post by Directive/2004/38/EC » Fri Mar 25, 2011 7:50 pm

It sounds like you have been together for a while. How old is the baby? Make sure you bring historical documentation which shows that you have been living together as partners and for how long. If you were married the marriage certificate would normally be enough, but since you are not you have to prove it other ways.

Key is that you will need to be working ("exercising your treaty rights") when you move to another EU country. 6 months should hopefully be enough.

And then you need to again be working when you move to the Netherlands.

See http://eumovement.wordpress.com/2007/04 ... ional-law/

chesterfield
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Post by chesterfield » Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:00 pm

Directive/2004/38/EC wrote:Key is that you will need to be working ("exercising your treaty rights") when you move to another EU country. 6 months should hopefully be enough.
I am self-employed; I do projects for clients all over the place. My income is probably enough to meet the threshold but it's not consistent and it wasn't in the Netherlands so I don't have any tax documents or anything to show them.

It does sound like self-employment falls under the category of "exercising economic rights" so I suppose that will be okay.

The baby is two years old now. Both of our names are on the birth certificate. We've been together for six years and I think it would be easy to prove — we've been at the same address and we split the household bills, so some are her name and others are in mine.

And then you need to again be working when you move to the Netherlands.
Does this mean we'll face the same income requirement that we are facing now? Because in that case I don't know if it will ever work to go to the Netherlands! My hope was that by going through another country we could avoid this issue. I mean, I will be working, but my income will continue to be variable and without a long-term contract.

Directive/2004/38/EC
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Post by Directive/2004/38/EC » Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:21 pm

chesterfield wrote:The baby is two years old now. Both of our names are on the birth certificate. We've been together for six years and I think it would be easy to prove — we've been at the same address and we split the household bills, so some are her name and others are in mine.
Perfect!

chesterfield wrote:Does this mean we'll face the same income requirement that we are facing now? Because in that case I don't know if it will ever work to go to the Netherlands! My hope was that by going through another country we could avoid this issue. I mean, I will be working, but my income will continue to be variable and without a long-term contract.
Being self employed it fine. You just need to be working in real and substantial work. But it can be part time. There is no minimum income requirement. You could work at McDonalds part time, for instance. Or be self employed.

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Post by Rozen » Sun Mar 27, 2011 4:52 pm

Why not use the 'Belgian Route'?
Most Nederlandse mensen who want to bring in a foreign partner just cross over for six months, then come back via the EU Route. No 'Income Requirement'.
Check out www.buitenlandsepartner.nl
Lots of info there.
Good luck!

chesterfield
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Post by chesterfield » Sun Mar 27, 2011 4:55 pm

Rozen wrote:Why not use the 'Belgian Route'?
Most Nederlandse mensen who want to bring in a foreign partner just cross over for six months, then come back via the EU Route. No 'Income Requirement'.
Check out www.buitenlandsepartner.nl
Lots of info there.
Good luck!
I guess the main reason we weren't going to do Belgium is that it's a little boring if we're then going to be living in the Netherlands. I don't mean to say that Belgium is boring, but it's kind of similar to Holland, and this is one opportunity for us to live somewhere very different, so it would be fun to take advantage of it.

mastermind
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Post by mastermind » Mon Mar 28, 2011 6:00 am

Directive/2004/38/EC wrote:Key is that you will need to be working ("exercising your treaty rights") when you move to another EU country.
In fact working is only one of several options of "exercising treaty rights". See Chapter 6 of the European Commission's guide on freedom of movement:
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/ci ... _ec_en.pdf

Directive/2004/38/EC
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Post by Directive/2004/38/EC » Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:15 am

mastermind wrote:
Directive/2004/38/EC wrote:Key is that you will need to be working ("exercising your treaty rights") when you move to another EU country.
In fact working is only one of several options of "exercising treaty rights". See Chapter 6 of the European Commission's guide on freedom of movement:
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/ci ... _ec_en.pdf
I agree that there are more ways of "exercising treaty rights". But the Singh ruling is written in terms of working.
Singh ruling wrote:25 The answer to the question referred for a preliminary ruling must therefore be that Article 52 of the Treaty and Directive 73/148, properly construed, require a Member State to grant leave to enter and reside in its territory to the spouse, of whatever nationality, of a national of that State who has gone, with that spouse, to another Member State in order to work there as an employed person as envisaged by Article 48 of the Treaty and returns to establish himself or herself as envisaged by Article 52 of the Treaty in the territory of the State of which he or she is a national. The spouse must enjoy at least the same rights as would be granted to him or her under Community law if his or her spouse entered and resided in the territory of another Member State.


To be safe, somebody who wants to take advantage of the Singh ruling should likely work. But depending on who the "home EU country" is, and how much the EU citizen wants to fight, there may be other options.

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