Guaranteed visa for Spain as non-EU spouse of UK citizen?

[cindycs]

Dear All,

Where to start? My partner is Indian and I am a UK citizen. We have a 9 month old daughter.

He had to return to India from the UK in Feb, where he was visiting for the birth of our child. As I had some work lined up in Spain for the summer, we decided to apply for a Schengen visa for him to join us (90 day tourist) to see how he felt there, if he felt we could live there as a family. Neither of us particularly wants to live in the UK at this stage.

Sadly his first application was refused on the grounds that he had insufficient funds and his return home before expiry of visa could not be ascertained. I had confirmed that I would be sponsoring him, as I have ample savings to do this. Regarding his not returning, well, that is a standard excuse not based on any evidence, in our opinion. He has visited the UK, Europe and Thailand and never overstayed his visa.

We decided to re-apply, addressing all the points raised and pointing out my strong financial position but frustratingly this application was also refused.

We now do not know what to do. We would like to get married and are now going to apply for a visit visa for marriage purposes to the UK. We will return to India for our honeymoon and make an application to come back to Spain.

My question is this: once married are we guaranteed a visa for him? Surely with the whole Directive, freedom of movement etc he should automatically be able to come with me to Spain? Bearing in mind we have a daughter and I would like to start a business in Spain, surely these things should work in our favour?

And will we have to go for a family regrouping visa or can he come on a regular Schengen visa for EEA family, and apply for residency once there? I'd be really grateful for any input. We are absolutely dumbfounded that he was not even allowed to come for a visit and feel very let down.
Thank you for your time.