Biritish Citizen returning to the UK with my EU partner

[ukcitizen4372]

I'm very confused.

I am a British Citizen. I have a long-term partner who is a Swedish (EU) citizen. We currently live and are resident in Spain for the past 6 years. We have lived together for 21+ years (Since 1999). I work independently for myself as a games programmer for my own game, and both of us are tax registered in Spain. She currently doesn't work but wishes to pursue her artwork online when in the UK.

We've also previously lived together in the UK 2009-2012. Previously to that we lived together in Sweden and also Australia. If that is important.

We want to return to the UK ASAP, as I am looking for a new job, and want to be based back in the UK.

Previously to Brexit, we could just return and live there, but now I'm not sure what to do.

I've read masses of pages and links on the UK Gov website, asked them directly via their online help form, phoned them, and I still am not sure what to do about our situation, and wondered if anyone here could help.

Everything we find seems to be 'if' 'maybe' 'could be' and no definite or straight answers.

Even writing to the Gov site, as myself explaining my situation, the reply I got via email seemed to just be a copy-paste reply, that seemed to ignore my information, and just give info based on my partners perspective, to links on their site. Which I mentioned I had already read, and didn't understand what I needed to do in our situation. So I guess it was AI/bot generated, and of course with a 'noreply' email address.

I think she might need a 'EU Settlement Scheme' visa or a 'Surinder Singh' visa.

But talking to the EU Settlement Scheme help line, they said it's now to late to do that, as we had to previously be in the UK before 31/12/2020. He told me to talk to another Gov line, which charged me 69p per minute to basically tell me 'maybe' you need the 'Surinder Singh' visa.

The 'Surinder Singh' visa seems to be directed to Non-EEA people, but the latest reply from Gov.uk said that was 'probably' what I needed. But after further reading, I'm not so sure.

All of these options seem to be very 'large' decisions to make, and take weeks if not months to do. And rather costly.

It seems like nothing is geared to British Citizens returning to the UK with EU partners. I mean, one of the Visas I was directed to requires English tests, going to Madrid twice (not so easy during Covid restrictions) and all sorts of things.

I can't believe it is this hard to get a straight answer out of my Government on how I can as a Citizen return with my long term EU partner to live in the UK, and why it seems to difficult and complicated

Any help would be appreciated.

[secret.simon]

I can't believe it is this hard to get a straight answer out of my Government on how I can as a Citizen return with my long term EU partner to live in the UK, and why it seems to difficult and complicated

Government departments do not provide specific advice to anybody writing in. They would only assess your case after you make an application to them in specified ways. And if your application is refused, you would still not get a refund of your fees, which is generally upwards of £1000 per application.

As an aside, the generic public-facing contacts of the UKV&I (by email and phone) are outsourced to a third party private company and the Home Office will not stand by their responses to you (i.e. if they advise you incorrectly, the Home Office will not hold itself responsible for the incorrect advice).

You have not specified if your EEA partner is married to you, is in a recognised civil partnership with you or is a durable partner (i.e. in a relationship akin to marriage, with shared finances, etc). That, and if either married or in a civil partnership, the date of the marriage/civil partnership, can be important considerations as to whether your partner qualifies for the Surinder Singh route or not.

[ukcitizen4372]

Oh sorry... we aren’t married, just been partners/living together since 1999, so I guess 'durable partner'. Never seen the 'need' to get married.

All our finances are shared, and we have joint bank accounts in the UK & also Spain. The rental of our Spanish apparent is joint also, which we have lived in since 2013. All with contracts and both names. Previously to that we lived in the UK for 3 years (apparent joint rental again), previous to that, Sweden and also Australia. With Australia, I was on a Work Visa and she was my 'dependable' family member that allowed her to remain in Australia with me.

We have had a joint bank account in the UK since 2009, but can prove we have lived together for the last 20 years if needed. I can't see any of this being a problem for us to prove if needed.

[secret.simon]

I am beginning to see why the advisors were so unsure about advising you further.

