residence permit - waiting time, travel for non-EEA national

[mlse04]

Dear fellow board members,

I hope someone can help me out with questions concerning an application for a 5-year residence permit as a spouse of an EEA national.

I am German, based in Wales, and have lived in the UK since 2001. My Brazilian fiancée will move to Wales next year in January, and we intend to marry in April in Germany. Shortly after we will return to the UK, and she will then apply for residence permit. I am in full-time employment and am settled, so from this side I guess there should be no complications.

Now the following questions:

- is it possible that receiving a decision from the Home Office may take less than six months?
- since we only apply in April, and my partner will have used up her six months’ annual allowance to stay in the UK in early July, is it possible that she will then have to leave the UK?
- since we will be waiting for a decision by the Home Office at the time, I hope that she would be allowed to stay. So is it possible that she might be given a kind of special allowance to stay? And might such a special permission perhaps be given on the basis that we will then be married?
- we also want to apply with the same application form for her 17-year old son; we plan to bring him over around June/July next year, so the same questions as above would also apply to him.

Finally,

- since Britain is not part of the Schengen area, does she need to apply for a Visa when travelling for a short 10-day stay from the UK to Germany?

Any responses, hints and advice on this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a lot in advance!

Stefan