Questions re: entering and re-entering on EU family permit

[gaon329]

Hello all,

I'm hoping to get some personal experiences with similar situations, as we have been told conflicting "official" information by our immigration lawyer and the British outpost in the EU country where we are living currently. Thank you in advance for your help.

I am an American citizen, and have been living in the EU since 2008. I have a residence permit to live in the EU country where I am currently (based on my marriage), and my husband is an EU citizen. Our daughter has both American and EU citizenship. We are planning to move to the UK next month, where we both have jobs lined up. My husband will be self-employed but primarily working for UK-based firm(s). I will be employed by a UK-based firm.

Today we submitted our application for entry with the EU family permit, and were told it can take 2-3 weeks to process, which we expected.

But our questions, which are as follows, pertain to what happens once we are in the UK:

Once we enter the UK and settle in for a month or so, can my husband (the EU citizen) leave and reenter the UK freely without me and my daughter accompanying him? The British outpost worker today told us that we must leave with him if he leaves the country, which is totally different from what our immigration lawyer (based in the UK) told us. My husband will have to travel for work, but his home base will be in the UK. Do we have the right to stay behind the UK even if he comes and goes?

We were also told that I should apply for the residency card upon entry into the UK. I understand that this means surrendering my passport for 3-4 months, at least. My job is requesting that I travel for a couple weeks after I enter for training purposes, but as I see it, it is probably quite risky and not advisable to travel until I have the residency card, since I will try to reenter the UK on the family permit without my husband accompanying me on the trips (and he may very well not actually be IN the UK at the time of my reentry.) I understand that I can request my passport to be returned, but still it seems risky based on what I have read here to try and reenter the UK in our particular situation.

My husband has to do some traveling back and forth until June. Will he be prevented from leaving the UK without me?

If anyone has any similar or direct experience like this, I would be appreciative of hearing about it. Any advice or suggestions are most welcome!

Thanks!

[Jambo]

Today we submitted our application for entry with the EU family permit, and were told it can take 2-3 weeks to process, which we expected.

EEA Family Permit is not mandatory in your case. See Q1 in EEA FAQs - Common Questions - Read before posting - EEA Family Permit.

Once we enter the UK and settle in for a month or so, can my husband (the EU citizen) leave and reenter the UK freely without me and my daughter accompanying him?

Yes.

You only need to leave the UK if your husband leave the UK permanently . There is no problem staying in the UK while the EEA national travels abroad.

We were also told that I should apply for the residency card upon entry into the UK. I understand that this means surrendering my passport for 3-4 months, at least. My job is requesting that I travel for a couple weeks after I enter for training purposes, but as I see it, it is probably quite risky and not advisable to travel until I have the residency card, since I will try to reenter the UK on the family permit without my husband accompanying me on the trips (and he may very well not actually be IN the UK at the time of my reentry.) I understand that I can request my passport to be returned, but still it seems risky based on what I have read here to try and reenter the UK in our particular situation.

Where did you read in the forum this is risky?

The EEA Family Permit is a multiple entry EC. There is no problem to re-enter the UK even if your husband is on a business trip aboard at the time. In fact, even without a EEA Family Permit (or with an expired one), you will have no problem entering the country as long as you provide evidence of your husband nationality (copy of his passport) and your marriage certificate.

Once you apply for the RC, you will receive a letter confirming the application (Certificate of Application). You can then ask for your passport to be returned to you. The whole process should not take more than a few weeks (normally).

My husband has to do some traveling back and forth until June. Will he be prevented from leaving the UK without me?

No.

[gaon329]

Wow, thanks for the quick and detailed reply, Jambo! I have no idea why the woman at the embassy told us this information, but it was in conflict with everything we had heard elsewhere. She also did say that she wasn't too confident with her knowledge, though seemed adamant on this point in particular and repeated it twice.

Maybe the risky stories I've read came from other forums, and not this one, as I"m having trouble finding a specific link--but I've been doing a lot of searching online and so my sources are getting a bit hazy! (for ex., these
http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php?topic=91257.0
and
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/britai ... pouse.html).
On the other hand, these situations are not TOTALLY similar to ours, but I was getting worried by what I read and what the outpost worker told us today.

So it sounds like we can both travel in and out if we have the proper paperwork. Perhaps there will be lots of questions at the border, but as long as neither of us is doing anything improper and we are prepared, it could be okay.

Thank you again for this info!

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

So it sounds like we can both travel in and out if we have the proper paperwork. Perhaps there will be lots of questions at the border, but as long as neither of us is doing anything improper and we are prepared, it could be okay.!

One or both of you would have had to done something seriously improper to be refused entry. Like be a threat to national security or be serious and ongoing criminals. Or have a very serious contagious disease.

There are the only three reasons you can be refused entry.

Enjoy the UK. Days will slowly be getting longer. If you want to go tomorrow, just ask for your passport back from the visa office.