You may be eligible for the Surinder Singh route, but I have doubts because of the following reasons;

a) The Surinder Singh route used to be applicable only to direct family members (spouses, children and parents) and not to extended family members-EFMs (such as durable partners). I am not sure if that is still the case and whether the EUSS Surinder Singh route (under UK law) differs from the EEA Surinder Singh route (under EU law) in this regards.
b) Assuming that durable partners are allowed, I am unsure if the partner needed to live in the other EEA member-state (Spain, in your case) specifically as your EFM (which may require registration with the Spanish authorities) or whether living in Spain in another capacity (in her case, as an EEA citizen in her own right), while being your durable partner, would suffice.

I will leave it to others on these forums to advise you further and will move the thread to the correct forum for this type of query. I'll end with three thoughts.

a) Within the EU, immigration is effectively effortless. You could roll out of bed one day and decide to move to another country and that would pretty much be it.
Outside the EEA, immigration requires weeks and months of planning, strategising and paperwork. It is not undertaken lightly and every action, such as traveling, etc, may have consequences that you may have to plan years in advance.

b) While marriage may or may not be relevant to your partner and you, there are multiple benefits to it from both an immigration point of view (as you could see in my point (a) of doubts above) and from the viewpoint of acquisition of British citizenship, if your partner ever plans to do so.

c) As you have almost certainly acquired permanent residency rights in Spain by working there for more than five years, I would strongly suggest that both you and your partner acquire the relevant paperwork from Spain documenting your permanent residency rights. That way, if things go pear-shape in the UK, you can return there with the paperwork to prove that you have already acquired permanent residency there.
Keep in mind that permanent residency in Spain, although acquired under EU law, is restricted to Spain itself. If you move to another EEA member-state, it is likely that you will (a) have to meet their non-EU citizen immigration laws and (ii)start from zero when it comes to acquiring permanent residency.

[ukcitizen4372]

Thanks very much for your help and info.

Can't believe how hard this is gotten for UK Citizens and their families since Brexit, it used to be so easy for us to move around

I have official Temp. residency in Spain (due to Brexit, I had to do that last year), but she doesn't as we didn't think she needed it as she was still a EU citizen. So I would have to see if that is enough.

Will check out the 'Surinder Singh' route. It does say 'durable partner' on the Gov site though, but I was worried because I know somewhere I've seen it say it was for non-EEA people, but it doesn't seem to say that on this page: https://www.gov.uk/family-permit/surinder-singh

Anyway, thanks for the help.

[secret.simon]

Can't believe how hard this is gotten for UK Citizens and their families since Brexit, it used to be so easy for us to move around

You are always free to return alone as a British citizen

As a side note, it is not just post-Brexit. You may not have any idea of how hard it is for a British citizen to sponsor a non-EEA spouse/partner, since 2012.

Not only does the British citizen have to earn a minimum of £18,600+ per year (depending on the number of children that minimum requirement can increase) to sponsor a non-EEA spouse, but the fees are quite high (about £1500 Home Office fees + £1800 Immigration Health Surcharge for a 2.5 year spousal visa, which needs to be renewed once (likely with higher fees) and followed by ILR costing £2500 per person after five years residence. That is then followed by fees of more than £1000 per person if they plan to apply for British citizenship themselves). You are looking at budgeting the better part of £10,000 per person over the five-six year immigration process.

And the government calls its own approach to immigration "the hostile environment".

[Ous07743]

I can't believe it is this hard to get a straight answer out of my Government on how I can as a Citizen return with my long term EU partner to live in the UK, and why it seems to difficult and complicated

Government departments do not provide specific advice to anybody writing in. They would only assess your case after you make an application to them in specified ways. And if your application is refused, you would still not get a refund of your fees, which is generally upwards of £1000 per application.

As an aside, the generic public-facing contacts of the UKV&I (by email and phone) are outsourced to a third party private company and the Home Office will not stand by their responses to you (i.e. if they advise you incorrectly, the Home Office will not hold itself responsible for the incorrect advice).

You have not specified if your EEA partner is married to you, is in a recognised civil partnership with you or is a durable partner (i.e. in a relationship akin to marriage, with shared finances, etc). That, and if either married or in a civil partnership, the date of the marriage/civil partnership, can be important considerations as to whether your partner qualifies for the Surinder Singh route or not.

Keep searching them around I don’t think that’s big deal to come to Uk with your eu partner as you have have previously leave in Uk