Immigrationboards.com

Hi everyone,

I am a British national with a British passport and am married to my wife who is a Pakistani national who has a spouse visa. Every time we have wanted to visit a European country we have had to apply for a Schengen visa. However as you will know, if she has residency card then we would not need one.

I inquired by phone quite some time ago now, maybe over a year, with the some official goverment body - maybe the home office or some branch that dealt with visas/passports.They basically told me I would be unable to apply for this due to something with how the UK is integrated with the EU.

Anyway I have been taking a look online and have seen this:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... orm-eea-fm

Would this work in my case? Would I be able to get a permit/card for my wife?

Can someone please clarify/help? Any information you can provide I would be grateful.

If you need any more information please let me know.

Thanks

For immigration purposes you are only considered as a British national while you are resident in the UK.

Your wife doesn't qualify for an EEA Family Permit as she is here under the UK Regulations on her route to settlement.

She will continue to require a Schengen visa until she has been granted British citizenship.

Thanks for the reply.

Is there ANYTHING at all we can do? It is just a bit of hassle having to apply each time.

Thanks

KM0170 wrote:Thanks for the reply.

Is there ANYTHING at all we can do? It is just a bit of hassle having to apply each time.

Thanks

Apart from naturalising then no.

Visas are (usually) required to enter foreign countries.
You are having a foretaste of our post-Brexit world where visas for more and more countries will be the norm.

This does show the beauty and elegance of free movement and even the Schengen zone but, in its infinite wisdom, UK has never decided to buy into all of that.

KM0170 wrote:Thanks for the reply.

Is there ANYTHING at all we can do? It is just a bit of hassle having to apply each time.

Thanks

No.

Spouses of British citizens are not eligible for an Article 10 Residence Card, which is issued under EU law to either spouses of non-UK EEA citizens or spouses of British citizens who moved to another EEA country, settled there for some time (typically more than a year) and then returned (aka Surinder Singh route).

Article 10 Residence Card is not available to spouses of British citizens here under the UK Immigration Rules. They need to apply for a Schengen visa as usual, though the Schengen visa should be either free or with administrative fees only (so much cheaper). You can also look at applying for a multiple entry Schengen visa.

KM0170 wrote:Is there ANYTHING at all we can do?

Wife could naturalise as a British citizen and then get British passport.

Other than that, no.

KM0170 wrote:Is there ANYTHING at all we can do?

Holiday in the UK

CR001 wrote:

KM0170 wrote:Is there ANYTHING at all we can do?

Holiday in the UK

Damned. I wish I had thought of that.

Visafree countries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requ ... i_citizens

noajthan wrote:Visafree countries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requ ... i_citizens

And when compared to the visafree countries for British citizens, you can see why it would be advantageous for her to naturalise.