Residence in the spouse's country and national laws

[enduringdifficulties]

Hi everyone-

My question is in regards to residence on the grounds of being married to an EU citizen in the home country of the EU spouse.
Anyone with experience or with knowledge and can base their answer on provisions and national laws is very welcome to answer.
I would like to know, what happens with the non-EU national when they are refused residence when applying for residence for the third time and after having received 2 residence cards each for 1 year prior to applying for residence for the third time.
Do these foreign citizens, despite having been married for almost 4 years and living for over 3 years in their spouse's country, loose their right to live and work in that country with no regard is given to their 3 years of legal residence, their established life in that country, liabilities and connections to that country, be it personal or financial ?
I do know that when residence is not on the basis of national laws but on basis of EU directive, the rights of the non-EU spouse are legally safeguarded, and that a few countries like Germany have incorporated the EU directive into their national laws, that is, even if a foreign citizen is married to a German national and have been living in Germany, in the case of divorce, just like in the EU directive, if the marriage has lasted for at least 3 years and the couple have lived together for at least 1 year, then, the foreign national interests and rights are safeguarded and he/she has the right to retain their residence.
I would like to know which countries followed suit of Germany and incorporated the EU directive into their national laws and provisions and what in the case of those countries which didn't. What would be the legal status of the foreign citizen ?

The other part of my set of questions is in regards to the legal status of the foreign citizen. Let's say they received a rejection to have their residence extended and they appealed that decision and the higher instance body upholds the previous decision, does the foreign national automatically become illegal in the country the moment they obtain the new decision or they are given a specific period of time to regulate their residence or leave the country ?

If there's anything ambiguous in my questions or requires elaboration, please ask and I'll explain.
Thanking eveyone in advance for your help and input

[liksah]

This is a very difficult question that you are asking. I guess if we pool our resources on this forum together we can come up with good answers.

First off, I'm really sorry if your 3rd residence permit request has been rejected. That's terrible! What country is it ? I thought most EU countries give 5 year permits to spouses so I'm also a little surprised that you just received single year ones.

I guess I'll start by saying that the UK is probably one of the worst in this respect. Home country (UK) nationals need to prove proof of income, etc. to get residence their family members and even then the offices tend to pull regular shenanigans as is evidenced by the huge number of EEA permit threads on this forum.

I can also add that PORTUGAL is actually really good in this respect (at least in the legal sense). They have pretty much incorporated EU law into their national law - sort of like Germany. I believe Germany still has the 'language' requirement for residence of spouses of German nationals but Portugal does not. So in that sense, Portuguese law is 'friendlier' towards family reunification.

In Portugal spouses of Portuguese citizens can also apply for nationality after 3 years of marriage. There is no residency requirement.

In Spain, spouses of Spanish citizens can apply for nationality after 1 year of marriage BUT you have to live in Spain for at least 1 year.

I'm not sure how Spain is in terms of residence permits/cards but I believe it should be similar to Portugal. Maybe another member can chime in ?

[enduringdifficulties]

