Travelling to Europe with schengen ban.

[melissaluka]

I would be very grateful if anybody could help with my situation.
My husband is a non eu citizen, I am british. My husband was banned from the schengen zone in august 2012 until august 2017 by Greece for overstaying his 90 days. (We where young and stupid not realising the consequences this would have on our life together.)
We have applied to have the ban removed under eu law but are still waiting for a response over a year later.
We currently live in my husbands country Albania but wish to travel to Spain in May to join my family on holiday, so they can meet our 3 week old son.
The problem we have is that as Albanian nationals can now travel in the schengen zone we cannot apply for a visa for my husband to enter Spain. We would be traveling through Italy an have contacted both embassies regarding the issue, and while they both recognise the law they can't issue anything to help us at the borders. We fear that we will not even get past passport control in Albania. Would anybody have any information on what we could do to pass the borders so that we can join my family in Spain.
Thanks in advance

[357mag]

You are British (EA citizen) so you husband should apply for the visa accompanying as the spouse of an EEA citizen under the free movement directive. The ban should be disregarded under the family route rules, basically the EEA rules trump the countrys national rules.
Be sure to state clearly on the application that you will be traveling under directive 2004/38 EU. You, as an EEA can travel to any EEA state for up to 3 months and you have ther right for your spouse to travel with you.

Put in a covering letter by you saying you are an EEA citizen and wish to travel exercising your treaty rights and you wish to have your husband traveling with you.

The application is free so you have nothing to lose, if its refused you can take your case to Solvit and they should help you.

Expecting to travel in May is probably a bit optimistic, the visa should be issued under accelerated process but if there are problems it could take several weeks.