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I am a non-eea spouse of an eea national and have a residence card that is nearly past its end date, and I need to travel just after the end date.

Am I likely to have any trouble at the airport coming back into the UK? I will have spent 5 years in the UK with my EEA wife who has been exercising her treaty rights for all that time, so I will have acquired permanent residence, but won't have a passport stamp stating so.

I know the EU treaty says it should be fine, but the UK law seems to say that I still need a passport stamp.

I am not visa national and the travel would be within the EU (although I may also need to travel to the US later this year - does that make a difference? With airlines, if not with UK passport control?)

Thanks for any advice.

kiwi76 wrote:I am not visa national

In that case the airline will let you board.

Hello there

Just wanted to share my experience when I was in a similar situation.

I went away on a short trip (4 days) 1 month before my 5 year residence card expired. When I checked in at the airport on the return leg, the airline staff started giving me loads of hassle about having less than 6 months left of my residence permit.

They said that I should have either a visa which has more than 6 month validity or a ticket for onwards travel out of the UK. We were arguing for quite some time and as I was travelling back on a Sunday they said they could not verify the situation with their contact at the British Embassy.

In the end they let me board the flight but I had to sign a form to acknowledge that if I am not allowed to entre the UK on arrival then the airline will not be responsible for the costs of flying me to my home country. I signed the form as I knew I would not be turned away on arrival (as my husband was travelling with me). At immigration they did tell me I should renew my permit before it expired (which I know is not necessary but would make life a lot easier).

I am also a non-visa national but this happened outside the EU. The airline was Air France.

I still think the airline was in the wrong, but I thought I would share this with you. I had a problem even when my permit was still valid and as you are planning to travel after yours has expired I imagine you might have a similar problem. I also think it depends who you get at the check-in desk. The guy I dealt with definitely loved having a good old power trip.

Hi,

Thanks for sharing your experience. Not encouraging!

A colleague of mine, whose situation is remarkably similar to yours, recently told me that he was able to fly back to the UK after the expiry of his residence card by bringing along his marriage certificate, his EEA wife's passport, and some of of his and his wife's recent payslips. He said the immigration officer placed a stamp in his passport extending his residence card by six months.