Immigrationboards.com

Hello everyone!
I am a visa national to UK married in UK, and my husband holds both british and portuguese passport, we had a child born in the UK and holds UK passport as well. I currently have EEA family residence card which will be expired Oct 2012 (5 years valid), we were all in the UK when I applied the residence card.
We left UK 3 years ago, I don't expect to apply for permanent residence in the UK, but I do need a long-term visa to UK so that I can travel to UK (with my family) any time for holidays and visiting friends & relatives .
My question is: will I still be qualified to apply for another EEA residence card even we are outside UK? if yes, shall I apply using my husband's portuguese passport or british passport, or it does not make any difference? the EEA residence card issued in this way will it still be valid for 5 years or can be shorter period?
In the case that I cannot apply for the EEA residence card , is there any kind of long-term multiple entry visa I can apply for? (at least 3 years each time) is there any requirements to apply for those visas? thanks soooooooooo much for your help!

Hello, I'm afraid you can't apply for an EEA family member's residence card if you don't live in the UK.

If you live in another EU country (other than Portugal), you'd have been issued with the local equivalent of the residence card. Under Directive 2004/38 you must be able to use it to travel to the UK with your spouse.

If you don't live in another EU country, you'll need to apply for an EEA Family Permit from the UK embassy where you live. An EEA FP gives you the right to stay in the UK for up to 6 months per year. As far as I know these are only issued once per year.

If you want further details, please make an enquiry to Your Europe Advice:
http://ec.europa.eu/citizensrights/fron ... dex_en.htm

Unfortunately, the UK does not recognise other countries' article 10 residence cards.

You can have as many family permits as you wish, but they will only have six months' validity. The family permit would be issued gratis.

You could potentially apply for a long term visa under the immigration rules, for which you would pay a fee.