Thank you for your answer. I agree with you on this being a difficult question, there's definitely a lot of people living in their spouse's countries who've been subjected to the injustice that I have been/am being subjected to.
The country in question is a post-communist country, Poland.
As far as the UK is concerned, I would say, they come at the top of countries that respect human rights and I really admire that country for their laws in that respect. The requirements from UK nationals is definitely an exemption and UK citizens should have facilitation to bring their families live with them.
The case that I'm referring to concerns in particular those who have been living for a few years in a particular country and are not applying for their first residence. I believe that the requirements for the 3rd-4th residence should be different from those for the first residence and the foreigner's life should be taken into account while processing a residence application on the basis of marriage.
My case goes back to August 2013 when I applied for my third permit (because of being married to a Polish citizen), I received a negative decision which I appealed. Since I appealed it, I still got to retain my legal status and still be able to work. In September 2013 the decision was upheld, I had become an illegal resident (in their opinion) the moment I picked up the letter sent from the higher instance body in which the previous decision was upheld and from that moment I couldn't go to work anymore and my permanent job contract was terminated. I was accused of giving a false testimony which wasn't really true.
Within a month from that date I applied again, on the basis of marriage. After 3 months and a half (in accordance to national laws they should give an answer within a month and within 2 months in complicated cases) I got another negative decision. It was based on manipulating my testimony(I have evidence), my mother in law's testimony (85% of her testimony is false and I have evidence), I was also accused of giving a false testimony. They have even gone far and accused me of marrying my wife to circumvent laws !
I haven't been working for almost 7 months, I have gone bankrupt, messages from collections almost outnumber messages from my wife and friends, all my savings are over. As someone who's been employed for over 2 years, I went to register as an unemployed to receive unemployment benefits which are a joke (first 3 months 180€, next 3 months 135€, and then nothing). It turns out that I can't register because I don't have a residence, despite the fact of being married, let alone that I had paid taxes and installments for public health insurance for over 2 years ! I had operations due to health issues to be done ( I was scheduled to do them last year) and I can't have them done since I can't register as unemployed, even though I was supposed to have those operations done with my private insurance that I had also lost with my job !
In Poland, starting from May the first, new laws will go into force, for instance, you can apply for residence on the basis of respecting family life (from the human convention on human rights) but all the past years that didn't exist. Only starting from 2005 spouses of polish nationals could work but before that they couldn't.
Considering what happened with my and what's going on now in my life, I'm going to file at least 4 lawsuits before court against poland and the city that I live in. In the decision that I received regarding my residence I was accused of things that are totally untrue, things that demeaned me and my dignity, not only was I accused of getting married to circumvent their medieval laws but they even accused me of having never supported my wife financially even though when we lived in our first apartment for almost 8 months I was the sole provider of the family.
The reason that I'm asking about how things are in other countries is to see if this country that I am in is the only one behind or if others also are. I need to compare the laws and see how the family and people's lives are being respected in other countries.
It is my imperative right to work to live, to pay my debt and continue my life.

[liksah]

Oh... :S That is a terrible story and I'm so sorry you have to go through something like that.

EU law I *think* says that after 2 years (I might be wrong on this number..) of residence even if you get divorced, the non-EU spouse retains their right to live/work in the EU. This of course only applies to the free-movement case.

I don't think your experience is normal for anywhere in the EU (or even anywhere else in the world!). Spouses normally get to reside in either country of residence - although work is a rather sticky point. For example, in India a foreign spouse can't work in the first year. (the visa doesn't include a work permit) But after one year of marriage, the spouse can get a 15 year renewable residence permit which is almost like citizenship (it has all the benefits of citizenship EXCEPT the right to vote).

You are still legally married - right ?

EDIT: I read your other thread. It appears that your wife and her family aren't helping you. I'm not sure what your options are in this case. I have no idea about Polish national law. Are there any lawyers or organizations who help immigrants/refugees in Poland ? It might be a good idea to approach one of them and see what your options are.

[enduringdifficulties]

I'm sorry for my late reply.
I would say in India it is very fair, you feel like you're being treated almost like a citizen.
In poland it used to be 3 years to get permanent residence and 6 months to apply for citizenship. About a year ago, the 6 months period has been changed to 2 years, so altogether 5 years. Starting from next month, if you receive permanent residency and get a divorce within 3 years from the date of acquiring that PR, it would be taken away from you !
I'm still legally married and I'm definitely not going to divorce, after all that's what my mother in law wanted to accomplish from giving that false testimony.
Poland is not a country that people immigrate to, it is and has always been country that people escape and immigrate from, you see them everywhere in Chicago, Australia, spread all over the EU many of whom are scrapping off taxpayer's money. What David Cameron said not long time ago about polish getting children entitlements that are living in poland isnt' right should suffice.
After almost 4 years of marriage, for them to accuse me of getting married to circumvent laws can't possibly be more blatant. They have always gone to my country to get a better life and work, thousands live in my country and they aren't segregated against and that's even before the communist times during which everyone wanted to get out, not that it is any different now! 21% of polish are below the poverty line.

[askmeplz82]

I been to Poland and lived there for short time. I would love to live there permanently if i know the language properly and have better chance. Lovely people and lovely country..