dual UK/EEA citizen and transitional arrangements

[smalldog]

Hi all,

I'm trying to understand the new rules and how they will affect my family. I'm a dual UK/Irish citizen, living outside the EEA, and my wife is a visa national. We regularly visit the UK with a family permit. I've been reading the transitional arrangements and can't quite work out whether my wife will still be eligible for a family permit after 16 July (or after 16 October).

The transitional arrangements seem to say that family member F will continue to be treated under EEA rules as long as they have previously applied for a family permit. There are a list of things that will cause the family member to cease being treated under EEA rules (including getting a family permit but not using it) but none of those apply to us. My literal reading of the rules suggests that we should be able to continue using the EEA rules, but I get the feeling that that's not the intention of the new rules and we may have a hard time trying to do so.

Any suggestions?

[Jambo]

[I'm not a professional so this represent my personal understanding of the rules]

I believe they didn't foresee someone using the EEA FP for visits and not for settlement so this scenario is not covered. This was probably not their intentions but as long as the EEA FP is used every time it is issued, I would argue you are covered by the transitional arrangement. You might need to argue your way the second time an application is made after July but with the current wordings I don't see how they could claim you lost your right to be treated as EEA national.