Overstaying question for an accession country citizen

[porqueland]

Hi,

Situation:

A friend of mine is a Croatian national and currently in the UK staying with family and helping her sister look after a new born child. She will have been in the UK for 6 months come April and understands that as a visitor she is only allowed to stay for 6 months in a 12 month period. As she is very much needed by her sister she is considering remaining in the country and waiting until 2013 when Croatia becomes a member of the EU and visiting restrictions are lifted.

If she overstays now will she be later penalised when Croatia is admitted to the EU or will her previous overstay not matter as she is now entitled to a free movement across member states?

She is also considering travelling back to Croatia and claiming she lost her passport in order to travel back to the UK with a new passport and receiving a new 6 months as a visitor. I suspect this is all logged by a computer system though and she will be caught out, can anyone advise?

Are there any other ways around this situation so she can remain in the country as a visitor, or any other advisable course of action?

Thanks in advance!

[nbdy679]

If she overstays now will she be later penalised when Croatia is admitted to the EU or will her previous overstay not matter as she is now entitled to a free movement across member states?

I am wondering the same thing, hope someone from the forum could shed some light..

She is also considering travelling back to Croatia and claiming she lost her passport in order to travel back to the UK with a new passport and receiving a new 6 months as a visitor. I suspect this is all logged by a computer system though and she will be caught out, can anyone advise?

No need for stories she lost her passport. She should return to Croatia when her visa expires in April. And wait 2 months until Croatia joins EU on the 1.7. and then all she has to do is to exchange the old passport for the new (EU) one:
http://www.alfa-portal.com/aktualno/crv ... se-vracaju

With this passport she can travel back to the UK, no border control, no questions. She will be treated as any other EU national.

[frei]

Hi,

Situation:

A friend of mine is a Croatian national and currently in the UK staying with family and helping her sister look after a new born child. She will have been in the UK for 6 months come April and understands that as a visitor she is only allowed to stay for 6 months in a 12 month period. As she is very much needed by her sister she is considering remaining in the country and waiting until 2013 when Croatia becomes a member of the EU and visiting restrictions are lifted.

If she overstays now will she be later penalised when Croatia is admitted to the EU or will her previous overstay not matter as she is now entitled to a free movement across member states?

She is also considering travelling back to Croatia and claiming she lost her passport in order to travel back to the UK with a new passport and receiving a new 6 months as a visitor. I suspect this is all logged by a computer system though and she will be caught out, can anyone advise?

Are there any other ways around this situation so she can remain in the country as a visitor, or any other advisable course of action?

Thanks in advance!

Her previous immigration history of this kind would be irrelevant come June, by then she would have acquired an automatic right of admission would be no problem at all.

[Obie]

She would not acquire an automatic right of admission, as she has already been in the UK for more than 3 months already.

To acquire rights after accession, she will be expected to exercise Treaty rights as a Self-Employed, Student or Self Sufficient.

She will not be allowed to work, as Croatians are subject to the Transitional restriction.

But yes, she will be in no trouble.

[frei]

Obie thanks for the addition, never knew there would be labour restriction on the Croatians.