Irish Citizen, "family of a settled person" sponsor?

[green99]

Hello,

I'm an Irish citizen working in the UK for the past 4 years.

My fiance is a Non EEA / Swiss national. Post our marriage next year, we are looking at the various ways to get a UK visa, so that he can come and work in the UK.

My question is as follows, am I able to sponsor him through the ‘family of a settled person’ visa as an Irish citizen, assuming that I pass the other eligibility criteria. My understanding is that Irish citizens have indefinite leave to remain in the UK, however I have only found very anecdotal evidence to suggest that this is in fact the case - has there been cases of anyone actually applying through this route successfully / or has anyone first hand experience that this is in fact possible?

Thanks very much for taking the time to read.

[geriatrix]

I'm an Irish citizen working in the UK for the past 4 years.

My fiance is a Non EEA / Swiss national. Post our marriage next year, we are looking at the various ways to get a UK visa, so that he can come and work in the UK.

You are an Irish citizen exercising EU treaty rights in the UK, so use the EEA route to get your fiance to UK after you are married.
Apply for a UK residence card.

[green99]

Thanks sushdmehta for the quick reply.

Apologies for my ignorance, what's the difference between the UK residence card and the EEA family permit? Can I directly apply for said Residence Card in the UK as soon as we get married? (I have looked through all the documentation and I can't see anywhere which says otherwise).

Thanks

[Obie]

Are you also a British Citizen?

[green99]

No, I'm afraid I'm not

[Obie]

EEA family permit and Residence Card makes more sense to me.

[secret.simon]

The EEA Family Permit and Residence Card is a whole sight easier to get than the UK route. That is mainly because it is pretty much guaranteed to be issued under EEA regulations, whereas the British route is comparatively more capricious and liable to change regularly.

Many dual British/Irish citizens (chaoclive is one example) have renounced their British citizenship to get their partners here via the EEA route. You are already there. Read up on the two documents that Obie has suggested.

As for the difference between the two, the EEA Family Permit is a short-term visit visa, the Residence Card is a five year residence visa that allows your partner to work.

[green99]

That's very informative, thanks v much for taking the time to answer. Regarding the Residence Card (and apologies if it's the wrong forum - in the interests of minimising the amount of active threads), have you come across people who have successfully made the application while their spouse was outside the UK. My future spouse is currently working outside the country, and will be so when we apply for the Residency Permit, so I'm worried that we won't be able to submit the biometric information, as the HO will have his passport details and he obviously won't be able to travel to the UK to enrol.

Thanks for the insights