We've had a disastrous day over the weekend due to my lack of knowledge on the visa matters.
My husband is holding a British passport,
I am holding a Chinese passport,
We have a 2.5 year old child who holds a Chinese passport.
We are now living and working in Germany and both my baby and myself holds the "Aufenthaltskarte" which is the residence card here I believe.
I also have a UK residence permit till mid 2013 because I have been studying and working in the UK before moving to Germany.
I am travelling this time alone with my baby and we were refused at the airport to transit in London, because my baby doesn't have a valid German visa/UK transit visa.
Our whole plan to have a break home is now ruined, and the refundable airport tax is far less than expected. BA agrees to retain our tickets for a year but we'll be paying for the changing fees definitely if we manage to get some sort of visa/permit. My whole working schedule is of course disturbed now if we are planning to travel again, not to mention all the disappoints from the relatives who are anxiously waiting for us in Shanghai.
Could someone please advise where I could find the legal statement states that my baby has to have a transit visa even though she is a dependent on me? I am also thinking hypothetically if my husband brings back the baby himself (not a good idea of course), will he get refused from the entry like I do. In general, I do not understand if my 2.5 old can be any harm to step the feet onto Heathrow airport for less than 3 hours.
We have not yet applied a EEA family permit since we just had the young baby and didn't have much time for travelling last year, but can we apply this instead of transit visa and allow us to travel through London again? My husband has to stay in Germany for work, he has less holiday allowance than I have to bring the baby together home. Will the EEA family permit only allow 3 of us travel together to transit in the UK?
Another option in my mind would be changing our "Aufenthaltskarte" here into "Aufenthaltserlaubnis" as some sort of visa in Germany which are accepted by the UK side.
We tried to contact the UK Consulate in Germany but they are no longer responsible for Visa inquiries, and perhaps some of you could share similar situations here for me.
Thank you very much in advance.
KR
Floriane

