can I move to UK before EEA permit approved?

[marcbreathnach]

Hi everyone,

I am an EU citizen (Irish) relocating to London from the Cayman Islands with my US citizen wife. I have job scheduled for October 1st. My wife applied via Jamaica high commission for EEA permit on July 12 and we have not yet heard anything. My question is this:

If her permit is not yet approved by end of September, can we both travel together to the UK and enter with me as EU national and my wife on holiday visa waiver (ie 90 days beofre she has to leave)?

If yes, and her permit is subsequently approved by Jamaica high commission, can she forward her passport from UK to Jamaica to have permit attached and then have the passport returned to UK? is this possible?

Thank you
Marc

[86ti]

The EEA family permit is just an entrance clearance so your plan doesn't make much sense. As soon as she is in the UK she would apply for a residence card provided that you will be exercising your treaty rights (which you obviously plan to do).

[marcbreathnach]

Thanks for reply, I was under the impression that for a non EEA national to move to the UK to work with an EU national husband she needs to complete EEA family permit application prior to arrival in order to clear immigration (and then enter UK). No where did I read you can apply for residence card upon arrival once I exercise treaty rights, am I missing something?

[86ti]

That's how British HO wants it but they can't deny entry to a family member as long as the relationship can be proven.

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/ecg/eunati ... t#22134862
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucit ... ropeanlaw/

[marcbreathnach]

Again thanks, i read thru the docs.
Does this apply if both of us are travelling together from outside the UK to the UK? Do we both go through the EU channel or separately thru EU and non-EU channels?

Also, should we not have bothered applying for the EEA permit to begin with?

[86ti]

Again thanks, i read thru the docs.
Does this apply if both of us are travelling together from outside the UK to the UK? Do we both go through the EU channel or separately thru EU and non-EU channels?

You can go through the EU channel together.

Also, should we not have bothered applying for the EEA permit to begin with?

It can be quite a hassle to go through immigration without. If you have one it should be rather smooth.

[marcbreathnach]

Thanks again,
one last question (possibly), if my wife's permit has not been approved in jamaica, and we travel to UK together anyway, would the border agency guard know that she has an application for a permit pending?

can you point to legislation that covers travelling to UK whilst a permit application is in process?

[86ti]

I would think that UKBA has a database for such purposes that is accessible to all relevant officers (some of their staff appear to read and answer in this forum) but to get the passport back you would have to cancel the application anyway.

[marcbreathnach]

The application is submitted in Jamaica and as she needs her passport to reenter Cayman, she doesnt have to submit her passport to the jamaican office. Until such time as the permit is approved, then she couriers her passport to UK commission in Jamaica, they stamp it and then courier the passport back to her here in Cayman.

Also, the UK border agency guide to processing times for Jamaica office has not been updated for July, any ideas when this site gets revised? It says eea permits take 3 days to process (for the 7 June permits anyway) yet we are in week 6.
http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/howtoapply/processingtimes