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Traveling back to UK with EEA residence card after time abroad
Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 9:44 am
by Yeninao
Hi, I am a non-EU national (Turkish) married to a Dutch person. We lived in the UK from 2014 to the beginning of this year and live in my spouse's country since. I still hold a EEA family residence card (issued in the UK) which is not expiring until next year. I have to travel back to the UK alone for work soon, it will be a stay of 1 week. Can I use my EEA residence card to travel,even though my wife is not living in the UK anymore? Or do I need to apply for a work permit? My spouse has presettled status but Im not sure if that makes a difference.
Re: Traveling back to UK with EEA residence card after time abroad
Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 11:15 am
by kamoe
Yeninao wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 9:44 am
Can I use my EEA residence card to travel,even though my wife is not living in the UK anymore?
Your right to entry and reside in the UK are dependent on your spouse exercising treaty rights in the UK. Look at
this post, were members of the forum discuss the case of a EU national that has left the UK but their spouse has stayed (while still being married). On the face of it, this stay is not valid, but, as secret.simon points out, there are no explicit provisions as for how long the EU national can be outside of the UK for this invalidity to become the case.
As you are probably aware, on entry to the UK, the immigration officer always asks for how long you have been absent from the UK. And if you are travelling alone, they also ask you where your EU family member is. If it is clear that your spouse does not live permanently in the UK any more, and has no intention to come back, you might have difficulty at the border, as the OP of the post linked above has experienced.